Federal Contribution to Reducing Poverty in Canada

Dissenting opinion of the Bloc Québécois

First, the Bloc Québécois would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the stakeholders and witnesses who took part in this study on poverty. Launched in 2008, it was an extensive study gathering input from people in various walks of life across Canada, and it culminated in the production of a lengthy report.

In our view, a number of the actions identified by the Committee in this report are promising and well thought-out. These include the suggestions concerning poverty indicators, Aboriginals, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, improvement of the Employment Insurance system, and pay equity and some of the proposals relating to affordable social housing. These measures can legitimately be implemented by the federal government to assist the public.

However, the Bloc Québécois deplores the fact that the Committee’s report on the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada largely ignores Quebec’s powers.[1] The problem is not so much identifying poverty as an issue as identifying the role that the federal government can play in reducing it.

The Bloc Québécois agrees that a comprehensive strategy is needed to address poverty, but it insists that such a strategy must come under the Government of Quebec’s authority. The federal government’s responsibility is not to impose a pan-Canadian vision through accountability, but to take action within its areas of jurisdiction by providing appropriate support, in particular through unconditional transfers to the provinces, for the work being done by the governments of Quebec and the provinces to combat poverty. This point was also made by the witnesses from Quebec.

Recommendation 3.2.1, which is the centrepiece of the report, calls for the establishment of a new federal transfer for poverty reduction along with stronger accountability rules.

The Bloc Québécois emphatically rejects the recommendations that call for the introduction of such a transfer, as it would intensify the accountability mechanisms and performance indicators associated with federal transfers. Quebec must be able to set its own priorities so that it can focus its anti-poverty efforts on priority areas dictated by its own circumstances. Imposing what the Committee recommends would transform Quebec’s role as a pioneer and an innovator into that of a mere program administrator.

While Committee members recognize that social issues, including poverty, are primarily the responsibility of the provinces and territories, most of the recommendations disregard this fact, despite the Bloc Québécois’s repeated statements on the subject. The report states that “many provincial governments specifically request that the federal government contribute to their efforts to reduce poverty in Canada. The Government of Manitoba has asked its federal counterpart to improve access to education and training for low-skilled workers, increase child care funding, and increase investments in affordable housing, for example. However, Quebec is not asking the federal government to use its purported spending power and interfere in its areas of jurisdiction. In April 2010, the Bloc Québécois introduced a bill to eliminate the purported federal spending power in Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction, which would give Quebec the right to withdraw systematically, unconditionally and with full compensation from the so-called national programs.

The Bloc Québécois urges the federal government to take the few measures that it has refused to implement for far too long, most of which are identified in this report:

• necessary reform of the Employment Insurance program;
• establishment of a genuine assistance program for older workers;
• use of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s surpluses to fund the construction, renovation and conversion of affordable housing units;
• repayment of the amounts due under the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and improvement of the GIS;
• full reinstatement of the court challenges program;
• an end to the funding cuts for women’s groups and literacy groups;
• improvement of living conditions for Aboriginal people.

To contribute to the well-being of children and their parents, the federal government must first correct its mistakes and recognize that any real anti-poverty campaign requires stability and consistency in its transfers to Quebec and the provinces, rather than ad hoc assistance. A genuine federal contribution must not force Quebec, at the request of another province, to be accountable to the federal government rather than to Quebeckers. The Bloc Québécois repeatedly tried to steer the Committee toward measures that fall within federal jurisdiction, but the majority of its members chose the path of duplication and interference.