Five reasons to celebrate 2023 in Quebec

There was a lot of bad news in 2023. There is still a way to see the glass half full. We offer you a more optimistic look at five news stories in Quebec in order to end the year well.

Quebecers among the happiest in the world

Isn’t the ultimate goal in life to be happy? In this regard, Quebecers are one of the happiest people in the world, according to the global happiness index of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

To establish this index, economists and psychologists classify countries according to their level of happiness using six criteria: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, mental and physical health, level of social support, freedom to do things. lifestyle choices, level of generosity and perception of corruption. The last five criteria are responses to the Gallup firm’s global survey.

With a happiness index of 7.31 out of 10, Quebec ranks 8^e rank out of 138 states for the years 2020 to 2022.

We are happier than the Swiss (9^e rank), Canadians overall (14^e rank), the Americans (16^e rank), the Germans (17^e rank) and the French (22^e rank)^⁠1.

What are the seven countries happier than Quebec? The five northern European countries, the Netherlands and Israel. This is the ranking for the years 2020-2022.

COVID-19 is less deadly

Yes, COVID-19 is still dangerous and among us. Yes, we must continue to be careful and protect ourselves. Among other things, because 12% of adults in the country had long COVID (symptoms for more than three months), as of June 2023. And approximately 58% of Canadians who had long COVID continued to experience symptoms. symptoms.

Despite everything, COVID-19 has wreaked less havoc in 2023 than in previous years: the number of deaths linked to the disease is much lower. And for the first time since the start of the pandemic, we have experienced a full year without confinement or significant restrictions. In short, life has returned to normal.

The REM was inaugurated

Okay, the commissioning of the first section of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) was very, very ordinary. Repeated breakdowns in the first weeks, poor communications with users: it is clear that the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is a retirement fund, not a transport network operator.

Both for network reliability and for the quality of customer service, CDPQ Infra will have to improve, and quickly.

That said, despite all its faults, the REM is still the most important public transport project to see the light of day in Quebec since the inauguration of the Montreal metro in 1966. At 8 billion, it is also the largest project public transportation system in Canada currently under construction.

You haven’t heard the last of the REM: 18 of the 26 stations must be inaugurated in 2024.

Polluting costs 49% more

Is Quebec doing enough to decarbonize its economy and reduce its CO emissions?₂ ? No. But at least Quebecers don’t want pollution to be free. And the price of emitting a ton of CO₂ in Quebec increased by 49% in one year.

On the other hand, the federal carbon tax, an essential tool to fight climate change, is in danger. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, far ahead in the polls, constantly talks about abolishing it.

Fortunately, this debate on the abolition of pollution pricing is almost non-existent in Quebec. Because since 2008, Quebec has had its carbon market (with California), which takes the place of a carbon tax.

Without being perfect, this carbon market has great quality: its future is not threatened since it is the subject of a political consensus in Quebec (the Coalition Avenir Québec, the Parti Québécois, the Liberal Party of Quebec and Québec solidaire supports it).

In our carbon market, the price of carbon is set according to supply and demand (with a minimum price). As we will have to increasingly reduce our CO emissions₂pollution is expected to cost more and more.

Without fanfare, the price of carbon rose, between November 2022 and November 2023, from $35.62 to $53.16 per tonne of CO₂. It’s a good thing that pollution costs more if we want to reduce our CO emissions₂.

Jobs are (still) going well

The economy and the job market are doing well. In November, the unemployment rate was lower in Quebec (5.2%) than in Ontario (6.1%) and in Canada as a whole (5.8%). The unemployment rate varied between 3.9% and 5.2% in Quebec in 2023.

The employment rate is also slightly higher in Quebec (61.8% in November) than in Ontario (61.3%).

Salaries have even increased equally in Quebec and Ontario (+ 3.5% between September 2022 and September 2023). This increase is, however, lower than the average increase of 4.1% in Canada during the same period. We are talking here about the weekly salaries of employees, including overtime.^⁠s².

An important downside to this good performance of the job market in Quebec: inflation has been higher (+ 4.8%) than the increase in wages (+ 3.5%) for a year (from September 2022 to September 2023). On the other hand, if we look in the longer term over the last five years, they have grown richer (+ 24.9%) more than inflation (+ 20.2%)⁠³.

1. Quebec is not included in the official ranking in the report. Quebec economist Pierre Fortin, however, obtained Quebec’s happiness index (7.31 out of 10) from one of the authors of the report, and published it in his column in the magazine News.

2. These are data from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (generally considered more reliable). Taking data from the Labor Force Survey, the increase in weekly wages is 3.1% in Quebec between September 2022 and September 2023.

3. From September 2018 to September 2023. Data from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours.