Quebec's Regulatory Burden: A $10 Billion Weight on Businesses

Quebec's economy is struggling under the weight of an overwhelming regulatory burden. According to a recent Economic Note, the province has more than 145,958 regulatory requirements on the books, making it the Canadian province with the largest stock of regulations.

The note estimates that Quebec businesses spent $10.9 billion complying with government regulation in 2024, up 28.1% since 2017. This is the second-highest increase among all provinces, with only Prince Edward Island seeing a slightly higher growth rate.

While some regulations are justified and protect workers, consumers, and the environment, about $17.9 billion of the national compliance burden is classified as red tape: excessive, duplicative, or outdated requirements with no clear public benefit proportionate to their cost. Applying this rate to Quebec's total compliance burden gives a ballpark figure of $3.8 billion for the cost of pure red tape in 2024.

Quebec has made some progress in reducing its regulatory burden, but more ambitious reform is needed to fix the problem. The province's Economic Freedom in North America index score is dead last among Canadian provinces, with a score of 3.10, well below Nova Scotia at 3.97. BC's experience in the early 2000s is a relevant example: after reducing its regulatory burden by one-third in three years, the province went from one of the worst-performing economies to one of the strongest.