Pan-Canadian Infrastructure Comparison | Quebec invests more than elsewhere in schools

Is the government of Quebec particularly negligent in the repair of our infrastructures? This is the question we ask ourselves when reading the many reports on the decay of our schools and our roads.

In the case of schools, in particular, 61% are in poor condition, according to the government indicator. François Legault questions this rate, although the method for calculating it has been refined in recent years¹.

To get to the bottom of it, I compared our situation to that of the three other large provinces of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Data are taken from Statistics Canada’s infrastructure account, updated in mid-March.

The main conclusions? Quebec compares rather favorably in the education sector, surprisingly, but remains the dunce for road repairs.

Improvement in teaching

In the education sector, Québec investments over the past four years have increased the value of buildings by 44%^⁠2. These $10.3 billion investments primarily affect elementary and secondary schools, but also CEGEPs and universities.

The increase is very significant. In this regard, Quebec is clearly ahead of each of the three other large provinces, whose increase varies between 25% and 35%. The average for all Canadian provinces and territories is 31%.

Another way of judging Quebec’s effort is to check whether our investments, compared to the Canadian total, correspond to our relative weight in the confederation (i.e. 22.1% of the population and 19.3% of the gross domestic product or GDP).

Over the past four years, investments in our schools have represented 27% of the Canadian total, which is significantly higher than our weight in Canada as a whole.

This comparison is possible because Statistics Canada data exclude land values. Construction costs and standards can differ from place to place, however, so care should be taken in interpreting this second indicator.

The fact remains that the two indicators point in the same direction: Quebec has invested more than elsewhere in its educational buildings over the past four years.

Is our park in worse condition than elsewhere? Yes and no, according to Statistics Canada data.

In 2018, the value of our educational buildings represented only 19.2% of the Canadian total, which is lower than our relative weight. This value increased to 21.2% in 2022, with the increase in investments.

We can therefore think that the government still has an effort to make to compare itself to the other large provinces, since the relative value of our educational infrastructures is lower than our proportion of the population (22.1%).

However, the picture is quite different when we compare the remaining lifespan of our buildings, an essential sign of their condition. On average, our education buildings had a remaining lifespan of 61 years in 2022, according to Statistics Canada, which is higher than the Canadian average (59.2 years).

Quebec is even the only one of the four major provinces to have increased the lifespan of its education and higher education infrastructure in recent years. Quebec’s catch-up over 20 years is striking, as can be seen in this graph.

And what were our schools and other educational buildings worth in 2022? Just over $31 billion, which equates to about 70,000 homes.

Big delay in the road network

If the government has not dragged its feet in education, this is not the case for the roads.

Over the past four years, Quebec has invested significantly less than elsewhere. Our public investments (provincial and municipal) amounted to $18.9 billion, which represents a jump of 47% compared to the starting value (2018), while this increase is 58% in British Columbia and 53% in Ontario.

Everywhere, the increase in investments for roads is greater than that for schools, which is probably explained by the more rapid deterioration of the road network.

We could take comfort in noting that our investments in road infrastructure over the past four years have represented 23% of the Canadian total, which is more than our share of the population (22%).

The problem is that Quebec has a much larger road network than most provinces: 61,468 km of lanes are under the responsibility of the Quebec Ministry of Transport, or 52% more than in Ontario.³.

To have a network of comparable quality, Quebecers would therefore have to invest much more than Ontarians, while being almost twice as numerous and 10% less wealthy.

Statistics Canada data on the useful life of our road and highway network come to the same conclusions. The average remaining life was 53 years in 2022, the lowest of the four major provinces (the Canadian average is 56 years). However, our bridges and tunnels have a longer remaining life than elsewhere.

In 2022, the network of roads, bridges and tunnels in Quebec was worth 47.7 billion, according to Statistics Canada, the equivalent of more than 100,000 houses.

Healthy draw

Finally, in the case of health, public infrastructures in Quebec have received a level of investment corresponding to our population (22%), and their value is also similar (22%). Over the past four years, our network has seen its investments increase the value of the fleet by 31%, like the Canadian average.

In short, it’s a draw in health in this regard.

The remaining lifespan of hospitals? It is higher than those of the other three provinces, at almost 66 years (Canadian average of 58 years).

In 2022, our public health infrastructures were worth $17.7 billion. And if we take all of Quebec’s public infrastructures, in addition to those analyzed above, their value will reach $196 billion in 2022, which represents 24% of the Canadian total.

2. This value has of course been reduced by depreciation, but the objective is to measure the government’s recovery efforts.