Marcelin Joanis, Full Professor at Polytechnique Montréal, CIRANO Researcher and Fellow, was guest speaker at a webinar of the Association des économistes québécois Outaouais Chapter about fiscal imbalance on April 8.

Over the past year, the federal government has seen its fiscal position deteriorate relative to the provinces as it has assumed the majority of the expenses related to the COVID-19 crisis. Is this a temporary situation or the beginning of a new trend? For several months now, the premiers have been increasing the pressure on the federal government to improve the Canada Health Transfer. Are they right to ask the federal government to contribute more? Is the current situation similar to the one that prevailed in the early 2000s when there was a consensus in the National Assembly that there was a fiscal imbalance between the federal and provincial governments? These questions were addressed during this webinar moderated by Samuel Roy.