Education Minister Yves Bolduc has made many slips of the tongue lately. However, the one that created the worst outcry actually highlighted a severe defect in institutional book-buying in Quebec. (Image: Oolong/Foter/BY NC-SA)

In late August, in the midst of school board austerity measures, he declared that schools could do without buying more books. He later apologized and promised to review school board budgets so they could meet government promises to spend $15 million annually.

However, Bolduc failed to mention how inefficiently the book budget is spent. Economist Vincent Geloso reminded people that every single provincial public institution – schools, colleges, hospitals, etc. – is governed by the Loi sur le développement des entreprises québécoises dans le domaine du livre. 

This law compels the institutions to buy only from “licensed” bookstores. Licences are only available to businesses whose main centre of operation is in Quebec or whose board members live in Quebec. The books can only be obtained at the “regular price” within the local administrative region and must be bought from at least three separate bookstores (i.e. with different owners). People violating these articles of the law can be fined up to $1,000 for a first offence; institutions can be fined up to $6,000.

In other words, bookstores in such sparsely populated regions as Gaspésie and Côte-Nord hit the jackpot with this law since they have an effective oligopoly over institutional book selling. But even buyers in such densely populated areas as Quebec City and Montreal are at a disadvantage since they can’t bargain for a lower price. Geloso says that they can’t even accept free books – he tried offering copies of his book to the Archives Nationales and to the libraries of his hometown, but he had to sell them instead.

This is yet another real-life parallel to the Candlemakers’ Petition, the most famous satire of protectionism. In this case, the “candlemakers” are bookstores, and the “sun” is any competition not based in Quebec, including online booksellers.

This law is not just archaic; it also creates a tremendous opportunity cost. Indeed, when money is spent buying full-cost new books, less money is left to buy rarer books or for librarians. Geloso heard archivists complain often on that subject during his research.

So if minister Bolduc really wants to help struggling school boards, he needs to abrogate the Loi sur le développement rather than pouring in more money. Then they can find the cheapest books available, or even obtain a full-fledged e-library that doesn’t carry any physical books.