1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«In this book, [w]e assess to what extent Canada’s largest provinces have grown apart in their approaches to [social and employment] policies. We are particularly interested in gauging the extent to which Quebec has diverged from the policy patterns of the other provinces and the federal government, as a result of what some observers call its ‘social democratic turn’ (virage sociodémocratique) during the 1990s.» (p. 3)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«We analysed [the] trends [in social and employment policies] and [their] outcomes in the context of a number of issues that have recently been raised about the evolution of advanced welfare states, including Canada’s. Among other things, we asked how far Canada’s largest provinces have drifted apart as a result of Quebec’s virage socioéconomique and the neoliberal retrenchment of the other provinces and the federal government. […] We have been particularly interested in assessing how Quebec and the other major provinces have dealt with recent trends in family composition and labour market behaviour and the extent to which they have adopted the social investment rather than the workfare variant of activation policies.» (p. 164) As a result of the policies, «while in the other provinces, poverty rates of two-parents families have drifted up, they have gone down in Quebec. Single-parent household poverty has declined everywhere, albeit in different patterns, with […] a much later but more sustained decline in Quebec. […] In accordance with Quebec’s strong emphasis on lifting families with children out of poverty, such families have done quite well there compared to other Canadian provinces. But this has happened at the expense of a relative neglect of other family or household types.» (p. 105)