Quebec has made significant economic and social progress over the years, in addition to generally doing better than the rest of Canada, notes a gathering of civil society organizations based on more than about fifty indicators of well-being. But it is in environmental matters that things go wrong, they note, and that we risk compromising everything, including old advances.
Gathered within the G15+, more than fifteen employer, trade union, financial, environmental and professional organizations have agreed, with the help of experts, on 54 performance indicators that go beyond the usual measures of the domestic product. (GDP) or the unemployment rate. A first version of their Well-being indicators had already been unveiled in January, and it was with a second version, covering an extended period and including comparisons with Ontario and the Canadian average, that they arrived on Tuesday.
Going back, in some cases, to the mid-1970s, 11 of the 17 economic indicators used show a marked improvement in the situation in Québec, compared to only two which have deteriorated. Gains have been observed in particular in terms of GDP per capita (+60% between 1976 and 2019), employment rates (+30%), household disposable income (+67% between 1981 and 2020) and productivity.
In social matters, 12 of the 22 indicators considered also show clear progress, and only two setbacks. Among other things, we observe a decrease in poverty, a decline in inequalities, a reduction in crime, an increase in life expectancy and an increase in support for public bodies.
The environmental danger
Quebec also generally does well in comparison with its neighbor Ontario and the Canadian average. Where he originally lagged, he is often seen closing the gap and sometimes even reversing it. Quebec, for example, is the only one to have benefited from an improvement in its labor market situation, and now stands out clearly in terms of support for cultural organizations and artists.
The picture of the situation is less bright on the environmental side. Among the 15 indicators considered, only 4 show a real improvement — particularly in terms of land and water use —, while 5 have remained stable — including the one on the level of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG) — and that 2 have further deteriorated — including that on air quality.
“There has really been an improvement in the economic and social situation, both from the point of view of Quebec in relation to itself and in relation to its neighbors, observed Monday in an interview at the To have to Emna Braham, Director General of the Institut du Québec and one of the co-pilots of the process. But the advantage of having an overview like this is to also highlight the enormous delay in environmental transition. The danger is that this will compromise the sustainability and intergenerational equity of our economic and social system. »
Numbers and targets
The case of GHG emissions is a rare example where governments have agreed on a benchmark and committed not only to relative progress, but also to absolute targets. In particular, the G15+ would like governments to base their public policies more often on this type of indicator and announce targets in order to be able to debate them and measure progress more clearly.
“There was a time when it was very easy to measure our results in the world of finance. It was enough to look at profitability, explains Daniel Charron, vice-president at Fondaction. Today, we realize that it is not enough to rely on a single indicator to measure the real performance of a company or a project. We have no choice but to raise the level of sophistication of our analysis. This should also be true for government policies. »
That civil society organizations with backgrounds as diverse as the Conseil du patronat du Québec, the FTQ, Équiterre, the Chantier de l’économie sociale and the organization Vivre en ville have considered the issue and agreed on the list indicators that seem to them the most relevant should already spare governments the drudgery of making certain arbitrations, says Daniel Charron.
However, these governments would need to ask their statistical agencies to explore new questions. Indeed, the G15+ is forced to admit that, despite all its efforts, it has not found reliable and frequent indicators for almost twenty factors which, however, it believes should be able to be monitored, such as the weight of the social economy, the quality of childcare services, the vitality of Aboriginal languages or the capacity for carbon sequestration.