In terms of the net value of their wealth (family wealth), households in Quebec lag significantly behind households in Ontario. Furthermore, this delay has worsened since François Legault's CAQ government came to power in October 2018.
As evidence: According to Statistics Canada data, the net value of their assets per Quebec household averaged $708,663 in Q3 2023, compared to $1,131,456 for the Ontario household. The Quebec household therefore has 37.4% lower net worth than the Ontario household. We're talking about a net worth gap of $422,793.
It is worse than 2018, when François Legault's Caquists came to power. In Q3 2018, the net value of assets held by Quebec households averaged $550,284, compared to $837,294 for Ontario households. That resulted in a wealth gap of $287,010. At that time we were talking about a gap of 34.3%, three percentage points less than today.
Let's go back to the $422,793 net worth difference that separated us from Ontarians last third quarter. A large part of this gap is due to the net value of real estate, which is significantly lower in Quebec. In Quebec, households have an average net worth (after mortgage) of $210,318 in real estate, while households in Ontario have an average net worth of $534,401.
- Listen to the economy part with Michel Girard above QUB :
BY QUINTILE
To calculate the net value of our assets, we subtract from the sum of our assets (RRSP, pension plan, real estate, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, GICs, life insurance, etc.) the sum of our liabilities, namely the total amount one owes, e.g. B. Credit card balances, loans, mortgages, etc.
You've obviously guessed that net worth varies enormously between households in the lowest income quintile (the lowest income bracket of 20%) and those in the highest quintile (the lowest income bracket of 20%).
Here is the net value of household wealth in Quebec by quintile, with the increase compared to 2018 in brackets.
- 1st Quintile: $247,631 (+$77,574)
- 2nd Quintile: $478,013 (+$175,141)
- 3rd quintile: $672,071 (+$168,662)
- 4th Quintile: $933,349 (+$221,042)
- 5th Quintile: $1,910,808 (+$171,465)
It is still reassuring to see that Quebec households in the five income quintiles overall have seen a significant increase in the net value of their respective assets over the past five years.
What about disposable income?
Unfortunately, as we just saw, the gap between the net worth of households in Quebec and that of households in Ontario widened between 2018 and 2023.
Question: Why do François Legault and his Finance Minister Eric Girard boast every time they have the opportunity to have improved the living standards of Quebecers, thereby narrowing the wealth gap with Ontario, since coming to power in October 2018?
Because they use a different basis for comparison, namely real GDP per capita.
In terms of real GDP per capita, according to Minister Girard, the wealth gap with Ontario increased from 16.4% (in 2018) to 13.7% in 2022.
- Listen to the economy part with Michel Girard above QUB :
This had a positive impact on the disposable income of Quebec households, i.e. income after taxes and contributions paid to the public administration.
And on this basis, François Legault and his CAQ financier have “rightly” pointed out that there has been real improvement since the CAQ came to power.
In 2018, Quebec household disposable income averaged $64,925, compared to $83,768 for the Ontario household. Our disposable income therefore saw a decrease of $18,843 compared to that of the Ontario household, a difference of 22.5%.
In 2022, the most recent year of annual compilation of this data, the Quebec household had a disposable income of $80,473, or $16,191 less than the disposable income ($96,664) of the Ontario household. The gap narrowed to 16.7%.
The Legault government wants to further reduce this gap by 2026.