Montreal, May 28, 2026 – Seventeen years after the first edition of Productivity and Prosperity in Quebec – Overview, the Centre for Productivity and Prosperity – Walter J. Somers Foundation (CPP) at HEC Montréal concludes that Quebec remains trapped in a flawed economic development model.
“Despite mounting warning signs, the Quebec government has stubbornly continued to pursue a strategy whose results did not justify either its scope or its cost,” summarizes Robert Gagné, director of the CPP and co-author of the study. Billions of dollars in public funds have thus been poured into fruitless measures, and the province has never managed to foster a critical mass of companies competitive enough to establish themselves in foreign markets. And that is precisely where the crux of the matter lies: without a pool of productive and innovative companies to support sustainable export growth, the growth of the Quebec economy remains largely dependent on domestic demand, which jeopardizes the province’s economic prosperity.”
