Summary of Recent Changes to Québec Poverty Reduction and Family Support Policies

Introduction

This paper summarises measures related to a variety of social programs in Quiébec contained in two recent documents:

1) the 2004-2005 Budget tabled in the National Assembly on March 30th, 2004;
2) the Action Plan made public on April 2nd, 2004, by the Minister of Employment, Social
Solidarity and Family Welfare.

Because the vast majority of the measures contained in the Budget that relate directly or indirectly to poverty reduction, welfare reform and support to families and children, are included in the Action Plan, this latter document is the focus of this report. All of the relevant Budget measures are nevertheless discussed in this report, including those that do not appear in the Action Plan.

A reminder that, in December 2002, Québec’s National Assembly unanimously adopted Bill 112, an Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. This piece of enabling legislation basically defined general principles while obligating the government to table an action plan stating how it intends to attain the objectives described in the law. The tabling of the Action Plan was delayed because of the change in government brought about by the April 2003 election. However, shortly after the election, the MESSF Minister reiterated his government’s commitment to implement the most urgent provisions of Bill 112 within a year: a) a baseline threshold; b) an indexing of benefits; c) free medication. A few weeks later, the same minister unveiled a "new philosophy" within the MESSF, one centred on speedy support of new applicants without job constraints combined with a hard-line, coercive approach to individuals deemed able to work and receiving welfare benefits who refuse to follow training courses or accept a job. The Minister also foresaw saving $188M by the reintegration into the labour market of 25,500 people receiving social assistance as well as an additional $20M by a more rigorous application of penalties. None of these quantitative results was even remotely reached in the year since then and even the best new applicants still face a minimum six-week delay before meeting with an Emploi-Québec employment counsellor.

Complete document

pdf Summary of Recent Changes to Québec Poverty Reduction and Family Support Policies William A. Ninacs 2004

William A. Ninacs, Summary of Recent Changes to Québec Poverty Reduction and Family Support Policies, Ottawa, Caledon Institute of Social Policy, 20 pages, 2004