Taxation and the Role of the State: A Report Card on the Charest Government

April 2007 will mark the fourth anniversary of Jean Charest’s election as premier of Quebec. In the autumn prior to the election, a Quebec Liberal party congress had adopted an “Action Plan for the Next Liberal Government.” A year after the election, the new government published a “Modernization Plan.” Has the Liberal government kept the promises it made in those proposals? This Economic Note presents a summary of its achievements, with a particular focus on its promises to provide tax relief and to reduce the role of the state.

Links of interest

Media release: Tax relief and government structures: the MEI finds the record of the Charest government “modest and ambiguous”

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«…l’Institut économique a raison, dans son document, d’accuser le gouvernement de gonfler ses réductions d’impôt dans ses documents officiels.» – Claude Picher, La Presse, September 9, 2006, p. 4.

«L’Institut évalue [les baisses d’impôt] à 626 millions. La différence entre les chiffres de l’IEDM et ceux du gouvernement tient à plusieurs éléments. Par exemple, s’il faut ou non définir l’indexation du régime fiscal comme baisse d’impôt. L’IEDM affirme, avec raison, que non.» – Alain Dubuc, La Presse, September 9, 2006, p. 6.

“In fact, the MEI report got it right.” – Konrad Yakabuski, The Globe and Mail, September 20, 2006, p. B2.