Will we succeed in stopping the decline of small bookstores by limiting the discounts offered to Quebec readers by big stores? What consequences would such a policy entail? We can glean some answers to these questions from both the history of the book and the economic literature. Examples of fixed book price laws elsewhere in the world also allow us to draw precious lessons in order to avoid repeating the errors of the past.

In Quebec history books, the period from 1945 to 1960 has been labelled the "Great Darkness" on account of the province's alleged backwardness compared with its North American neighbours. Quebec society at the time is commonly thought to have been less economically dynamic and prosperous, less culturally and socially enlightened, influenced by an obscurantist Church, dominated by anglophone capital, and governed by corrupt, authoritarian political elites. Many of these claims do not hold up under a closer examination of the statistics of the era, however.

Work organization in the public sector in Quebec has long been hindered by various forms of rigidity. Over the past decade, a few timid reforms have been adopted in order to tackle this lack of flexibility, including the decentralization of certain elements of collective bargaining agreements in the health care system. Most of the working conditions of government employees nonetheless continue to be negotiated centrally for the province as a whole. The principle of seniority still occupies a prominent place in collective bargaining agreements.

Exceptionally, the 2013-2014 budget has been tabled in November. Continuing its tradition, the MEI is therefore publishing a Viewpoint on the debt of the Quebec government that also explains what the Generations Fund is and the impact its abolition could have.

Roughly one in four Canadian adults is obese ‒ with the percentage of obese Canadians continuing to rise. Every year, obesity results in billions of dollars in preventable health care costs for governments, taxpayers, employers and families. To reverse this trend, many public health advocates, among whom the Ontario Medical Association, have been calling for various types of taxes and regulation on fatty and sugary foods. These include a "soda tax," that is, a tax on soft drinks and other sweetened beverages.

The goal of this paper is twofold. Part I looks at the historical experience and illustrates how current "cleaner" sources of liquid fuels were anything but in the first stages of their development. Part II describes how Alberta's oil sands are being exploited and illustrates how "win-win-win" innovations are now taking place that are making this industry more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

In May 2012, after a two-year investigation, the president of the European Competition Commission (ECC), Mr. Joaquim Almunia, told Google to modify the operation of its search engine, under penalty of law. According to the ECC, Google is abusing its position in the Internet search engine and online advertising markets. Elsewhere in the world, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States is also studying the possibility of suing Google for abusing its market position. Other countries like South Korea, Australia and India are investigating on the same grounds.

Nearly two decades after having decided that it was not necessary to regulate the wireless telephone sector, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) decided this past April to revisit its decision and hold public consultations on the matter. It should soon announce whether or not it believes that formal regulation is required to ensure that the sector remains competitive. Wireless telephony now includes data transmission and has become a competitive factor for businesses in an environment in which communications technologies are developing rapidly.

In order to promote a change of agricultural policy, we briefly review the cases of countries that have abolished or are in the process of abolishing quota systems: the buyback and abandonment of milk quotas in Australia, of tobacco and peanut quotas in the United States, the elimination of milk quotas in Switzerland and the beginnings of a process of abandonment of milk quotas in Europe. Canada could follow these examples by abandoning mandatory membership in marketing boards and by imposing a temporary tax to buy back farming quotas.

The president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Hubert Lacroix, stated recently that the crown corporation had to "be something for, and mean something special to, every Canadian." In accordance with the mandate described in the latest version of the Broadcasting Act, adopted in 1991, Mr. Lacroix wants a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains. Yet the technological context and the Canadian broadcasting sector have undergone significant changes since 1991. Shouldn't the mandate of the CBC do likewise?