With the arrival in Quebec City of a new government that has declared its intention to review the so-called "Quebec model," the time for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) may finally have come. The new president of the Treasury Board has announced a vast operation of reengineering of the state bureaucracy, among other things through a wider recourse to Public-Private Partnerships. Quebec has not so far used PPPs to the same extent as other OECD countries, or even other Canadian provinces.

Quebec’s standard of living is among the lowest in North America.

Have social programs been dismantled in Quebec?

Have social programs been dismantled in Quebec?

Is urban sprawl an ecological or economic catastrophe?

MEI’s Economic Note on municipal mergers.

Equalization payments and Quebec’s economy.

Equalization payments and Quebec’s economy.

Among the obstacles to reducing unemployment are those created by certain provisions in the Labour Code. One of the obstacles is the “closed shop,” dating from the era of the first British trade unions (1860). In the same spirit, the Rand formula stipulates that obtaining a job can be conditional on paying dues to the union at the company. Both these formulas are currently in use in Quebec. This exerts a constraint on businesses by requiring them to hire only those who pay into (Rand formula) or join (closed shop) the house union.

MEI study on the rate of unemployment and the salaries of the youth in Quebec in comparison to the youth of Ontario and the United States.