On March 20, Québec's Finance Minister, Raymond Bachand, tabled his third budget. This budget year follows in the wake of those of the last few years. The government is still insisting on transforming public service funding in accordance with the user-fee revolution logic (so dear to Mr. Bachand's heart), developing the Plan Nord, and reforming the pension plan.

Limited royalties

User fees can be useful. They can subsidize a public service, they can offer an understanding of the value or benefit of a service, and they can help determine the quality and quantity of a desired output.

User fees can discourage negative behaviour such as driving (through road tolls, congestion charges), pollution (tied to volume of waste) and water consumption (to encourage conservation).

But if user fees prohibit certain beneficial activities or they discriminate on ability to pay, then the user fee attached to the public service in question is no longer equitable. In short, efficiency and cost should not trump fairness and equity and there is a risk of this happening with the application of certain user fees.