2012 Economic outlook: End of the world…or the dawn of a new age?

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The Sherbrooke Record, January 16, 2012, p. 6

As 2012 begins, many observers are painting an especially pessimistic portrait of the economic situation in the coming months. The scenarios vary in their vividness: weak economic growth, economic and financial crises, unemployment and jobs, and so forth.

Sure, the jolts in the international market over the last few months would tend to indicate a sombre year looms in 2012. But does it really have to portend the end of the world from an economic standpoint? To the contrary, in our view the province of Quebec, while not immune from what is occurring elsewhere, may even be able to advantageously stand out. To do this, it needs to draw on its many assets and major strengths to better respond to the many challenges it will have to meet in the years to come.

To us, the issues that would seem to be a priority and should mobilize not only employers but Quebecers as a whole in 2012, include: a better balance between workers’ training and employers’ needs; better control of the cost of social programs paid by employer and worker contributions; a revision of defined benefit pension plans; a lightening of businesses’ regulatory and administrative burdens; a tightening of rising expenses and the public debt; and a greater commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship.

Labour relations: corporate decisions needed for greater collective prosperity

2012 will also be a year of major collective decisions in labour relations to adapt the various Quebec laws in this area to the new labour-market realities and thereby create more wealth for Quebecers as a whole.

In this regard, Labour Minister Lise Thériault, announced the tabling of a draft bill this winter aimed at updating the occupational health and safety system in order to refocus it and make it more effective in properly meeting its primary objective of ensuring the health and safety of Quebec workers.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the National Assembly’s Committee on Labour and the Economy tabling its report on the provisions of the Labour Code prohibiting the use of replacements workers during a labour dispute, the government, along with its partners, will have to give considerable thought to an extensive reform of Quebec’s labour relations system. The system needs to be more flexible and accommodating in order to re-establish a better balance and make labour relations in Quebec more harmonious.

These are some of the major issues all of us will be addressing as the year goes on, spurred by a single motivating force, which is to enable every Quebecer to collectively become wealthier and thereby allow Quebec society to achieve the prosperity it deserves.