Whenever we English-speaking Quebecers are so ungrateful as to complain about the anti-English policies of our provincial government, we’re told to shut up, because we’re “the best-treated minority in the world.”
Never mind that we’re being “treated” with our own money, since we shoulder our share of Quebec’s tax burden, among the heaviest in North America.
But by one important standard, a study published this week by the Fraser Institute suggests we’re not even treated the best among Canada’s official-language minorities.
In fact, in terms of money spent by the provincial governments to provide additional public services in the minority languages – French in the other provinces and English here – we’re by far the worst-treated.
Before nationalists dismiss the study as “Quebec bashing,” they should know that the four economists who conducted it either teach, study or were taught at the Université de Montréal.
And the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute can’t be accused of bias in favour of English-speaking Quebecers in particular or linguistic minorities in general.
The study says providing bilingual services at the federal, provincial and local levels in 2006-07 cost Canadian taxpayers a total of $2.4 billion.
The conservative think tank uses the study to suggest that, along with other provinces with large linguistic minorities, Quebec should cut its public spending on its English-speaking population by privatizing translation services and having users pay for them.
The study looks at how much each province spent in 2006-07, not on all services used by its linguistic minority but on services in the minority language in addition to those provided to the general population. So, for example, it does not count the total cost of educating children in the minority language. Rather, it counts the difference between that cost and the one for schooling those children in the language of the majority, since the children would go to school anyway.
Then it divides the additional cost by the number of all residents of the province and by the number with the minority language as their mother tongue.
The results put Quebec in a tie for second-last place in the cost per provincial resident – and dead last in the benefit per minority member. Even “redneck” Alberta spends more per resident and more per minority member than does our “generous” province. Ontario spends seven times as much as Quebec per resident, and 14 times as much per minority member.
On average, the other provinces spend five times as much as ours per resident, and 10 times as much per minority member.
A major reason for such differences is that while it costs the other provinces more to teach a child in the minority language, the study suggests that Quebec actually saves money by having an English school system.
And that, the study says, is because Quebec spends less on the education of a student in English than on the education of a student in French, whether it’s in primary and secondary schools, CEGEPs or universities. The English school boards receive three per cent less than the French ones for the equivalent of a full-time student, and the gap widens significantly at the post-secondary levels.
So in terms of funding by the province, the schools of “the best-treated minority in the world” are, to coin a phrase, separate and unequal.
But even counting only services other than education, and comparing only provinces with large minorities – apples to apples – Quebec comes out far behind Ontario and New Brunswick.
My calculations based on data in the study indicate that for non-educational services, New Brunswick spends nearly twice as much as Quebec for each member of its language minority, and Ontario three times as much.
So in terms of public spending on its linguistic minority, the study suggests that Quebec doesn’t put its money where its mouth is. Far from being “the best-treated minority in the world,” in terms of public spending by our provincial government, we English-speaking Quebecers are treated the worst in Canada.
But there remains one area in which Quebec places us among the leaders. Even if we don’t derive all the benefits from it, we are still among the most highly taxed minorities in North America.
dmacpherson@montrealgazette.com
Twitter:@MacphersonGaz