Pacte pour l'emploi (Employment Pact) One billion dollars over three years to improve participation in the labour market and productivity Announced March 18, 2008 The Pacte pour l'emploi contains several new elements, and the entire approach is based on a mobilization of all labour market partners. This pact revolves around four pillars and contains a series of means and measures. Pacte pour l'emploi website (French only) Source: Government of Quebec Related links: Quebec wants to coax people off welfare March 19, 2008 Faced with a growing labour shortage, the Quebec Liberal government introduced measures to get more people off social assistance and working in budding industries. Source: CBC *********************** NOTE : the CBC article above states that "about 183,000 Quebecers are currently on welfare, including 20,000 under 25." This is incorrect --- those figures represent only those welfare clients who are able-bodied and employable. The total number of welfare recipients in Quebec in January 2008 was 488, 013. [ Source: http://www.mess.gouv.qc.ca/telecharger.asp?fichier=/publications/pdf/stat_012008.pdf ] *********************** Quebec pledges nearly $1-billion to boost work force By Rheal Seguin March 19, 2008 QUEBEC — The Quebec government is turning to welfare recipients and the unemployed to fill the huge gap in the province's labour shortage. Source: Globe and Mail

Ministries and Documents

National Assembly of Quebec
HOME PAGE
- incl. links to : Members - Parliamentary Proceedings - Organization and Proceedings

Emploi et Solidarité sociale - Employment and Social Solidarity

French only:
Rapport annuel de gestion 2011-2012 du ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (PDF - 3.2MB, 202 pages)

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The Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS) is responsible for the welfare program in Québec.
You can find all key links to welfare information a bit further up on the page you're now reading, in the grey text box on the right side of the page.

General information
The social solidarity services offered by Emploi-Québec are attached to the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS). In keeping with the provisions of the Individual and Family Assistance Act, the agency is responsible for administering last-resort financial assistance programs.

Selected site content:

Taking the Measure of Poverty, Proposed indicators of poverty,
inequality and social exclusion to measure progress in Québec:
Advice to the Minister (PDF - 311K, 80 pages)
Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion
(Centre for the study of poverty and exclusion)
2009 (file dated September 21/09)
One of the mandates of the Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion is to propose, to the minister of Emploi et Solidarité sociale, measures and indicators of poverty, inequality and social exclusion to measure progress in Québec in the implementation of the Act to combat poverty and social exclusion. This advice is a first proposition in that direction.
[ more reports by CEPE ]
Source:
Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion (English home page)
The Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion (CEPE) is an observation, research and discussion centre entrusted with providing reliable and rigourous information, notably of a statistical nature, on poverty and social exclusion issues. (...) One of the main mandates of the CEPE is to develop and recommend to the Minister a series of indicators to be used in measuring poverty and social exclusion and social and economic disparities, as well as other indicators of poverty.

February 8th, 2007
Social Assistance Program and Social Solidarity Program
The mini brochure “Last-resort financial assistance programs and liquid assets” (cash and negotiable assets) is now available.
Brochure (PDF file - 271K, 15 pages)

February 7th, 2007
Statistics on employment-assistance recipients
Official employment-assistance statistics are available in the official databanks on the website of the Banque de données des statistiques officielles du gouvernement du Québec.

For more information on the new programs, see
The Individual and Family Assistance Act,
Social Assistance Program and Social Solidarity Program come into effect
Dec. 8, 2006

The Individual and Family Assistance Act, Social Assistance Program and Social Solidarity Program come into effect
December 8th, 2006
The Individual and Family Assistance Act, adopted by the National Assembly on June 15, 2005, will come into effect on January 1, 2007. This Act creates programs and measures promoting the economic and social autonomy of individuals and families through assistance and coaching. Two of the programs will also come into effect on January 1, 2007 and provide last-resort financial assistance to individuals and families lacking sufficient income to meet their essential needs. They are the Social Assistance Program and the Social Solidarity Program, which replaces the Employment-Assistance Program.

Main changes under the Individual and Family Assistance Act
New programs as of January 1, 2007 (PDF, 145K, 2 pages)

Source:
Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale<===this is the English home page of the Ministry
(Ministry of employment and social solidarity, responsible for welfare in Québec)

Related Link:

Liberals reinstate welfare penalties PQ abolished
Could lose $100 for living at home. Employment minister says move intended to 'permit people to get out of the house'
[no longer available online]
September 22, 2004
"Starting Jan. 1, Quebecers applying for social assistance will lose between $50 and $100 from their $540 monthly welfare cheque if they still live at home. Employment Minister Claude Bechard announced a series of changes aimed at saving the provincial government $44 million the first year and $220 million over five years. The measures aim to get people back to work if they are able to do so, he said."
Source:
Montreal Gazette

Québec's report to the UN Special Session on Children

Un Québec digne des enfants : le plan d’action pour les enfants (fichier PDF - 420Ko., 38 pages)
[NOTE: this document is available only in French. ]
Services à la famille
27 janvier 2005
Ce document fait suite à la Session extraordinaire des Nations Unies consacrée aux enfants qui s’est tenue à New York en mai 2002. À cette occasion, les États membres, dont le Canada, ont renouvelé leurs engagements de fixer de nouveaux objectifs afin de mieux soutenir les enfants.
Source:
Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (page d'accueil en français du Ministère)
Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (English home page of the Ministry)
Liens connexes:
Plan d'action national pour les enfants [du site de l'Agence de santé publique]
Les droits de l'enfant (une page de liens sur le site que vous visitez présentement)
Agence de santé publique (ministère du gouvernement fédéral)

Ministère de la Famille
[Ministry of the Family]

This Ministry's website is no longer available in English.

Régie des rentes - Quebec Pension Board

HOME PAGE

Site Map - complete site at a glance

The Régie des rentes du Québec is responsible for applying the Act respecting the Québec Pension Plan, the Supplemental Pension Plans Act and administering the family benefits program.
There are many programs that can be helpful at various stages in life: retirement, birth, death, etc.

* Québec Pension Plan

* Supplemental pension plans
* Family benefits
* Child assistance

Work Premium --- General information - Conditions - Amount of the work premium - Advance payments
Source:
Revenu Québec

Reducing IncomeTax (PDF file - 258K, 70 pages)
(from QC Budget 2004-2005)
March 2004
"The existing Parental Wage Assistance (PWA) program is being replaced with a Work Premium that will come into effect on January 1, 2005. This new Work Premium is aimed at low-and middle-income workers. It will be higher for families and of special benefit to young parents. The premium can be paid in advance to families. The premium will increase the employment income of a couple with children by 25%, up to a maximum premium of $2 800 for an employment income of $14 800. The Work Premium will benefit roughly 536 000 low- and middle-income households, including 200 000 families with children. The Work Premium will provide a greater incentive to work and help
people get off social assistance."

Selected site content:

Children
If you have any dependent children under age 18, you may be entitled to child assistance, that is, the child assistance payment or if applicable, the supplement for handicapped children. If you or your spouse were to die, your children could be eligible for an orphan's pension. If you or your spouse become disabled, your children could be eligible for a pension for a disabled person's child.

Child Assistance
Since January 2005, the new child assistance measure has replaced family allowances, the non-refundable tax credit for dependent children and the tax reduction for families.

Source:
Régie des rentes du Québec (English home page)

Santé et Services sociaux - Health and Social Services

HOME PAGE

Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec - (English) - Quebec Health Insurance Board

From the CBC:

Task force urges more private health care in Quebec
February 19, 2008
A provincial task force is recommending health-care user fees and greater privatization to guarantee the viability of medical care in Quebec.The task force, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister Claude Castonguay, calls for a shakeup of principles guiding medical care in Quebec to control spiralling costs.

Quebec report raises union private health-care fears
February 18, 2008
Quebec's largest labour federation is worried an impending report on health-care financing will clear the way for two-tiered care, allowing private services at the expense of the public system.
TIP: this page contains links to three more articles, under "Related".

More media coverage of the Castonguay report (from Google.ca)
Le rapport Castonguay sur le financement du système de santé québécois (liens médiatiques de Google.ca)

From the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):

Shelve Castonguay, support medicare
February 20, 2008
A Québec government-sponsored report calling for radical privatization of the health care system came out this week just as the federal government proved once again that they're not willing to enforce their own laws on public health care. The Castonguay report's recommendations read like a laundry list for privatized health care.

Secrétariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes  - Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat

HOME PAGE

Québec's Historical Position on the Federal Spending Power 1944-1998 (PDF file - 160K, 42 pages)
July 1998

Québec's Positions on Constitutional and Intergovernmental Issues from 1936 to march 2001

Other [English] Institutional and constitutional documents

Relations internationales - International Affairs

HOME PAGE
Check out this impressive collection of information about Quebec (history, language, social and economic profiles, relations with Canada and the rest of the world, etc.)

Institut de la statistique du Québec - Québec statistical institute

HOME PAGE
"The Institut is the central authority for the production and dissemination of statistical information for the government departments and bodies (except information produced for administrative purposes). The Institut is responsible for the carrying out of statistical surveys of general interest. The mission of the Institut is to provide reliable and objective statistical information on the situation of Québec as regards all aspects of Québec society for which such information is pertinent."

Browse or Search Official Statistics of Québec
On this page, you can do a regular keyword search for Québec statistics, or you can browse by theme --- click on one of the themes (Economic Structure - Society - Territory - The Economy and Finance) in the left column on the browse/search page and the list expands to show several sub-topics. For example, if you click Society, the list expands to seven sub-topics, including Families, Households and Living Conditions. To continue with this example, clicking on this sub-topic expands that list to six more topics, including Income and Expenditure and Social Programs. Links to these two sections are presented below as samples of the rich content of this site

Income - Québec data ("Income and Expenditure")
- incl. links to 30+ statistical reports under the following topics: Average Family Unit Income - Average Personal Income - Distribution by Income Group - Distribution by Quintiles - Gini Coefficient - Low Income Units

Social assistance (welfare) statistics
(Click on Society ===> Families, Households and Living Conditions ===> Social Programs)
[Note: some of the content in the tables is in French only. The "Definitions" button (near the top of the page) offers some information in English; you can use the "Request for Information" button (also near the top of the page) to submit a specific request to the website contact en anglais. - or you can try Google.ca's free translation service ]
- incl. links to recent reports on the number of households and individuals participating in the social assistance (welfare) Program. These reports are organized by administrative region, by family situation, by sex, by age and by education, all of which are useful in monitoring how well the program works for various clienteles.
Here are some other interesting statistical analyses that you'll also find on this page:
- "additional income clientele" (clients declaring income from outside sources, e.g., almost 36,000 of a total 107,000 adults receiving welfare in Quebec declared income from work in February 2004)
- number of adults receiving welfare, "according to cumulative-month period" (total number of months [continuous or not] in receipt of welfare)
- number of households receiving welfare, by type of residence (e.g., of the nearly 354,000 households [families/individuals] receiving Employment Assistance in February 2004, over 207,000 were either in rental accommodation or in social housing, while just over 20,000 were homeowners)

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Sample content from this site:
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Interprovincial Comparisons
(available in French only)*

HTML version - table of contents (see below) with links to small PDF files for each section
110 pages
February 2010

Recommended
--- key resource for Québec statistics *and* for statistics for other Canadian jurisdictions!

Abbreviated table of contents:
Demography - Immigration - Canadian Francophonie - Production - Income - Manpower - Investment - Interprovincial Trade - International Trade - Consumption - Inflation - Financial Market - Public Finance - Federal Government Transfers [ incl. Transfers from federal government to persons, 1997-2007 and Current transfers from federal government to provincial governments, 1997-2007 ] [bolding added] - Legislatures - Portraits (Canada - The rest of Canada - Provinces and territories)

[ earlier editions of this report back to 2005 - all in French only.]

* If you need help translating
table tags and footnotes, try http://translate.google.ca/

International Comparisons
- the most recent data on 235 countries and territories using 95 economic indicators, grouped by theme: population, labour force, consumer prices, exchange rates, gross domestic product (GDP), GDP by expenditure, GDP by industry, personal income, research and development expenditures, foreign investments, international trade.

Click the link above to read a word of caution about using the data, a summary analysis, economic profiles by country, etc.
Click the link below to go directly to the English PDF file containing the tables comparing all 235 countries and territories on each 95 indicators.

Report (English version):

Comparative Tables by Indicator (PDF - 535K, 109 pages)
March 25, 2010
- 235 countries and territories, 95 indicators

Source::
Databank of Official Statistics on Québec
(See "Living Conditions and Well-being" for other relevant stats)

[ Site français : Banque de données des statistiques officielles du Québec ]

Annuaire de statistiques sur
l’inégalité de revenu et le faible revenu, édition 2008 (PDF - 1.4MB, 190 pages)
[ annual statistics on income inequality and low income in Quebec, Ontario and Canada]
December 2008
---
NOTE: this report is available in French only.
Read the abstract below to get a sense of the content of this report, and then click the link above and use Google Language Tools to translate the text and tables for you.
---
Abstract:
The income inequality and low income of families and individuals are themes for which statistical information is necessary for society in general, and, in particular, for public policy makers. In fact, it is essential to observe the economic situation of the population in order to make social policies capable of reducing inequality and improving the fate of those less fortunate. To this end, this publication mainly presents a collection of some one hundred detailed tables, and provides figures on the historical evolution of the indicators commonly used to measure income inequality and low income. The statistics in these tables are based on different units of analysis (family units or persons) and on various income concepts (after-tax income, market income or total income). Their universes are defined geographically (Québec, the provinces and Canada, the administrative regions and the regional county municipalities of Québec) and sociodemographically (age, sex, education level, labour market participation, main source of income and family type). The publication includes an analysis that shows the evolution of the indicators since the last three decades and a guide on the concepts and methods used.

Table of contents (unofficial translation):
Chapter 1 - Analysis (income inequality, low income) [incl. comparison of Quebec, Ontario and Canada]
Chapter 2 - Data, definitions and methodological notes [incl. info about indicators of inequality and low income used in Quebec, Ontario and Canada]
Chapter 3 - Detailed tables on income inequality (35 tables) and low income (58 tables)
[Click the "Annuaire" link above to access the complete report.]

Related link:

Detailed Excel Tables on Income Inequality and Low Income
This web page makes available a collection of over 400 detailed statistical tables on income inequality and low income in Québec, the provinces, Canada, and in the regional county municipalities and administrative regions of Québec

Source:
Living Conditions and Well-being
- includes links to English descriptions of over two dozen reports (all in French only, but some with English highlights pages) filed under the following categories:
* Literacy * Inequality and Poverty * Day care * The Elderly * Social Data * Social Portrait * Spousal violence * Family violence
[ Publications by statistical sector ]
[ Institut de la statistique du Québec:
The mission of the Institut de la statistique du Québec is to provide reliable, relevant and objective statistical information on the socioeconomic evolution of Québec. It is also responsible for conducting statistical surveys of general interest. Thus, the Institut, via the production of quality statistics supporting the public debate, plays a preponderant role in Québec society. ]

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In 2006 disposable income for women was 76% of that for men versus 58% in 1981[dead link]
News Release
January 13, 2009
In 2006 disposable income for women was 76% of that for men: $22,840 versus $30,244. This is an improvement compared to 2000 when the ratio was 69%, and to 1981 with a ratio of 58%. The gap is narrowing due to the increase in women’s income (29%) during that period, since men’s income was substantially the same in 2006 as in 1981. In the group aged 25-44, women’s income was 84% of men’s. These results were taken from the 2009 edition of the publication Données sociales du Québec, released today by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
- includes more highlights from the report...

Données sociales du Québec. Édition 2009
January 2009
NOTE: this report is available in French only.
Read the highlights above, then scan the table of contents below.
If you find something you wish to examine,
you can use Google Language Tools to translate table headings and other text.
Each of the chapters below is downloadable as a PDF file by clicking the title link above,
or you can download the complete report in one PDF file (1.2MB, 235 pages)

Table of contents
(unofficial translation added in red):

Chapitre 1 Population, ménages et familles
(Population, households and families)
Chapitre 2 Santé : perceptions et comportements
(Perceptions and Behaviours)
Chapitre 3 Éducation, insertion en emploi et formation continue
(Education, labour force integration and ongoin training)
Chapitre 4 Travail et cycle de vie
(Work and life cycle)
Chapitre 5 Revenu et patrimoine
(Income and assets)
Chapitre 6 Faible revenu et inégalité
(Low income and income inequality)
Chapitre 7 Dépenses des ménages
(Household expenses)
Chapitre 8 Logement et transport
(Housing and transportation)
Chapitre 9 Tendances dans l’emploi du temps, 1986-2005
(Trends in time usage, 1986-2005)

Source:
Official Statistics : The Economy and Finance --- Economic Structure --- Society
[ Institut de la statistique du Québec ]

--------------------------------------------

Poverty and socioeconomic inequalities in Québec:
Recueil statistique sur la pauvreté et les inégalités socioéconomiques au Québec

NOTE: the press release for the Recueil is in both French and English, but the report itself is available only in French and in PDF format.
Use Google Language Tools to translate words, paragraphs and entire URLs.

Press Release [dead link]
February 7, 2006
A new research tool :
The Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale and the Institut de la statistique du Québec
unveil the Recueil statistique sur la pauvreté et les inégalités socioéconomiques au Québec
Québec, February 7, 2006 – The ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale and the Institut de la statistique du Québec unveiled today the Recueil statistique sur la pauvreté et les inégalités socioéconomiques au Québec. This collection contains the figures for poverty and socioeconomic inequalities and presents the evolution of the situation of persons and families living in poverty. The collection provides data on over twenty indicators calculated using different conceptual and methodological approaches. The large number of indicators available reflects both the multidimensional nature of poverty and social exclusion and the variety of approaches and calculation methods developed to evaluate these phenomena.
Some of these indicators give an idea of the low-income rates in Québec. The low income measure (LIM), which presents the evolution of the proportion of low-income families between 1986 and 2002, the most recent years of statistics available, and the regional data for 2003. Others make it possible to compare Québec to the rest of Canada, the portrait varying depending on the measure used. This collection is an excellent complement to Inventaire des indicateurs de pauvreté et d'exclusion sociale, which was published in November 2005 and gives a general overview of the myriad ways of defining and measuring poverty and social exclusion, while presenting the advantages and disadvantages of each indicator inventoried. It targets all persons, practitioners and organizations interested in the issues of poverty and social exclusion.

Complete report / Recueil complet:

Recueil statistique sur la pauvreté et les inégalités socioéconomiques au Québec (fichier PDF - 461Ko, 135 pages)
Janvier 2006
- publié conjointement par l'Institut de la statistique du Québec et le Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

--------------------------------------------

New publication groups together poverty indicators [dead link]
Press Release
November 10, 2005
"The Institut de la statistique du Québec presents, in collaboration with the ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, the Inventaire des indicateurs de pauvreté et d'exclusion sociale. This publication inventories the various indicators that define and measure poverty. (...) Over 67 indicators and indices have been listed in three chapters: 32 of them are poverty and social exclusion indicators, 29 are related to poverty and social exclusion, and 6 are social development indices. The inventory has two objectives: first, to cover all aspects of poverty and the various angles from which it can be examined. It also aims at opening new avenues by presenting not only the indicators that have already been calculated for Québec, but also those that are used elsewhere (elsewhere in Canada, Europe, the United States and Australia) and which could be used in future compilations with a view to broadening the range of statistics available. Among the poverty and social exclusion indicators are various measures of poverty defined as insufficiency of income and its consequences."

NOTE: the complete report is available only in French,
but you can use the Google Language Tool to translate words, paragraphs or even entire pages of text. Try it!!

Complete report:

Inventaire des indicateurs de pauvreté et d'exclusion sociale (464K, 95 pages)
November 10, 2005
Table of Contents (unofficial translation):
Chapter 1 - Indicators of poverty and social exclusion: Measures (covering 14 different indicators) - Depth of poverty - Persistence of poverty - Links with governmental transfers - Inequality - Living conditions
Chapter 2 - Indicators related to poverty and social exclusion: Family wealth and income - Household expenses - Employment - Food security - Housing - Health - Education
Chapter 3 - Social development indices
- includes eight tables showing various low income thresholds for Quebec, Canada and the U.S.

--------------------------------------------

Aspects of the Context and Consequences of Domestic Violence
- Situational Couple Violence and Intimate Terrorism in Canada in 1999
(PDF file - 397K, 21 pages)
May 2005
"The first five sections of this paper present a brief summary of certain results contained in a 2003 report on the prevalence of domestic violence in Quebec and in Canada, based on data from the 1999 General Social Survey (GSS). The remaining sections describe and discuss the context and consequences of domestic violence in more detail, following the typology of domestic violence suggested by Michael P. Johnson (1995), making the distinction between Situational Couple Violence and Intimate Terrorism. Separate tables are presented for victims of current spouse/partner, for victims of a previous spouse/partner and for victims of a current or a previous spouse/partner, by severity of violence and sex of victim."

The report published in 2003 is available (in French only) at the following address :
http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/publications/conditions/violence_h-f99_pdf.htm

Finance

HOME PAGE

2013-2014 Budget - Government of Québec
November 20, 2012
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/budget/2013-2014/index_en.asp
- includes Budget at a Glance and links to all budget documents (all of which appear below)

Budget Speech (PDF - 40 pages, 710 Kb)
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Speech.pdf

2013-2014 Budget Plan (PDF - 484 pages, 2.34 Mb)
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/budgetplan.pdf

Budget at a Glance (PDF - 12 pages, 3.50 Mb)
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/BudgetGlance.pdf

Charts (PDF - 8 pages, 583 Kb)
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Graph_en.pdf

Budget paper : Investing for our prosperity (PDF - 84 pages, 903 Kb)
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Investing.pdf

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2013-2014 Budget Press releases (small PDF files):

* A Government Close to Families
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Communique_1en.pdf
Highlights:
--- A new progressive and fair health contribution
--- 4.4 million Quebecers will not pay the health contribution or will see their tax burden decrease.
--- Cancellation of the increase in the price of heritage electricity
--- Refundable tax credit for physical, artistic and cultural activities for young people
--- Creation of 28 000 new reduced-contribution childcare spaces by 2016-2017
--- 3 000 social, community affordable housing units will be built

* A Government that Takes Action by Focusing on Private Investment
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Communique_2en.pdf

* A Balanced Budget in 2013-2014
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Communique_3en.pdf

* Improving Management of Infrastructure Spending and Reducing the Debt Load
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2013-2014/en/documents/Communique_4en.pdf

Source:
Ministère des Finances (English Home Page)
http://www.finances.gouv.qc.ca/en/index.asp

-----------------------------------

The PQ budget : Analysis by Mathieu Dufour
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2012/11/23/the-pq-budget/
November 23, 2012
On Tuesday, November 20th, the Parti Québécois released its first budget since taking office. This budget was widely anticipated in view of the many fiscal promises the PQ had made during the campaign, most of which where fairly progressive in nature. In the end, the exercise was (aptly) described by Marc Van Audenrode, who followed the proceedings and interviewed with Radio-Canada, as a “non-event”. For all intents and purposes, the budget could have been delivered by a liberal government… and certainly, given its content, there was no need to rush things ahead of the usual spring schedule.

Source:
Progressive Economics Forum
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/relentless/

-----------------------------------

TD Bank Economics
Analysis of the 2013 Quebec Budget:

A String of Budgetary Balances Forecast for
the Province of Québec (small PDF file)
http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/budgets/qu2013.pdf
November 20, 2012
Today’s budget was the first to be tabled under the new provincial government led by Premier Pauline Marois. Initial media reports had labelled the release as a rare fall budget, but in actuality, the Québec government is the first out of the gate for the 2013 budget season.

Source:
2012 Federal and Provincial Budgets
http://www.td.com/economics/analysis/canada/public-policy-government-finances/gov-finances.jsp
[ TD Economics
http://www.td.com/economics/analysis/economics-index.jsp]

------------------------------------

Related links:

The PQ Budget
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2012/11/23/the-pq-budget/
By Mathieu Dufour
November 23, 2012
On Tuesday, November 20th, the Parti Québécois released its first budget since taking office. This budget was widely anticipated in view of the many fiscal promises the PQ had made during the campaign, most of which where fairly progressive in nature. In the end, the exercise was (aptly) described by Marc Van Audenrode, who followed the proceedings and interviewed with Radio-Canada, as a “non-event”. For all intents and purposes, the budget could have been delivered by a liberal government… and certainly, given its content, there was no need to rush things ahead of the usual spring schedule.
Source:
Progressive Economics Blog
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/relentless/

---

Opposition parties to oppose PQ budget
Quebec budget focuses on curbing spending
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/11/20/parti-quebecois-budget-2012-quebec-government.html
November 20, 2012
The Parti Québécois' new budget failed to impress provincial opposition parties Tuesday, who say they will oppose it, raising the possibility that the recently elected minority government of Pauline Marois could be toppled. (...) Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau called his first budget a responsible plan for the province’s economic future. (...) The $72.4-billion budget doesn’t contain any drastic changes in spending or tax collection, but it does hitch its plans to less stable sources: wealthy Quebecers and big industry. It also proposes strict limits on spending hikes. The province plans to cap its spending increase at 1.8 per cent in 2013-2014. That represents the lowest budgeted growth rate in the last 14 years. It’s a dramatic reining-in that was made necessary by the Parti Québécois's determination to fund key priority areas, while attempting to appease the opposition and eliminate the deficit by the target of spring 2014.
Source:
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news

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Quebec 2013-2014 budget highlights
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Quebec+2013+2014+budget+highlights/7584766/story.html
November 21, 2012
By Kevin Dougherty
Source:
Montreal Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/

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PQ revives old-style government direction of industry
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/11/21/william-watson-why-no-jobs-here/
November 21, 2012
By William Watson
Source:
Financial Post
http://www.financialpost.com/

Treasury Board

HOME PAGE

Education

HOME PAGE

Justice

HOME PAGE

Revenu

HOME PAGE
The role of Revenu Québec is essential for the government. It is the source of funds required for government operations and most public services

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Québec Solidarity Tax Credit
http://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citoyen/credits/solidarite/default.aspx
On July 1, 2011, the solidarity tax credit took effect, thereby replacing the QST credit, the property tax refund and the credit for individuals living in northern villages.

---

Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission

HOME PAGE

Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (PDF)

Youth Protection

Protecteur du citoyen (Quebec Ombudsman)

HOME PAGE

Quebec Housing Corporation

Société d'habitation du Québec

HOME PAGE
"The Société d'habitation du Québec is the Québec government’s principal advisor on habitat issues, and falls under the authority of Jean-Marc Fournier, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Sport and Leisure. The SHQ prepares and implements policies and programs in the housing sector, and is also responsible for the largest social housing inventory in Québec."

Site Map

Programs and services - List by clients
Native communities - Housing industry - Tenants - Low- or moderate-income household - Municipalities - Community organizations - Seniors - Disabled people - Owners

Programs and services - List in alphabetical order
AccèsLogis Québec program - Affordable Housing Québec program/ Private component - Affordable Housing Québec program/ Kativik component - Affordable Housing Québec program / Social and community component - Assistance Program for Community Housing Organizations - Assistance for the Owners of Houses with Cracked Foundations - Assistance Program for the Owners of Residential Buildings Damaged by Pyrite - Community and Social Initiatives in Low Rental Housing - Development Support Program for Québec's Housing Industry - Emergency Repair Program - Financial assistance program for the owners of houses exposed to radon gas emissions - Home Adaptation for Seniors' Independence - Home Ownership for Residents of the Kativik Region - Home Renovation Program for Owner-occupiers in the Kativik Region - Low-rental housing - Residential Adaptation Assistance Program - Renovation Québec - RénoVillage program - Rent Supplement - Shelter Allowance Program

Shelter Allowance Program ("Allocation logement")
The Shelter Allowance Program is a financial assistance program (max. $80/mo.) designed to help low-income households that are forced to spend too much of their budget on rent. Program clientele includes households with at least one person 55 years of age or over and families with at least one dependent child.

Directeur Général des élections (Chief Electoral Officer - English home page)

Non-governmental sites

Vital Signs
http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/home
Vital Signs is a community check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada. It measures the vitality of our communities, identifies major trends, and assigns grades in a range of areas critical to our quality of life. Vital Signs is coordinated nationally by Community Foundations of Canada. More than 30 community foundations are involved in Vital Signs program – either producing a report or acting on the findings of previous reports.

Indicators used in the report:
* Arts & culture * Belonging & engagement * Economy * Environmental sustainability * Health & Wellness * Housing * Learning * Safety * Sports & recreation * Standard of living * Transportation

Vital Signs 2012 : Local Reports
http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/localreports
NOTE : Includes links to previous years' editions of Vital Signs (back to 2007)

The following cities and towns have released (or will release) Vital Signs reports in 2012:
* Victoria --- http://www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/vital-signs/victoria
* Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve Region --- http://clayoquotbiosphere.org/web/vital-signs/
* Sunshine Coast --- http://sccfoundation.com/vitalsigns/
* Calgary --- http://www.thecalgaryfoundation.org/initiatives/vital-signs/calgary-s-vital-signs
* Medicine Hat --- http://cfsea.ca/vital-signs/
* Winkler --- http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/local-19-winkler-s-vital-signs
* London --- http://www.lcf.on.ca/initiatives/london-vital-signs
* Waterloo Region --- http://www.kwcf.ca/vital_signs
* Toronto --- https://tcf.ca/torontos-vital-signs
* Hamilton --- http://hamiltonvitalsigns.ca/
* Burlington --- http://www.burlingtonfoundation.org/vital-signs
* Sudbury --- http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/local-18-greater-sudbury-s-vital-signs
* Kingston --- http://www.cfka.org/vital-signs-2012
* Montreal --- http://www.signesvitauxmontreal.ca/en/
* Halifax --- http://www.cfns.ca/pages/contact.html

More information about Vital Signs:
http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/about

English media coverage
of the 2012 Québec election:

---------------------------------------

Director-General of Elections Québec
http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/english/index.php
- incl. links to info for:
* Electors * Candidates and political parties * Official agents or representatives * Media * Teachers and students * Researchers * International and electoral experts

---

Québec Votes 2012
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/quebecvotes/index.html

Source:
Montreal Gazette
[ http://www.montrealgazette.com/ ]

---

CBC Election 2012
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/

Source:
CBC Montreal
[ http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/ ]

---

Vote Compass
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/features/votecompass.html
Vote Compass is an educational tool developed by political scientists.
Answer a short series of questions to discover how you fit in the Quebec political landscape.
NOTE: you don't have to be from Quebec to try the Vote Compass.
I'm from Ontario, and, according to my Vote Compass answers, I'd vote for the Green Party.
<Probably because the NDP has no provincial party in Quebec...>

Timeline : the campaign day by day
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/features/timeline/

Are Albertans really paying for Quebec’s social programs?
http://cwf.ca/commentaries/are-albertans-really-paying-for-quebec-s-social-programs
April 20, 2012
By Michael Holden
Student protests in Quebec have triggered a curious response from some observers. Appalled that Quebecers have the audacity to protest tuition fees rising from the lowest in the country to possibly the second-lowest, they opine that the only reason Quebec can afford such fees in the first place is on the back of the Alberta taxpayer. As the narrative goes, Quebec’s low tuition, $7-a-day daycare and other generous social programs are all being paid for by hard-working Albertans who could only dream of affording such luxuries themselves. This story appeals to Albertans convinced that Ottawa and Quebec are stealing our wealth, but this is simply not the case.

Source:
Canada West Foundation(CWF)
http://cwf.ca/
Author Michael Holden is the Senior Economist at the Canada West Foundation. CWF is the only think tank dedicated to being the objective, nonpartisan voice for issues of vital concern to Western Canadians.

From The Media Co-op:

Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement
http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/ten-points-everyone-should-know-about-quebec-student-movement/10896
May 14, 2012
By Andrew Gavin Marshalll

This article was originally published at: http://www.andrewgavinmarshall.com

The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context.

The ten points:

1) The issue is debt, not tuition
2) Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent
3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims
4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon
5) Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and “fascist” tactics to be used against the students
6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students
7) The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students
8) Canada’s elites punish the people and oppose the students
9) The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students
10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power

Source:
The Media Co-op
http://www.mediacoop.ca/

From the
Montreal Gazette:

Quebec's $7 daycare: the Alberta take vs. the truth
Ignore the Wildrose Line about subsidizing Quebec.
Our [QC's] affordable daycare has been a boon for provincial and federal coffers [dead link]
By Janet Bagnall
April 19, 2012
Alberta is on the march and Quebec is in its sights. Last week, a newspaper columnist demanded to know: “Will Albertans stand up to Quebec?” Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith, for one, intends to do just that. (...) A complaint about the unfairness of having to pay for Quebec’s luxury social programs – $7-a-day daycare, more medical coverage and low-cost tuition – is written right into the Wildrose platform.
(...)
Instead of wishing Quebec’s $7-a-day daycare system an early death, Alberta would do better to breathe some life into one of its own. Our subsidized system doesn’t cost Quebec, the federal government or any other province a dime. It is fully self-sufficient, bringing in more money than it costs in subsidies.

Last week, a paper put out by the Université de Sherbrooke’s research chair on fiscal policy and public finances [ http://goo.gl/UDquv (French only) PDF - 375K, 34 pages] showed that for every $100 the province put in, it got back $104. The federal government made out like a bandit, getting an extra $43 for putting in exactly $0.

Source:
Montreal Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/

---

See also:

Are Albertans really paying for Quebec’s social programs?
http://cwf.ca/commentaries/are-albertans-really-paying-for-quebec-s-social-programs
April 20, 2012
(...)The bottom line is that Albertans contribute more to confederation because our economy is strong. Someone earning $100,000 pays more taxes than someone earning $50,000. Alberta is simply home to more 6-figure salaries. Because of that wealth, the Alberta government could afford to provide social services that would make Quebec’s seem miserly by comparison. But Albertans have chosen a different path. If Quebecers wish to keep tuition low, enjoy $7-a-day daycare while paying high taxes that risk discouraging economic growth, that’s their decision to make. Besides, would you want to trade places?

Source:
Canada West Foundation
http://cwf.ca/

From
Huffington Post Canada:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Canada Income Inequality: Living In Unequal Cities A Health Risk To Rich And Poor, Study Finds
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/28/canada-income-inequality-health-risk_n_1109923.html
November 28, 2011
As Canada’s rich-poor divide deepens, critics often point to the tome of research linking income inequality and poor health in countries like the United States as proof that, if unchecked, the growing gap could quite literally make us sick. But new evidence brings the warning much closer to home. Looking exclusively at the Canadian-born population, a pioneering study has found that the income differential is already having an adverse effect on the health of residents in cities with the widest gap, increasing the likelihood of succumbing to everything from alcohol abuse to colorectal cancer – regardless of individual income.

Income Gap Leads To Health Problems For Montrealers
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/28/income-inequality-montreal-life-expectancy_n_1117148.html
November 28, 2011
Socio-economic inequality continues to have a profound impact on health and access to services in Montreal, including subsidized daycare, according to a new report by the city's public health agency. The report released Monday highlights the gap between rich and poor when it comes to life expectancy and health.

The report:

Inégalités sociales de santé
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/media/dossiers_de_presse/inegalites_sociales_de_sante.html
NOTE: As at December 1, the above link will take you to the French page for this report and related links. There is a notation that "the complete English version will be available shortly." Currently on the site, there is an English version of the synthesis report (see the next link below).

Social Inequalities in Montréal : Progress to Date
2011 Report of the Director of Public Health
Synthesis Report (PDF - 7.5MB, 40 pages)
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/4_Espace_media/Dossiers_de_presse/iss/en_rapport_synthese_2011_final.pdf

Director of Public Health (English home page):
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/english_version.html
NOTE: With the exception of a few reports and press releases, there's not much content en anglais on this site. I find it bizarre that in Canada's largest and arguably most cosmopolitan city, the government can't find the resources to make everything available in both official languages. This criticism isn't directed at Montreal City Hall --- the website belongs to the Government of Québec. And here's the Québec government's rationale, copied from the English home page of this site: "As health professionals practicing in Quebec are required to have good command of the French language, this site is in French."
[The language police have spoken.]

---------------------------

Version française:

Inégalités sociales de santé
En 1998, le premier rapport annuel de la Direction de santé publique de Montréal faisait état d’une différence de dix ans entre l’espérance de vie moyenne des hommes des quartiers montréalais défavorisés par rapport à leurs concitoyens des quartiers riches. Une décennie s’est écoulée depuis ce premier portrait de l’état de santé des Montréalais et le temps est maintenant venu de mesurer le chemin parcouru. Les inégalités sociales de santé sont donc au cœur du rapport 2011 du directeur de santé publique.
- liens vers le rapport complet, le rapport synthèse, un résumé, un communiqué de presse et une présentation Powerpoint de la conférence de presse

Source:
Directeur de santé publique de Montréal (page d'accueil en français)
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/

Young parents squeezed for time and money, report finds
A University of British Columbia study found that it's much more expensive to raise a family than it was a generation ago.
October 18, 2011
By Andrea Gordon
Canadian parents are raising children with far less money and time than their baby boomer predecessors, despite the doubling of the Canadian economy since 1976, says a report from the University of British Columbia. At the same time, Canadians approaching retirement are wealthier than ever before, setting up an intergenerational tension that threatens young families, according to the study, released Tuesday.
Source:
Toronto Star

The report:

Does Canada work for all generations?
By Paul Kershaw and Lynell Anderson
October 18, 2011

National Summary (PDF - 814K, 4 pages) / (Version française - format PDF)
Fact Sheet

Excerpt from
the national summary report:
Canada is not currently working for all generations. There is a silent generational crisis occurring in homes across the country, one we neglect because Canadians are stuck in stale debates. My colleagues and I hope the 2011 Family Policy Reports for all provinces will refocus public dialogue on one of the most pressing social and economic issues of our time: Canada has become a far more difficult place to raise a family.

---

Provincial Family Policy Reports:
NOTE: The provincial files below are in
PDF format; each file is just under 2MB and 22 pages in length.

* Alberta
* British Columbia
* Manitoba
* Newfoundland and Labrador
* New Brunswick
* Nova Scotia
* Ontario
* Prince Edward Island

* Quebec

* Saskatchewan

Related resources:

* New Deal for Families blog
* YouTube video "New Deal for Families"

Source:
Human Early Learning Partnership
The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary research network, based at the University of British Columbia. HELP’s unique partnership brings together many scientific viewpoints to address complex early child development (ECD) issues. HELP connects researchers and practitioners from communities and institutions across B.C., Canada, and internationally.
[ University of British Columbia ]

Conference on poverty reduction and poverty measurement
in Canada and the world:

Social Statistics, Poverty and Social Exclusion:
Perspectives from Quebec, Canada and Abroad
International conference
November 30 - December 2, 2011
Montreal
[Simultaneous translation in French and English.]
The main objective of this international conference is to take stock of the state of current research and identify knowledge gaps:
* How can poverty data be used to compare the situation in different industrialized nations?
* What are the scope and the limitations of such comparisons?
* How can we define the main dimensions and develop appropriate indicators of social exclusion?
* How can we develop process indicators that will allow us to recognize situations of exclusion?
* How can social statistics be used to study the influencing factors and the consequences of all dimensions of poverty?
* How can statistics be used to study the financial and social cost of poverty, material deprivation, the use of rights, life courses and solutions?
* How can we use statistics to build a score card that accounts for all those dimensions to evaluate the outcomes of the Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion?

Preliminary program (PDF - 805K, 6 pages)

Conference Themes
1: Interprovincial and International Comparisons of Poverty: indicators and data sources
2: Influencing Factors and Consequences of Poverty
3: Dimensions of Social Exclusion
4: Recent Developments and future perspectives

Organizing Institutions:
* Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics
* Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

- Go to the Poverty Measures - Canadian Resources page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/poverty.htm

Child-care program pays for itself, Montreal economist says
By Laurie Monsebraaten
June 21, 2011
TORONTO — Governments that say they can’t afford to invest in affordable child care are wrong, says a Montreal economist who is releasing a new analysis of Quebec’s popular $7-a-day program Wednesday. After 12 years, the Quebec scheme more than pays for itself through mothers’ annual income and consumption taxes, says Pierre Fortin, an economics professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal. For every dollar Quebec invests, it recoups $1.05 while Ottawa receives a 44-cent windfall, he says. “The argument can no longer be that governments cannot afford it. This program is paying for itself. It is self-financing. That is the main finding,” says Fortin, who is in Toronto to attend an economic forum on child care at the Ontario Institute for Child Studies. Quebec introduced publicly-funded all-day kindergarten for 5-year-olds in 1997 with $5-a-day after-school care in every school where families requested it.
Source:
Toronto Star

At Home/Chez Soi
[ Version française du site ]
The At Home/Chez Soi research demonstration project is investigating mental health and homelessness in five Canadian cities: Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. A total of 2285 homeless people living with a mental illness will participate. 1,325 people from that group will be given a place to live, and will be offered services to assist them over the course of the initiative. The remaining participants will receive the regular services that are currently available in their cities. As of February, 2011 - over 1,600 people have become project participants, and over 700 now have homes. The overall goal is to provide evidence about what services and systems could best help people who are living with a mental illness and are homeless. At the same time, the project will provide meaningful and practical support for hundreds of vulnerable people.

What's happening in each of the five participating cities?

Moncton: one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, with a shortage of services for Anglophones and Francophones.

Montreal: different mental health services provided to homeless people in Quebec.

Toronto: ethno-cultural diversity including new immigrants who are non-English speaking.

Winnipeg: urban Aboriginal population.

Vancouver: people who struggle with substance abuse and addictions.

Source:
Mental Health Commission of Canada

Naufragés des villes (available in French only)
Unofficial translation : Urban Castaways

Ten-part series starting January 24 (2012)about life on welfare in Montreal.
All programs in the series will be broadcast on Mondays at 8pm Eastern Time on RDI and re-broadcast on Saturdays at 9:30pm.
If you click on the program website link, you'll find a link to each episode after it's broadcast, so you can watch anytime on your computer.
If you understand French, I highly recommend the series, because there will be many comparisons throughout the ten programs between life on welfare in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada.
English abstract:
What exactly does it mean to be poor in Canada today?
We find out as two volunteers leave behind their status, résumé, network of friends and bank cards. Throughout the two-month experiment, they will have no financial resources except the $19 a day we provide them – the equivalent of welfare benefits for a person living alone. With handpicked experts and social workers watching and analyzing, their journey will be the main focus of a 10-episode series documenting their efforts to find housing, food, medical care, clothing, jobs . . . and deal with prejudice. Using hidden cameras and daily check-ins, we document their progress.
Source:
Radio-Canada (French home page)

PolitiquesSociales.net
The presentation of this website is in French, but it contains a large number of links to English websites and reports/studies on the subject of social policy in North America, European Union countries and South America.
The site was created and is maintained by Alain Noel and a team of researchers of the Université de Montréal.
Themes covered include : work and employment policies - work time - anti-poverty initiatives - income support (work, family) - social minima (welfare, minimum wage) - social economy and microcredit - social cohesion - responsible investment - debates - much more...
Countries covered include : Germany - Argentina - Brazil - Canada -Chile - Denmark - United States - France - Mexico - Netherlands - Quebec - United Kingdom - Sweden - European Union

----------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE to anglophones:
This resource is available in French only.
If you've never tried Google Language Tools [ http://www.google.ca/language_tools ], or haven't tried it in awhile, you'll be pleasantly surprised as I was with the quality of Google's machine translations. With Google Language Tools, you can copy and paste a URL (Internet address) into the "Translate a web page" box, or you can select, copy and paste text into the "Translate text" box, then specify the original and destination languages and then click "Translate".

Sample content from PolitiquesSociales.net:

Politics of Labor and Employment
Redundancies, relocation and zones
Working Time
Fight against poverty
Support income (work and family)
Minima social (welfare, minimum wage)
Social economy and microcredit
Social Cohesion
Responsible Investment
International Policy
Debates on social policies

Try it --- you'll like it.

Québec Provincial Election Resources
No set date for the next provincial election
Source:
Election Almanac
- complete coverage of federal, provincial and territorial elections in Canada including election results, public opinion polls, ridings and candidates, election news, electoral history, links, and more

- Go to the Political Parties and Elections Links in Canada (Provinces and Territories) page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_prov_terr.htm

Vital Signs reports released in 15 Canadian cities
October 5, 2010
Vital Signs is part of a growing nation-wide initiative by Canadian community foundations to measure quality of life and take action to improve it.
On October 5, fifteen local Vital Signs report cards were released by community foundations across Canada.

* Foundation of Greater Montreal : Vital Signs 2010

* National Report:
Canada's Vital Signs 2010 (October 2010)

Source:
Vital Signs
Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our communities, identifies trends, and shares opportunities for action in at least ten areas critical to quality of life. Since Toronto's first Vital Signs publication, the Report has been adopted by 16 communities across Canada and is now conducted nationally by Community Foundations of Canada.

Related link:

Community Foundations of Canada
We are the Canadian movement for community vitality, representing 174 Community Foundations across the country. Together, we help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work and play.

Rallies across Quebec call for more federal funding for homeless [dead link]
By Jan Ravensbergen
September 10, 2010
Advocacy groups rallied in five locations across Quebec yesterday to punctuate a push to more than double annual federal funding to combat homelessness in the province. Ottawa should boost the allocation of federal cash for such housing and other assistance to more than $50 million a year, Benoit Poirier, coordinator of the Reseau Solidarite Itinerance du Quebec, said after 300 boisterous demonstrators issued the Montreal component of the message outside federal offices in the downtown Guy Favreau Complex. (...) The most recent Quebec census of the homeless -conducted 13 years ago, in 1997 -pegged the figure for Montreal and Quebec City at 28,000 in total.

Source:
Montreal Gazette

Related link:

Homelessness resources in Quebec - from Homeless Nation [ "... the only website in the world created by and for the street community." ]

-------------------------------------

Éliminer la pauvreté : ce que peuvent faire les gouvernements [dead link]
(What governments can do to eliminate poverty)
April 17, 2008
In his presentation, Éliminer la pauvreté : ce que peuvent faire les gouvernements, Political Science Professor Alain Noël offers some interesting insights into poverty reduction/elimination in other countries and in Canada, with a special focus on Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador, the two provinces that already have a poverty reduction strategy in place. He also speaks about the recent resurgence of public interest in poverty reduction in Canada and on the world scene, and he suggests that the federal government needs to step up to the plate in terms of its poverty reduction efforts in areas such as Employment Insurance, income security for Canada's seniors, equalization, taxation and Aboriginal people.

Professor Noël's presentation (PDF - 316K, 9 pages) is available in French only.

Source:
Breakfast on the Hill Series (English home page)
NOTE: click the link above to access 46 presentations in the Breakfast on the Hill series, going right back to 1996.
[ Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences ]
The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, known as the Federation, is a membership-based organization that is made up of 66 scholarly associations, 73 universities and colleges and 7 affiliates, comprising more than 50,000 scholars, students and practitioners across Canada. Through its activities, the Federation strives to support and advance Canada's research in the humanities and social science, fields which are intrinsically important to the development of social, cultural and economic understanding, thus giving our society necessary tools to address the most complex of questions.

What's New from The Daily [Statistics Canada]:

City of Québec 1608-2008: 400 years of censuses [dead link]
by Gwenaël Cartier
June 2008
8 pages
Table of contents:
* The founding of Québec City
* Jean Talon conducts the first census
* The census of 1681
* Other censuses of the French regime
* Québec City under the British Empire
* Québec City, capital of Lower Canada
* The first censuses in the 19th century
* Decennial censuses
* The 1851 and 1861 censuses
* Confederation
* The 20th century
* The 21st century
* The municipal mergers of 2002
* The 2006 Census
* Québec City on its 400th anniversary
Source:
Canadian Social Trends, Number 85
[ Statistics Canada ]

Service Canada Regional Information:
Québec
This page provides information on region-specific services for Individuals, Business and Organizations.
Services include: Jobs * Financial Benefits * Employment Insurance * Taxes * Training and Careers * Identification Cards * Travel and Passports * Health * Consumer Information * Canada and the World * Environment and Resources * Economy * Public Safety * Culture and Recreation * Science and Technology.
Source:
Service Canada
Human Resources and Social Development Canada

The Dynamics of Welfare Participation in Québec (PDF file - 314K, 29 pages)
August 1998
by Jean-Yves Duclos, Bernard Fortin, Guy Lacroix and Hélène Roberge
Department of Economics and CRÉFA, Université Laval
Abstract
"Few studies have examined the dynamics of participation in welfare in Québec and elsewhere in Canada. This paper sheds some light on that important topic, which is crucial for the understanding of the features and of the effects of welfare programmes, and for the analysis of possible reforms. For this, we use a large representative sample of welfare participants between 1979 and 1993. We find that the majority of new spells last for less than one year. Nevertheless, that a large proportion of ongoing spells are of long duration. We estimate for instance that the 50% shortest spells account for only 10% of total welfare spending. Overall, single men leave welfare more rapidly than single women, young people faster than their elders, and more educated individuals sooner than the less educated. The welfare reform of 1989 appears to have reduced significantly the rate of exit among participants under 30. Returns onto welfare generally occur shortly after exit, and at a rate which diminishes rapidly with time. Finally, we propose a measure of welfare dependence which comes up being almost twice as large for single-parent families as for all other categories."

Source:
EconPapers
EconPapers use the RePEc bibliographic and author data, providing access to the largest collection of online Economics working papers and journal articles.

Éducaloi is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inform Quebecers of their rights and obligations by providing legal information in everyday language.

June 6, 2006
Study: Neighbourhood income, maternal education and birth outcomes in Quebec, 1991 to 2000 [dead link]
"Women with lower levels of education and those who live in poorer neighbourhoods are more vulnerable to adverse birth outcomes, according to a new study. The study, which examined all births in Quebec from 1991 through 2000, found that the mother's level of education and the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood in which she lived were associated with higher risks of pre-term birth, small-for-gestational age birth, stillbirth, neonatal death and post-neonatal death. The impacts of maternal education were stronger than those of neighbourhood income, and were independent of neighbourhood income, according to the study.(...) The study "Effect of neighbourhood income and maternal education on birth outcomes: A Population-based study" published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, is a collaboration of Statistics Canada, the University of Montréal, and McGill University. The full text of the article is available free, in English only, at (http://www.cmaj.ca).
Source:
Statistics Canada

Observatoire montréalais des inégalités sociales et de la santé - English Home Page
(Montreal observatory of social inequality and health) - "Research network to Fight Poverty"
- An Initiative of the Montreal Public Health Department
- incl. links to : What's New - About OMISS - OMISS's Activities - Statistics - Research/Teaching - Calendar - Reference Material - Centre d'études sur les inégalités sociales de santé de Montréal (CÉISM)

More of the Same?
The Position of the Four Largest Canadian Provinces in the World of Welfare Regimes [dead link]
November 5, 2004
by Paul Bernard, Sébastien Saint-Arnaud
"In More of the Same? The Position of the Four Largest Canadian Provinces in the World of Welfare Regimes, Paul Bernard and Sébastien Saint-Arnaud locate the welfare regimes of Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia among those of a group of advanced countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD]. They compare them in terms of a wide set of indicators representing public policy, social situations and level of public participation."

NOTE: This article is based partly on Gøsta Esping-Andersen's 1990 typology of welfare regimes in advanced capitalist societies and more recent related work. It's not a detailed comparison of welfare programs in certain Canadian jurisdictions, but rather an academic analysis of how the welfare systems in four Canadian provinces fit within the international typology. It should be emphasized that the analysis of welfare regimes in the four Canadian jurisdictions focuses on the mid-1990s, which was a tumultuous period in the evolution of the Canadian welfare system. Programs (and governments, except for Emperor Klein...) have changed since then, but ten years later, it's still true that "Alberta somewhat resembles the 'ultra-liberal' United States, while Quebec leans in the direction of Europe, and to some extent, of social-democracy." [Excerpt from the Abstract].

Complete report:

More of the Same? The Position of the Four Largest Canadian Provinces
in the World of Welfare Regimes (PDF file - 1.5MB, 32 pages)
November 2004
[translation of an article initially published in French in the
Canadian Journal of Sociology, Spring 2004]

Source:
Family Network
[ Canadian Policy Research Networks ]

Why So Much Opposition to Social Policy Change in Quebec? [dead link]
January 6, 2004
Denis Saint-Martin
Department of Political Science (Université de Montréal)
Research Associate (Family Network, CPRN)
NOTE: Click on "Download" to open the PDF file (18K, 2 pages)

Source:
Canadian Policy Research Networks

Related Link:

A Law Against Poverty: Quebec's New Approach to Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion [dead link]
by Alain Noël
December 18, 2002
NOTE: Click on "Download" to open the PDF file (554K, 11 pages)

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Related Links:
- Go to the Political Parties and Elections Links in Canada (Provinces and Territories) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_prov_terr.htm

New on the PovNet (BC) website:

Gosselin vs Quebec (Attorney General) : Autonomy with a Vengeance (PDF file - 93K, 20 pages) [dead link]
Posted February 1, 2004
"Gwen Brodsky, one of the lawyers intervening in the Gosselin case, has written a paper on the implications of the decision for future anti-poverty litigation in Canada."
Gosselin vs Quebec (Attorney General): Autonomy With a Vengeance
What are the implications of the Supreme Court of Canada in decision in Gosselin, for future anti-poverty litigation? In an upcoming issue of Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, a case comment by Gwen Brodsky criticizes the majority decision in Gosselin: "The challenged social assistance regulation embodied a negative stereotype of young men and women who are reliant on social assistance, which, sadly, the majority of the Court embraced." However, Brodsky also shows that "the decision is deeply divided, and the majority decision turns on a finding that the evidence was insufficient. Therefore, as precedent," argues Brodsky, "the outcome of the Gosselin case may not be particularly significant."

Related Links: see the Canadian Social Research Links Case Law / Court Decisions / Inquests page

Unique Quebec Family Policy Model at Risk
News Release
November 26, 2003
"A new study from CPRN's Family Network places Quebec's achievements in a comparative light and draws lessons applicable elsewhere in Canada and abroad. In Articulation travail-famille : Le contre-exemple des pays dits « libéraux » ? , authors Caroline Beauvais and Pascale Dufour compare approaches to balancing the demands of work and family in the United Kingdom, Canada and Quebec."
Summary (English PDF file - 66K,2 pages)
Complete report (French only)
Articulation travail-famille : Le contre-exemple des pays dits « libéraux » ? (PDF file - 1.3MB, 22 pages)
Source:
Family Network
[ Canadian Policy Research Networks ]

Quebec: A socialist perspective to defeat Charest government’s plans for social demolition
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada)
11 December 2003
"In the name of “re-engineering the state,” Quebec’s Liberal government is seeking to dismantle decades-old social conquests of the working class so as to further enrich and empower big business and the owners of capital."
Source:
Canada: News & Social Issues===>250+ links to articles about social issues in Canada, back to November 1997
[ World Socialist Web Site ]
NOTE: At the bottom of this article, you'll find links to the following related articles:
Mass protest against Quebec government’s demolition of public and social services
[2 December 2003]
Quebec Liberal government plans sweeping privatization
[1 November 2003]
Quebec Liberal budget initiates new anti-working class offensive
[28 June 2003]
Mass social disaffection reflected in rout of Quebec separatists
[18 April 2003]

Social Policy as a Determinant of Health and Well-Being:
Lessons from Québec on the Contribution of the Social Economy (PDF file - 260K, 26 pages) [dead link]
Yves Vaillancourt, François Aubry, Louise Tremblay and Muriel Kearney (Université du Québec à Montréal),
and Luc Thériault (University of Regina)
September 2003
Source:
Social Policy Research Unit (SPR) (Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina)

Together to make a difference. Québec, 2003.
34 pages in 5 separate PDF files --- (1092K - 1088K - 1071 - 1209 K - 1058 K)
Other title:
Aboriginal people in Quebec: together to make a difference
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/R2-251-2003E-1.pdf
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/R2-251-2003E-2.pdf
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/R2-251-2003E-3.pdf
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/R2-251-2003E-4.pdf
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/R2-251-2003E-5.pdf
Source: Weekly Checklist - Govt. of Canada Publications

Reforming Québec's early childhood care and education:
The first five years
April 2002
Five years after the launch of Quebec's family policy, author Jocelyn Tougas reviews the first five years and examines the successes, challenges and lessons learned.
The link above takes you to a short description of the review and links to the full report in English and in French.
Source : Childcare Resource and Research Unit (University of Toronto)

From IRPP Policy Matters : (you'll find links to the summary and complete text of each of the studies by clicking "Social Union" on the Policy Matters page)
• Restoring the Federal Principle: The Place of Quebec in the Canadian Social Union
Christian Dufour (January 2002)
• Le modèle québécois de politiques sociales et ses interfaces avec l’union sociale canadienne (PDF file - 497K, 52 pages)
(contains a summary of the report in English)
Yves Vaillancourt (January 2002)
• SUFA and Citizen Engagement: Fake or Genuine Masterpiece?
Susan D. Phillips (December 2001)
• Power and Purpose in Intergovernmental Relations
Alain Noël (November 2001)
• Shifting Sands: Exploring the Political Foundations of SUFA
Roger Gibbins (July 2001)
• Without Quebec: Collaborative Federalism With a Footnote?
Alain Noël (March 2000)
Source : Institute for Research on Public Policy
Related Social Union Links pages on this site:
Unofficial Social Union Links
Social Union - provincial and territorial information

From the Family Network
[Canadian Policy Research Networks ]

A Focus on Income Support: Implementing Quebec's Law Against Poverty and Social Exclusion
May 28, 2004
Commentary (13 pages)
by Alain Noël
"For the time being, it is probably good to praise an effort that was not expected and that appears, in many ways, well intentioned and valuable. From now on, however, the combat will have to continue, not only against poverty and social exclusion, but also against prejudices and a perennial lack of vision. For this, the best guarantee remains the vigilance and the strength of public interest organizations that have proved, in recent years, remarkably able to seize the initiative and define the political agenda." (Excerpt)
- assessment of the Charest government's action plan against poverty and social exclusion in Quebec (which was released on April 2) by Alain Noël, who prepared an essay on the original anti-poverty law late in 2002 (see the link below)
- comprehensive, detailed info on the new action plan, including welfare reforms taking effect over the coming year
[Click on the link above , then (on the next page), on the word "Download" under the author's name to open the document in PDF format]

--------------------------------------------------------

The fight against poverty: A model law
"An excellent article by Camil Bouchard and Marie-France Raynault on Quebec’s ground-breaking anti-poverty law recently appeared in Le Devoir."
January 22, 2003
Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

--------------------------------------------------------

A Law Against Poverty: Quebec’s New Approach to Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion
by Alain Noël
December 2002
Full Report (PDF file - 554 K, 11 pages)
"On December 13, 2002, the National Assembly in Quebec unanimously adopted a law to “combat poverty and social exclusion.” Bill 112 is a framework law that includes a National Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion, a fund to support social initiatives, an “Observatory,” and an Advisory Committee on the Prevention of Poverty and Social Exclusion. This new law is unique in North America, and it constitutes a significant political innovation, if only because it makes poverty reduction an explicit and central policy priority. The bill is also the result of a remarkable process of collective action and public deliberation."
Source:
Canadian Policy Research Networks

--------------------------------------------------------

Quebec Renews Fight Against Poverty
June 2002
"On June 12, the Government of Quebec tabled a bill in the National Assembly aimed at establishing a strategy for poverty reduction in the province. This is a major step as Quebec takes the lead in putting poverty back on the public (and legislative) agenda."
- incl. links to five key documents
Source :
Canadian Council on Social Development

- Go to the Antipoverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

Quebec’s Baby Bonus: Can Public Policy Raise Fertility? (PDF file - 64K, 9 pages)
Kevin Milligan
C.D. Howe Institute
Backgrounder
January 24, 2002
Launched in 1988, the Allowance for Newborn Children was a pro-natalist child benefit that paid up to $8,000 to a family after the birth of a child. Was the program successful? At an average cost per child of more than $15,000, the author suggests "that the main policy lesson from this episode is that, even if the response to an incentive policy is strong, the effective cost per desired result may be very high."
Le fichier PDF est également disponible en français
L’allocation à la naissance au Québec : Les politiques gouvernementales peuvent-elles accroître le taux de natalité ?
- Go to the C.D. Howe Institute website

An Econometric Analysis of Intergenerational Reliance on Social Assistance (in Quebec)
PDF file - 134K, 31 pages
October 2001
"This paper examines the intergenerational transmission of participation in Québec’s social assistance program."
Source : Cahiers de recherche CRÉFA (Large collection of research papers back to 1994, many in English)
CRÉFA - Centre de recherche en économie et finance appliquées (Université de Laval)
Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture

Poverty in urban areas in Québec
Canadian Council on Social Development
April 17, 2000

For a Major Re-Investment by the Federal Government in the Development of Social Housing [dead link]
Brief Presented to the Standing Committee on Finance
Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU)
November 16, 1999

The Montreal Gazette

Another Look at Welfare Reform Autumn 1997 - an in-depth analysis by the National Council of Welfare of changes in Canadian welfare programs in the 1990s. The report focuses on the provincial and territorial reforms that preceded the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan and those that followed the implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer.  Complete report online (PDF - 6.75MB, 134 pages) - large file, but well worth the wait for detailed information on welfare reforms in the 1990s in each Canadian jurisdiction, as well as a national overview of the broad issues of welfare reform and the setting for welfare reform in Canada Source : National Council of Welfare --- Version française: Un autre regard sur la réforme du bien-être social Source: Conseil national du bien-être social

 

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the third periodic report of Canada : United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (June 10, 1998)  Québec Government Response to the U.N. List of Issues (November 1998)

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