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Quebec and Canadian Fiscal Federalism: From Tremblay to Séguin and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Hubert Rioux Ouimet
Hubert Rioux Ouimet*
Affiliation:
McMaster University
*
Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Kenneth Taylor Hall 527, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M4. Email: hubrioux@gmail.com
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Abstract

Sixty years ago, in late 1953, Quebec launched the hearings of the Royal Commission on Constitutional Problems—or Tremblay commission. Commenting the publication of its report, political scientist Alexander Brady boldly argued in this journal that Quebec had been, until the late 1950s, the “guarantor” of Canada's fiscal system's flexibility (1959: 270). Emphasizing the system's evolution since the 1950s “constitutional problems,” some specialists now contend, as the economist Robin Boadway does, that Canada became the “textbook best-practice of fiscal federalism” (2007: 99). The Tremblay commission's sixtieth anniversary and the termination, in 2014, of the current agreement on federal transfers, provide an opportunity to reassess this evolution and question the validity of this kind of statement.

Résumé

Il y a soixante ans, à la fin 1953, le Québec lançait les audiences de la Commission royale d'enquête sur les problèmes constitutionnels – ou «  Commission Tremblay ». Commentant la publication de son rapport, le politologue Alexander Brady a audacieusement soutenu dans cette revue que le Québec avait été, jusqu'à la fin des années 1950, garant de la souplesse du système fiscal canadien (1959 : 270). Se référant à l'évolution du système depuis les « problèmes constitutionnels » des années 1950, certains spécialistes tel que l'économiste Robin Boadway prétendent aujourd'hui que le Canada est devenu « exemplaire dans sa pratique du fédéralisme fiscal » (2007 : 99). Le soixantième anniversaire de la Commission Tremblay, de même que l'échéance, en 2014, du présent programme de transferts fédéraux fournissent l'opportunité de réexaminer cette évolution et de questionner la validité de ce type d'assertion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 47 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2014 

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