Baseball returns to Montreal | A grant at zero cost: are you kidding?

After having told us, without laughing, that the third link would be “carbon neutral”, the Coalition Avenir Québec flirted with the idea of ​​offering a subsidy for the return of baseball which would be “at zero cost for the taxpayers”.

Frankly, this is crazy. This funny rhetoric does not convince anyone.

The fact that electric vehicles will be driving through the tunnel does not make this $ 10 billion project a green project. And the fact that there are tax benefits associated with the return of baseball to Montreal does not mean that the subsidies will cost taxpayers nothing.

There is never anything free in life. This is one of the first lessons we teach economics students.

Never mind, the Baseball Montreal Group, led by Stephen Bronfman, is asking Quebec for a financial contribution that could go up to $ 300 million for its stadium project valued at $ 1 billion, revealed Press Tuesday ^⁠1.

For months, Prime Minister François Legault has been openly in favor of the principle of the subsidy at zero cost. But in the face of the outcry, he said he would not put “a penny from the taxpayers in there”, in response to a question from Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

But when the leader of Quebec solidaire asked him to clarify whether this meant that there would be no “zero cost” subsidy, Mr. Legault replied with uninspiring personal attacks instead of clearly answering the question. , which would have been so simple.

It is therefore understandable that François Legault remains willing to dip into the coffers of the State to the extent that the tax revenues (taxes and levies) generated by the new team would allow taxpayers to recover their money in the long run.

But nothing is less certain…

First, the tax that baseball players would pay in Quebec – about 4.5 million – would not be entirely new money, because part of their salaries would come from the sale of tickets paid by Quebec supporters.

Without a baseball team, they would have spent their money elsewhere, for a comedy show, a play or a dinner at a restaurant, for example.

In this way, the money would have remained in Quebec rather than going into the pockets of foreign baseball players who will spend their fortune elsewhere.

What about building a new baseball stadium? Yes, it would create jobs and therefore bring taxes back to the government… but no more than building anything else.

On that account, we should instead use taxpayers’ money to repair public infrastructure, which has a maintenance deficit of $ 28 billion, nothing less.

It is true that a baseball team would attract foreign tourists. But if we trust the United States, less than 5% of the spectators will come from outside, which means that the sale of tickets would not bring much more than half a million a year in consumption taxes to Quebec and Ottawa ^⁠2.

Even by adding tourist expenses for visitors who spend the night in Montreal – which is not a given – we can see that we are far from the jackpot.

What about visibility? Of course, a baseball team would contribute to the influence of Montreal, but all this remains very abstract. If the goal is to attract tourists, the metropolis should instead offer itself an advertising campaign abroad.

Still, we are a long way from a zero-cost subsidy. And even if Quebec recovered all its money, the subsidy would not be “free” for all that. When investing, we must always keep in mind the other projects that we could have financed with this money and which could have brought a better financial or social return. This is called the opportunity or opportunity cost.

Of course, a baseball team is popular, it’s exciting.

But should we remember that there are 145,000 patients who are suffering while waiting for an operation because Quebec is having all the trouble in the world to catch up with the delay that the pandemic has accentuated? That half of our roads and our schools are falling apart? That in many neighborhoods, young people lack sports infrastructure?

Since money does not fall from the sky, Quebec must not lose sight of its real priorities.