Poverty Reduction in Québec: The First Five Years
The Caledon Institute of Social Policy
by Sherri Torjman
December 2010
Québec was the first government in Canada to enact a law on poverty reduction. The province has led the poverty reduction fight in many significant respects, including the introduction of a legislative base as a foundation for this effort, a series of linked actions in diverse fields, a long-term time frame within which to carry out this work and an associated research and monitoring capacity.As in the other papers on provincial poverty reduction strategies prepared for the Vibrant Communities project, this report presents an overview of the major actions undertaken by the Québec government in respect of its poverty reduction initiative. The report does not analyze the effectiveness of its efforts, which local groups are better positioned to do. In fact, many community organizations, researchers and editorialists in Québec have challenged the government’s commitment to poverty reduction. Their critique even led to a boycott of a governmentled consultation process by many organizations, which argued that the strategy’s announcements and actions have often fallen short of its stated intent.
This report focuses primarily upon the first five years of the poverty reduction initiative. But it should be noted that Québec recently introduced its second five-year strategy for the years 2010-15. Le Québec mobilisé contre la pauvreté (Québec mobilized against poverty) renews the government’s long-term commitment to reduce poverty and social exclusion.
The new strategy builds on and expands the foundation put in place during the first five years of the Action Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. It also emphasizes the need for ongoing conversations with citizens, particularly with members of the aboriginal community. Coordination of efforts within government and between government and the voluntary sector is another key theme. An integrated territorial approach to poverty reduction involving collaboration among diverse sectors is emphasized in this second phase – a methodology consistent with the place-based focus that shapes Vibrant Communities.
But first: the story of the base on which the second phase is built. In December 2002, the Government of Québec unanimously adopted Bill 112 – an Act to combat poverty and social exclusion. Success in getting a piece of legislation on poverty reduction was due largely to pressure from a broad coalition of groups that had pushed for such a plan since the middle of the 1990s. The Collective for a Quebec without Poverty (Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté) welcomed the initial effort, though with mixed reviews [Noël 2004].
The Act to combat poverty and social exclusion may have been well ahead of its time in Canada but not in the rest of the world. At the meeting of the Lisbon European Council in 2000, European Union member states were called upon to produce a national plan to combat poverty and social exclusion. These nations acknowledged that modernizing the economy must also involve efforts to reduce poverty and combat exclusion.
DOWNLOAD report Poverty Reduction in Québec: The First Five Years:
http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/910ENG.pdf
