Government spending in Quebec: comparisons and trends

This study traces the evolution of government spending in Quebec, Ontario and Canada as a whole from 1981 to 2009. Overall, the main conclusions show that government spending was higher in Quebec than in Ontario or Canada as a whole.

One of our findings was that government spending as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) was higher in Quebec than in Ontario or in Canada on average. We also saw that per capita public spending was higher in Quebec than in Ontario or in Canada on average. These two observations apply to the entire period studied.

We also noted that a considerable proportion of the growth in government spending in Quebec came from a larger increase in spending by the provincial government. Although this situation was also observed in Ontario and on average in Canada, the fact remains that the provincial government bore more responsibility for the growth in government spending in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada.

Finally, we noted that a large proportion of the growth in provincial and municipal spending was due essentially to the increase in expenditure on three key items: health, education and social services. While this observation applies to Quebec as much as to Ontario and Canada as a whole, we observed certain differences in the contributions of these three budget items. The study shows in particular that social services played a larger role in Quebec in the growth of provincial and municipal spending. This can be explained mainly by the fact that spending on some aspects of social services had more than doubled since 1989. This is the case for the other social services item, which includes spending on support for households with dependent children (daycare, in particular) and spending on housing for the elderly and for people with disabilities.