Cuts to welfare will “improve people’s lives,” says Minister Rouleau

Photo: Jacques Boissinot Archives The Canadian Press Minister Chantal Rouleau in 2022

Isabelle Porter in Quebec City

Published at 2:16 p.m.

• Quebec City

Minister Chantal Rouleau denies being inhumane by abolishing $100 million in welfare benefits over five years. On the contrary, she says, “we're going to improve people's lives.”

Comment ? The minister is counting on the fact that people who will no longer receive the temporary employment constraints allowance (CTE) of $161 per month will eventually return to the job market.

“We looked at what was best to do for people, to better support them, so that they can be integrated into employment. Because it is through employment that they will improve their lot. »

Ms. Rouleau’s ministry has decided to abolish the CTE currently given to people aged 58 and over and to parents of a preschool-aged child.

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This cut will generate $99.7 million, just enough to finance the new aid measures provided for in Bill 71 on social assistance ($97.06), revealed Le Devoir Wednesday.

According to the minister, the decision to abolish the CTE is also not linked to deficit-fighting measures or to any directive from the Ministry of Finance.

“No, it's a modernization of a law that hasn't been [reviewed] for twenty years.”

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

However, the three opposition parties believe that the social assistance system needs new funding instead.

“We don't fight poverty at zero cost,” reacted Christine Labrie, MNA for Québec solidaire (Sherbrooke), right off the bat.

The elected official also doubts the ability of those affected to return to the job market. “I’m not even convinced that there are savings to be made with this,” she says. “Most of them will probably still have recognition of a health constraint, except that it will take them more paperwork, then more time to have it recognized.” »

His PQ colleague Pascal Paradis (Jean-Talon) is outraged by the fact that assistance is being abolished in a bill that is supposed to “humanize” services [this is the expression the minister used during the presentation].

“We are going to cut this benefit to be able to finance the other benefit […] by creating a nice communication plan, saying: ‘We want more humane management, we want to focus on human beings,’” he denounced.

For the Liberals, “we are robbing Peter to pay Paul.” “The bill that was supposed to be a reform of social assistance turns out to be nothing more than a simple transfer of benefits from one clientele to another,” argued MP Désirée McGraw (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce).

The study of Bill 71 is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 8, with a three-day consultation in Parliament.

About twenty groups and individuals are expected, including the Front commun des personnes assisées sociales du Québec, the Réseau solidarité itinérance du Québec and former minister and professor François Blais, who led the social assistance file during the Philippe Couillard government (2014-2018).