Family policy | 25 years ago, the big bend

Daycare at $5 a day, parental leave, a shake-up in family allowances. Each of these reforms would suffice to fulfill the mandate of a government. However, they were initiated at the same time, in January 1997, 25 years ago.

Parents who benefit from these policies can hardly imagine the situation before this gigantic change in direction. Three-quarters of single mothers were on welfare. However, the program of last resort constituted a trap from which it was difficult to escape. Those who went to work for a low wage, and left welfare, found themselves losing many benefits such as housing assistance, free medicine, glasses, eye and dental exams. They were quickly dissuaded from re-entering the labor market.

The white paper Children at the heart of our choices will put the ball in play. Without prior consultation, he proposed a marching order, remembered last week Pauline Marois.

Recently made public, the deliberations of the Council of Ministers on October 23, 1996 reinforce this observation. It refers to the filing of the “orientations of the new family policy proposed by the Prime Minister”, and not of the minister then responsible for the Family, Ms.^me Marois. Ten years later, the Conseil de la famille also stresses the importance of the moment: “the year 1997 marked a complete reversal of the trend in terms of family policy”, we went from “financial assistance to family services “.

First, to establish a “unified family allowance” intended for low incomes, it was a question of taking back the money “sprinkled” in many social assistance programs, to reallocate it to coherent measures around three axes: compensate for the loss of income of those who decide to have children, promote work-family balance with the daycare network and completely rethink parental leave. Exit in particular the “bonus babies” (allowances of $500 for the first two children and $3,000 for a third), instituted under the Bourassa government, whose effect on the birth rate had remained mixed. The verbatim of the deliberations of the Council of Ministers of November 27, 1996 specifies that the consolidation of existing programs and the reallocation of the budgets then devolved to the family would result, after six years, in additional annual expenditure of 250 million.

At the same time, full-time kindergarten was made available to all 5-year-olds. For more “vulnerable” environments, admission was targeted from the age of 4. For the youngest, educational childcare services were offered, for a contribution of $5 per day. The initial target was 200,000 places, later increased to 250,000.

Current Minister of the Family, Mathieu Lacombe underlines the courage of the decision, especially given the context of the time. Quebec was facing a significant deficit of $6 billion. “It was time for cuts, cuts. In this situation, you had to be quite daring to launch such a reform,” he pointed out a few days ago. Coming out of politics, “Lucien Bouchard underlined, on each occasion where he spoke, that this family policy was his main legacy”, observes Mr. Lacombe.

According to Minister Lacombe, “there is one thing: what was started in 1997 is not yet finished”. There are still 37,000 places missing, he agrees. The Legault government has committed to creating them over three years and has passed a law to seal this promise. The Coalition avenir Québec has restored the fixed rate, regardless of income: $8.70 per day (indexed). Under the Couillard government, the rate could go up to $20 depending on income.

Behind the scenes

Twenty-five years later, it is easier to know the backstage of these decisive decisions. Minister of Finance, Bernard Landry was viscerally opposed to these changes, remember Mr.^me Marois and Mr. Bouchard’s former chief of staff, Hubert Thibault. “He said the bill would be astronomical. It’s true, but on the net, it has increased collective wealth,” says Pauline Marois. Mr. Landry verbalized his opposition during the October 16 Council of Ministers meeting, saying “however, we fear the establishment of a large universal network of daycare centres”.

In a presentation intended for François Legault, in May 2021, the economist Pierre Fortin noted that the participation rate of women in the labor market in Quebec, historically low, now reached 87%, very close to the world peak occupied by Switzerland and Sweden. This means at least 80,000 more women on the labor market, a gain of 7 billion in total domestic income (GDP). “Our daycares have contributed to the enrichment of Quebec big time “, drops the economist, who, at the time, had been called to the rescue to try, in vain, to convince Bernard Landry.

“Mr. Bouchard had been irritated when he realized that the Finance machine was struggling to produce the figures, the data necessary for decision-making,” recalls Mr. Thibault. Mr. Landry had taken a dislike to this policy, which intervened in taxation, the prerogative of Finance. But Bouchard had imposed it.

Even across government, these reforms were perplexing. Louise Harel, the “mother Teresa” of the Council of Ministers, as Mr. Landry called her, was reluctant. In charge of social assistance, she did not really like having her flowerbeds trampled on, cutting corners in often ineffective “employability” measures, remembers Mandarin Guy Morneau, kingpin of this policy on the committee of priorities.

According to the verbatim of the Council of Ministers of November 27, 1996, M^me Harel had insisted that this policy be “tied” to his file on income security. Saying she was “enthusiastic” about the project, she raised a series of objections at the same time. “The implementation of this policy will not only make people happy,” she concludes.

Choices

In the creation of early childhood centres, certain orientations surprised Lucien Bouchard. “Originally, we did not plan a network that would mainly favor non-profits, it was a somewhat ideological choice that was made by Mr.^me Marois. We could perhaps have ensured a better balance,” observes Mr. Thibault, reflecting, it seems, the opinion of his former boss.

But, he agrees quickly, “when we look at the salaries paid to the educators, we cannot say that they left with the fund”. Also, the specialist Camil Bouchard and the officials proposed that we start with the infants, and not the children of 3 and 4 years old, confides Mr. Morneau. Here, says M.^me Marois, the educator ratio for infants is higher, therefore more expensive, it would have been necessary to find many more employees. She will claim, and will obtain from Mr. Bouchard, the entire family file. “It was she who was able to deliver,” summarizes Mr. Morneau, close to these deliberations. Twenty-five years later, she still dreams of integrated early childhood centers, daycare centers offering all the services, from the pediatrician to the psychologist.

1 million children

The law creating the Ministère de la Famille et de l’Enfance will be tabled in the spring of 1997, as will the law establishing daycare services. For parental leave, we had to wait for the outcome of negotiations with the federal government on the transfer of funds for workforce training, part of the contributions paid by Quebecers to employment insurance. Quebec expected 350 million from the Chrétien government.

After all these upheavals, Lucien Bouchard was less in a hurry. “He said that we had shaken things up quite a bit, that we had to wait for the machine to digest these changes,” recalls Mr. Morneau. The Parental Insurance Act was adopted unanimously in May 2001. Maternity leave is 18 weeks, remunerated at 70% of salary by the parental insurance fund. Basic paternity leave is 5 weeks. Thereafter, the spouses can share 32 weeks of leave, which may be increased by 4 other weeks. The participation rate for fathers rose from 56% to 72% between 2006 and 2019. For 15 years, the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan has covered 1.1 million births and 8,000 adoptions.