Un siècle de finances publiques québécoises : 1867-1969

Abstract

L’absence de statistiques fiables, en particulier pour la période précédant les années 1950, nuit beaucoup à l’étude de l’histoire des finances publiques au Canada. Elle est sans doute due au fait que l’information contenue dans les comptes publics doit être totalement réorganisée si l’on veut en tirer une série statistique homogène.Intriguée par la croyance populaire que le gouvernement québécois n’ait pas été interventionniste avant la Révolution tranquille des années 1960, nous avons effectué ce travail pour les finances du Québec de 1867 à 1969 et construit des séries annuelles, globales et désagrégées, des dépenses et des revenus du gouvernement provincial.Pour en faciliter la diffusion, cet article présente les principales données, donne un aperçu des méthodes de construction et décrit sommairement l’évolution des finances publiques québécoises de la Confédération à la fin des années 1960.The historical study of the public finances in Canada is hampered by the very weak statistical base, especially prior to the 1950s. The reason may be that the primary source of data, the Public Accounts, need to be extensively rearranged before one can obtain consistent time series.Puzzled by the conventional view that the Quebec Government was not interventionist before the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, we produce such a rearrangement for the Quebec accounts from 1867 to 1969 and build annual series, global and disaggregated, of the provincial government expenditure and revenue.In order to make the main statistical data easily available, this article provides the results, outlines the procedures used to derive them, and briefly describes the evolution of Quebec Government finance from Confederation to the end of the 1960s

The myth of wartime prosperity: Evidence from the Canadian experience

“…This effectively reduced provincial spending as a source of wartime inflationary stimulus, though this was not the case in World War I. It also helps explain why we find contractions in government spending during the wars(Dupré 1988). 12 The Regions were: Charlottetown (no local offices); Halifax (eight local offices); Saint John (four local offices); Quebec City (25 local offices); Montreal (11 local offices); Ottawa (six local offices); Toronto (11 local offices); London (11 local offices); North Bay (six local offices); Winnipeg (seven local offices): Regina (eight local offices); Edmonton (five local offices); Vancouver (11 local offices; Vincent and Wright 1977).13 Alexander Field speaks of an "industrial draft" being in place in Canada(Field 2022, p. 428).…”

Did the ‘Quiet Revolution’ Really Change Anything?

“…Government expenditures are defined as gross general expenditures from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1965 to 1975, gross ordinary expenditures from 1948 to 1957, and net general expenditures from 1958 to 1964. This is problematic in terms of level but not in terms of evolution over time (Dupré 1988). Life expectancy from birth (males and females) data is collected from the Canadian Human Mortality Database.…”

“…While the size of government was small under his reign, it did increase gradually (both in per capita terms and relative to the size of the economy). Moreover, the numbers of Dupré (1988;1993) that reconstructed government accounts from 1867 suggest per capita differences in government spending that roughly match the differences in income with Ontario (the only compared province in her work). As such, Quebec was spending less because it was poorer.…”

“…The predominantly French population of Quebec had long been one of the poorest in Canada (Raynauld 1961;Inwood and Irwin 2002;Geloso and Macera 2020;Dean and Geloso 2022) and North America (Altman 2003;Geloso 2019;Geloso 2022a). Its government had also been quite small in contrast to other provincial governments (Dupré 1988;Gow 1986;Vaillancourt 1988). By 1980, it is argued that Quebec had converged rapidly towards the rest of Canada in terms of living standards and its government became one of the largest and most proactive of all provincial governments.…”

“…The onset of the Quiet Revolution marked the beginning of an entirely new state-philosophy. Prior to 1960, Quebec's government is depicted as laissez-faire or largely conservative -even by Canadian standards (Boismenu 1981;Gow 1986;Vaillancourt 1988;Dupré 1988;1993). Whereas other provinces had adopted universal healthcare programs or undertaken large expansion of public education in the 1940s and 1950s, Quebec left the Catholic church in charge of the provision of both services (with minimal subsidies) (Guérard 1996;Cadotte and Meunier 2011;Doray and Lessard 2016).…”