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A Law Against Poverty: Québec’s New Approach to Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

article by Alain Noël

This article by Alain Noël examines Québec’s new Anti-Poverty Law (bill 112), which he considers moves Québec’s “social policy agenda farther from that of its neighbours and closer to the preoccupations of European countries.” He demonstrates that it is a law “drafted from below”, in that the basic framework it proposes originated not from government offices but from community groups and social actors. Noël then frames the poverty question into statistical terms, arguing that Statistics Canada’s poverty rates, which traditionally showed Québec to be the most poverty-plagued province in Canada, are misleading; by taking into account cost of living indicators, he shows, Québec and Ontario’s poverty rates are found to be more or less equal. Québec’s situation is thus comparable to that of the rest of Canada. The author then details the objectives of Bill 112, explaining that its general aim is to make dealing with poverty a policy priority, and to in turn ensure “that this priority is institutionalized”. It is clear, however, that orientations and national action plans “remain preliminary and more or less operational.”

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Policy Publication Details

Author(s):	Alain Noël;
Publisher:	Canadian Policy Research Networks [ Visit Website ]
Year Published:	2002;	Publisher Type:	Research Institute
Publicly Available:	Yes	Research Focus:	International; National;
Registration Required:	No	Language:	English
Payment Required:	No	Publication Format:	Adobe PDF

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Subjects / Categories:

Policy Articles / Children & Family / Poverty
Policy Articles / Cities & Communities / Economic Development
Policy Articles / Children & Family
Policy Articles / Cities & Communities
Policy Articles / Welfare & Social Issues
Policy Articles / Welfare & Social Issues / Poverty
Policy Articles / Children & Family / Poverty / 2002
Policy Articles / Cities & Communities / Economic Development / 2002
Policy Articles / Welfare & Social Issues / Poverty / 2002

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Keywords / Tags:

Anti-Poverty Law; Bill 112; social policy; agenda; Ontario; Quebec; indicators; Europe; Statistics Canada;