Whenever a recession hits, politicians and pundits instinctively reach for “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects to restart the economy.
This was the Government of Quebec’s intention with Bill 61, tabled on the 3rd of June 2020, designed to jump-start Quebec’s economy and mitigate the consequences of the public health emergency declared on the 13th of March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bill 61’s primary purpose was to fast-track over 200 named infrastructure projects as well as temporarily ease expropriation, environmental, labour and other regulatory requirements.
Because Bill 61 was tabled late in the Parliamentary session, the Quebec Government needed the opposition’s cooperation to adopt Bill 61 prior to the summer recess on the 12th of June.
While the list of projects attached to Bill 61 was relatively uncontroversial, and there was a willingness from all parties in the National Assembly to do their part for the economy, the Bill was not without problems. The Quebec Government was asking for a blank check both as to duration and scope of the special regime. The Government was actually saying “trust us” and, in their final analysis, the opposition parties were unwilling to do so. Bill 61 was not adopted.
The opposition parties and many civil society stakeholders feared that the Government would wind the regulatory clock back to a time of greater laissez-faire and less-than-ethical contracting behaviour.
In a nutshell, the Quebec Government was too ambitious.
But more importantly, the Quebec Government chose the wrong remedy.
At any given time, governments have very few “shovel-ready” new infrastructure projects. That is why maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure is usually the starting point for government action during recessions. The design, financing and construction of new infrastructure involves many steps that are difficult to compress in modern democratic societies. A large project can easily take over a decade to become truly “shovel-ready,” and the steps involved are numerous and expensive.
Perhaps the Quebec Government should have simply allocated greater human and financial resources to the various approval processes or been more surgical in its approach. One thing is certain: Bill 61 is a comprehensive listing of what the Government views as obstacles to the implementation of important infrastructure projects, and it is likely that Bill 61 or a version thereof will be tabled again in the fall session.