Montreal Economic Institute continues move from Quebec’s fringe by recruiting former finance minister Joe Oliver

MONTREAL – The Montreal Economic Institute, a think-tank often seen as promoting free-market views that have historically languished around the fringe inside a province with a half-century of big governments and robust unions, is creating a push for the mainstream.

On Wednesday, the organization announced that former Conservative finance minister Joe Oliver is joining its ranks like a “Distinguished Senior Fellow,” a move that might help MEI break onto the national stage, setting itself up as a type of Fraser Institute in Quebec.

Oliver says he hopes to be part of the bilingual organization’s push to advertise “market-based solutions,” as part of his career post-2015 federal elections when his lost his seat to the Liberals in Ontario’s Eglinton-Lawrence riding.

“I think it’s important to hear voices over the full political spectrum and if that is missing, it’s not healthy for democracy or good public policy,” said Oliver in an interview with the Financial Post from his Toronto office. 

This expanding geography can be also observed in the organization’s rebranding: It now favours its acronym, MEI, downplaying its localization, in the same vein as BMO and TD Canada Trust.

“As part of those of that rebranding and part of having that voice within the national debate, I think Mr. Oliver fits perfectly into that narrative,” said the think-tank’s CEO Michel Kelly-Gagnon. 

MEI itself eschews titles such as “right-wing” and “libertarian,” saying they doesn’t truly capture the organization’s objectives.

“First of all, we do economic analysis – full-stop. Not free market. There’s good economics, there’s bad economics and that i hope we do good economics,” Kelly-Gagnon said.

However, the organization has taken stances that aren’t popular with some politicians and activists in the home province – recently its analysts argued in favour of the power East pipeline, against mandating that Bombardier Inc. keep jobs in Quebec and criticized electric car subsidies.

“Is (our) flavour more towards entrepreneurship and freedom of preference? I’d clearly say yes,” said Kelly-Gagnon. 

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Oliver, who’s bilingual and originally from Montreal, will take part in research projects, in particular on files associated with public finances and natural resources, portfolios he held while in office.



He continues to be an outspoken supporter of the pipeline projects including the rejected Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as TransCanada Corp.’s controversial Energy East proposal. 

“It’s obviously reverberating right across the country and thus we need dispassionate or at best objective, comprehensive and in-depth studies with that issue, what this problem method for Quebec, in addition to what it means for the nation economically, socially and politically,” Oliver said. 

Montreal Economic Institute was started by Kelly-Gagnon in 1998 in the mezzanine of his condo with a $15,000 budget. Last year MEI had a financial budget of $2.3 million. It currently employs a full-time staff of 12. 

Kelly-Gagnon compared expressing capitalist views in Quebec within the ’90s like a little like being gay within the 1960s. 

“You remained in the closet because it was too delicate to come out,” he said. 

Today, he says both attitudes and the economic situation in Quebec have changed.

“It’s getting difficult to increase Quebec’s debt infinitely and it is hard to constantly increase taxes. Some of it can also be that fewer individuals are afraid to state they think in those terms,” he said. “I love to think part of that transitional phase is due to the job we have done.”

Critics say the organization supports a company agenda because it is funded by industries with interests which may be different from the ones from the population.

“Have they got a place in the conversation? Sure. However their statements ought to be taken with a grain of salt,” said Ethan Cox, a political organizer and writer from Montreal.

“MEI is part of exactly the same problem they’ve with money in the U.S. political process: corporate interests who can outspend critics have too much influence within our political process.”

Kelly-Gagnon says 65 to 70 percent of MEI’s funding comes from foundations, with folks contributing 15-20 percent and the remainder coming from corporations. The think-tank does not accept funding in the public sector.

“Many people believe the vast majority of our funding comes from corporate (donors) but I would say unfortunately, that’s not the case,” he said.

Although he would not disclose the person names of any donors, tax statements reveal that MEI has received funding in the Stowers Institute for Scientific research, the Donner Canadian Foundation and The Chase Foundation of Virginia.

Kelly-Gagnon says that Oliver is the highest-profile fellow to become listed on the team and he has intends to continue expanding the business by 30-40 percent over the next 5 years. 

“I always insist that the first objective is not to develop, it’s to stay in keeping with ourselves and also to the style and voice that we’ve built,” he explained.

Financial Post

dvanderlinde@nationalpost.com

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