Standard of Living: Quebec is on par with the rest of Canada

The Institute of Statistics has published its report on per capita disposable income, one of the main determinants of living standards. We're very interested in these Quebec/Canada comparisons, especially since Francois Legault has set a catch-up goal.

In the year studied, 2022, Quebec is strongly integrated with the rest of Canada. Growth in average disposable income per capita in Quebec was 1.8%. It was negative in Canada, down 1.9%.

In fact, if you do the exercise of removing Quebec from the Canadian portrait, the rest of Canada has a 3% drop in disposable income over the course of a year.

There are many news in it.

Disposable income continues to grow in Quebec for the seventh year in a row.

François Legault can rejoice: Quebec is truly on par with the rest of Canada.

Attention! Here the catch-up is not happening because of the phenomenal growth rate. This arises because things are very bad in Canada. We understand very well the level of discontent in certain provinces.

• Listen to the Marechal-Dumont meeting with Isabelle Marechal via QUB :

Canada is doing badly

Disposable income is falling in eight out of 10 provinces. In five of these eight cases, this was the second decline in two years. In the Atlantic provinces, the decrease was about 6%. In Ontario, disposable income fell by nearly 4% over two years. In Manitoba, it's more than 5%.

Imagine experiencing a similar reduction in disposable income in years when inflation hits especially hard on groceries and housing.

The Canadian government is obsessed with debt and at great expense, compromising the future by investing in social programs and too little in prosperity. It is good to want to distribute wealth, but right now, we are systematically forgetting to create it.

Reading Toronto's financial columnists and leading economists, one can feel some concern about Canada's economy. Business investments are no more. Productivity will suffer severely.

In terms of productivity, Canada can no longer keep pace with its American neighbours. This inevitably widens the gap between living standards in the United States and Canada. Nothing to enjoy.

Quebec

Quebec is joining. Despite the generally unfavorable Canadian context, average disposable income per capita is improving. We should be happy about this, because Quebec has come a long way. 10 years ago, Quebecers were in last place. The poorest in Canada!

Catch-up began slowly towards the end of the Coulard government. Francois Legault made it a priority and stuck to it. But be careful! Big deficits, capital gains, Canada needs to see disastrous results before CAQ imitates Trudeau government as it did this spring.