The Quebec government's 2011-2012 Budget states that the public sector debt has risen to 235 billion dollars on March 31, 2011, an increase of 13 billion over last year. Representing 74% of GDP, this debt is even more of a concern in the context of the aging of the population and of current deficits. For each of the past two Quebec budgets, the MEI has published a Viewpoint on the debt of the Quebec government that explained various concepts related to debt and compared the public indebtedness of the provinces.

The purpose of Quebec's Occupational Health and Safety Plan is to prevent industrial accidents and occupational diseases and to compensate the victims of such hazards. Strangely, while the number of these accidents and occupational diseases is dropping, the costs of compensation continue to rise, increasing the $2.55-billion annual bill entirely paid for by employers. This program alone represents the equivalent of 65% of corporate taxes paid in Quebec.

Ce document hors série est publié à l’occasion du discours de Steve Forbes à la tribune de l’Institut économique de Montréal en date du 15 février 2011. Il constitue une traduction adaptée de l’épilogue du livre How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today’s Economy de Steve Forbes et d’Elizabeth Ames.

The members of the National Assembly will soon begin looking into a bill aiming to account for the new reality of teleworking by modifying those provisions of the Labour Code dealing with replacement workers during a strike or lockout. In North America, only the labour codes of Quebec and British Columbia systematically prevent recourse to replacement workers during labour disputes. Quebec therefore already distinguishes itself from the continent's other regions by the very existence of these provisions.

During their annual meeting at the beginning of this month, representatives of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) decided to suspend the tourist season for snowmobilers in order to protest the government’s plan to reduce the costs of La Financière agricole. The dispute pertains to the exclusion of the costs of the least competitive farms when calculating the compensation to be paid out to farmers.

Governments have made considerable efforts in recent years to reduce the tax burden of business. The federal government has promised to reduce the corporate income tax rate even further, toward a rate of 15% in 2012. The Quebec government's last budget highlighted the complete elimination of the capital tax, which will take effect on January 1st, 2011. This is very good news, because corporate income taxes and other taxes paid by businesses have an impact not only or even primarily on shareholders, but also on workers, especially in an open economy.

Do the "rich" pay their fair share of taxes? This question often comes up in the media and in public and private conversations, in Quebec and elsewhere. Anecdotal evidence may give the impression that it is a simple matter for someone of means to hire a tax accountant and relieve himself of a good part of the tax burden shouldered by the ordinary citizen. To verify if this is true, we asked for the help of an expert to calculate the taxes and contributions paid by different Quebec taxpayers according to their incomes.

The Quebec government has just announced its intention to merge the Société générale de financement (SGF) and Investissement Québec. However, nothing indicates that their respective mandates will be modified. The debate that has begun over this reform offers the perfect occasion for evaluating the historical results of the SGF. Doing so will clarify why it is important to redefine the mandate of the government corporation that will result from this merger. The province of Quebec will benefit if the government leaves the financial risks associated with business development to the private sector while guiding economic development through an appropriate regulatory framework.

The Quebec health care system has long been a target of criticism. Since the mid-1970s, newspapers have been reporting on staff shortages, emergency room overcrowding, challenges in finding family doctors, waiting lists that keep getting longer, and so on. Optimal use of resources is vital if we wish to reduce waiting times and provide better and faster service to patients. Technological innovations, including telemedicine, are a way of improving the efficiency of the health care system and increasing the choices offered to patients. Sadly, the current government monopoly in the health care sector eliminates most natural incentives to innovate and make optimal use of resources.

Supply management policies, aimed at limiting production of a good so as to inflate its price, are familiar in Canada, due in particular to the existence of agricultural quotas. It is less well known, however, that the taxi industry is also regulated in this way, with similar consequences for consumers. Just as Australia and New Zealand eliminated supply management in agriculture, a number of cities (including Kansas City, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Raleigh and San Diego in the United States) and several countries (including Ireland, New Zealand and Sweden) have done the same in the taxi sector.