Selling out our natural resources
In the beginning of December, the Harper government gave its approval to two takeover deals in the energy sector. Nexen is involved in offshore production operations around the world and in oil sands...
View ArticleYukon’s court ruling on free-entry mining could help Idle No More
This past December 27th, the appeals court of the Yukon Territory gave an important ruling regarding the rights of First Nations in relation to Yukon’s free-entry mining policy. The plaintiff in the...
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Tuition hike and the media between 2005 and 2010 in Québec
I’ve contended for the last two years that between 2005 and 2010, an intensive public relations campaign was undertaken with the aim of increasing tuition fees in Québec. I believe it was crucial when...
View ArticleFiscal debate in Québec: myth busting and flak
Some myths are just so hard to debunk. For instance, people in Québec generally assume that they are the most taxed in North America. IRIS tackled the well-rehearsed allegation in a recently published...
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Federal Budget 2013: stubbornness and hidden secrets
Reactions to the federal budget presented in March differed in Québec in comparison with the rest of the provinces. In this text we will first review the budget as whole before zooming into measures...
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Climate change: Joe Oliver deems fears “exaggerated”
Federal Natural Resource minister Joe Oliver stopped by Montréal on 11 April to promote tar sands and closed the door to any strict greenhouse-gas ceiling. He claimed that, according to scientists, our...
View ArticleNew mining royalties: much ado about nothing
On Monday, the Parti québécois government announced a new mining royalty regime. Its hybrid proposal combines aspects from two types of royalty systems: profit based and ad valorem royalties. In this...
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Any jokes in it? Cultural exception and state funding for the film industry
France and Québec have sealed alliances in the past to defend the principle of cultural exception. It essentially aims at limiting the effects of globalization within the cultural industry, already...
View ArticleTen suggestions to lead a better life without growth (part 1)
Two weeks ago the degrowth research group Collectif de recherche interuniversitaire et transdisciplinaire sur les impasses de la croissance (CRITIC) held its first colloquium, entitled “How much should...
View ArticleTen suggestions to lead a better life without growth (part 2)
In our previous blog post, we took a look at 5 proposals from a feature entitled “A better life without growth” in the French magazine Alternatives économiques aimed at decreasing individual expenses...
View ArticleThe Sorrows of Wise Charbonneau: or, the need for a Canadian sequel
After a year of hearings, let’s stop and reflect on what we’ve learnt so far from the ongoing show on the Charbonneau Commission channel. Prologue Though hearings began last year, in the midst of the...
View ArticleIs Québec more corrupt than the rest of Canada?
My colleague Marie Léger-St-Jean recounted the drama of corruption in Québec in her last blog post. The classic characters took the stage one after the other: puppets, harlequins, Artful Dodgers,...
View ArticleIs the housing crisis over? Not in the resource regions
In Québec, the coming of the new millennium coincided with a crisis in rental housing. From 2000 to 2003, each Canada Day, families ended up homeless, unable to find housing. The crisis situation...
View ArticleNHL free agency: market dysfunction
Free agency opened on July 5 in the National Hockey League (NHL) and a myriad of contracts were signed. Between July 2 and 16, which includes the few days before the free agency officially began, free...
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The financial portion of our economy
A very interesting text by Christian Cauvin, published in a special issue of Alternatives économiques, contains a particularly revealing graph. It addresses the growing weight of the financial economy:...
View Article$6,000 revenue shortfall per annum for workers
We are told that wealth must first be created before it can be redistributed. Put like that, it sounds like a truism. We can still ask whether the wealth created is indeed redistributed in the end....
View ArticlePipeline vs. Rail: A red herring
Ever since the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, there’s a question which constantly comes up with regards to oil transportation. Are we better off transporting oil by rail or using pipelines? That’s in fact a red...
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Quebec Values Charter: Bad Solution to the Wrong Problem
It’s near impossible to ignore the current debate regarding the Québec Values Charter. It would seem laudable at first for a society to decide to reflect on its shared values. There is no cause to...
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Québec’s Economic Plan: Putting Jobs First?
The Québec government recently issued its new economic policy, “Putting Jobs First”. The Premier and her Finance Minister have realized that the long-awaited acceleration of economic growth still has...
View ArticleCorporate social responsibility: “doing good” or just doing better?
This past summer, two major events raising the issue of corporate social responsibility occurred in Québec. First, the Lac-Mégantic tragedy highlighted the dangerous strategies put in place by railway...
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