Budgetary balance, highway concessions, and mixed practice: The MEI publishes its prebudget recommendations for Quebec

Montreal, January 22, 2026 – The government must do a better job of controlling its spending if it wants to meet its goal of returning to a balanced budget by 2029-2030, says the MEI in a brief submitted in the context of Quebec’s prebudget consultations.

“If the Quebec government is faced with its largest deficit ever today, it’s because it has lacked rigour in the management of public funds,” says Gabriel Giguère, senior policy analyst at the MEI. “If the government had not waited so long before learning to say no to new spending, we could have avoided last April’s credit downgrade, and the resulting higher interest payments.”

According to the latest projections, the Quebec deficit will hit $12.4 billion for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. This is the largest deficit in the province’s history, in nominal terms, exceeding the previous record of $10.8 billion set in 2020-2021.

This year, spending grew by $5.4 billion compared to the previous year, which is more than the $2.6 billion in additional revenue the government expects to collect, notes the MEI.

Last April, Standard & Poor’s announced that it was downgrading Quebec’s credit rating from AA- to A+, citing the deterioration of the province’s public finances and in particular its higher remuneration spending.

The MEI recommends that the government take inspiration from the spending review exercise conducted by the federal government in the 1990s to identify where to cut in order to return to a balanced budget faster.

Observing the deterioration of public infrastructure, the think tank also recommends that Quebec emulate the French highway concessions model in order to address the problem without adding extra pressure on public finances.

Over the past five years, the amount that would need to be spent to return public infrastructure to an acceptable condition grew by 63 per cent, reaching $40.2 billion. This is what is known as the asset maintenance deficit.

Of this amount, more than half, or $22.5 billion, is due to the poor condition of the road network.

The MEI recommends that the management and maintenance of certain road infrastructure such as highways be entrusted to private concession holders.

This approach, common in France, has already proven its worth in Quebec with the concessions granted for certain sections of Highways 25 and 30, in the Greater Montreal region.

This public-private partnership system delegates to private organizations the management and maintenance of various stretches of the French highway network, reducing pressure on public finances.

“The French example shows that the concessions approach works well, leading to better-maintained infrastructure and reducing pressure on public coffers,” says Mr. Giguère. “This approach would be all the more welcome considering the poor state of both our public infrastructure and our public finances.”

In terms of health care, the MEI recommends that the Quebec government adopt mixed practice, common in OECD countries and currently being studied in Alberta.

This form of practice would allow doctors to work simultaneously in public practice and in private practice, without having to go through the RAMQ’s disaffiliation process. It contrasts with the current approach of Bills 83 and 2, which aim to constrain public practice.

“Unlike Quebec, the Alberta government is trying to expand its treatment capacity and retain its doctors by giving them more flexibility,” says Mr. Giguère. “This approach has proven itself in the rest of the OECD, and is in sharp contrast to the announced departures associated with Bill 2’s coercive approach.”

The MEI also recommends the following measures:

• Reduce the size of the bureaucracy;
• Improve access to private surgery reimbursed by the RAMQ for patients waiting too long;
• Allow the opening of minor emergency rooms under independent management;
• Authorize the construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant in Quebec;
• Eliminate the partial and gradual ban on the sale of conventional vehicles;
• Authorize the development of Quebec’s natural gas.

The brief submitted by the MEI is available here.

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

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