Montmarquette named to Order of Canada

By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com

Rideau Hall has announced that Pointe Claire resident Claude Montmarquette has been appointed to the Order of Canada.

The highly respected University of Montreal economics professor emeritus is president and chief executive officer of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations (CIRANO), where he heads its public policy research group.

In a statement, Governor General David Johnston fêted Prof. Montmarquette “for his contributions as an economist and researcher and for his pioneering work in experimental economics in Quebec.”

In 2005, Prof. Montmarquette was one of twelve signatories to the Pour un Québec lucide declaration, which outlined many of the challenges that Quebec continues to face.

It proposed lightening the province’s public debt load; much greater investment in education and training; unfreezing tuition fees; linking student’s university loan repayment to their income; encouraging Quebecers to master many languages; hiking Hydro Quebec rates in order to help reduce public debt; reforming the province’s tax system; creating a guaranteed minimum income; and fostering a greater openness toward the private sector.

Prof. Montmarquette has chaired four committees for the Government of Quebec, including on drug insurance and fees for public services.

He continues to influence public discourse at home and abroad: Last week, following the vice-regal announcement of his appointment to the Order of Canada, Prof. Montmarquette released an academic paper entitled How to prevent tax fraud?

The paper, which he co-authored with David Masclet and Nathalie Viennot-Briot, outlines how better tools to report tax evaders can potentially deter potential fraudsters.

“The mere threat of being accused is sufficient to increase the amount of income that people report for tax purposes,” Prof. Montmarquette concluded. “In our experience, compared to other approaches this results in 30% more tax being collected.”

Prof. Montmarquette has served on many other national and international committees, including for Statistics Canada’s National Statistics Committee and France’s economics professors recruiting committee.

His accomplishments earned him election to the Royal Society of Canada, an élite academic body whose members comprise the country’s finest intellectuals.