0.050.09975

Seminar: Financing Quebec Public Schools from a Comparative Perspective - Property Taxes and Small, Remote or Declining Schools

CIRANO

Wednesday 11 Sep 2019
From 12PM To 2PM

Jean-Philippe Meloche, Associate Professor at Université de Montréal and CIRANO Fellow, and François Vaillancourt, Emeritus Professor at Université de Montréal and CIRANO Fellow, presented the results of the CIRANO report "Le financement des écoles publiques québécoises dans une perspective comparative - La fiscalité foncière et les écoles petites, éloignées ou en déclin" (co-written with Stéphyanie Boulenger).

 

This study shows that the use of local property taxes to finance primary and secondary education is common practice in Canada, the United States and Europe. Reforms in recent years have contributed to reducing the autonomy of Quebec school boards, making them more dependent on transfers. Financial adjustments to take into account local particularities, such as school size, remote locations or declining enrolment, are complex and examples of good practice are rare in North America. The authors of the study suggest that it would be desirable to simplify these practices.

Jean-Philippe Meloche

A CIRANO Researcher and Fellow since 2015, Main Researcher of the theme Territories, Jean-Philippe Meloche is Associate Professor at the École d'urbanisme et d'architecture de paysage of the Université de Montréal. He is also the Director of the École d'urbanisme et d'architecture de paysage of the Université de Montréal.

He is also Researcher at the Ivanhoe Cambridge Observatory of Urban and Real Estate Development, Member of the Réseau Villes Régions Mondes (VRM) and Member of the Sustainable Mobility Observatory.

Holding a Ph.D. in Geography from the Université de Montréal, he specializes in urban economics, local and regional economic development. He is particularly interested in the real estate market and urban infrastructure. His most recent research focuses on Quebec's local public finances and urban transportation.

[ - ]
[ + ]

François Vaillancourt

A CIRANO Researcher and Fellow since 2004, François Vaillancourt is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics at the Université de Montréal.

Holder of a PhD in economics from Queen's University (1978), he published over 300 texts, particularly on intergovernmental financial relations, the complexity and impact of Canadian taxation, the cost-effectiveness of linguistic studies and attributes, and the economics of language policies.

Named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva in 2021 for his work on the economics of language issues. Over his career, he has been a Fulbright Canadian Research Scholar in Kennesaw (2007) and a Shastri Lecturer in India (1993). He has been a visiting professor/researcher at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in Atlanta (2007 and 2009), FUCaM (Mons, Belgium, 2006), École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (Paris, 2006 and 2008), the University of Toronto (1991) and the Australian National University (1991). He was also research coordinator for the MacDonald Commission (1983-1986) and associate editor of Canadian Public Policy-Analyse de Politiques (1986-1995). He has acted as a consultant for various national (including CIDA, House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Commission Séguin, Law Reform Commission of Canada, Conseil de la Fédération, Conseil de la langue française du Québec, CSST, Finance Canada, Forum of Federations, Federal Expert Panel on Equalization Reform, Institut Fraser, Office de la langue française, Statistics Canada and the Auditor General of Canada and Quebec) and international organizations (AFD, World Bank, IMF, OECD, UNDP). He has worked in 35 countries/entities on issues of regional and local financial resources (taxation, transfers) and provided training in this field for the African Tax Institute, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the Hague Academy for Local Governance.

[ - ]
[ + ]

Location


1130 Rue Sherbrooke O #1400, Montréal, QC H3A 2M8, Canada