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Friday, March 14, 2008
Dollars for babies
The Action Democratique du Quebec is working up a family policy to give parents of a third child $5,000. This aggressive policy is aimed at increasing the current reproduction rate of 1.6 children per family to two children per family, and is mostly a response to a new report that shows French slipping amongst Montrealers into the minority.
The ADQ is also encouraging the Liberals to rethink their policy of allowing 10,000 new immigrants into Quebec.
Forget the immigration policy for a second and focus on the family policy--is this a good idea? Consider the kind of family that would have a third child for the $5,000 bonus. We probably want more children, but doesn't it matter that the reason some families will have for having a third kid is the money, rather than a genuine desire to have another little boy or girl?
Don't we want to avoid creating incentives for parents who become parents for all the wrong reasons to have more children? Wanting the Quebec population to grow is fine. But wanting it at the cost of having children raised by parents who are motivated to do it because of a payoff is not.
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on March 14, 2008 in Canadian Provincial Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Better to have the priests rail about these things, eh? [It's the feminists, really]
Posted by: dewp | 14-Mar-08 1:15:01 AM
Separate from Canada.
Decrease dramatically the size of the government.
Apply a very strict immigration policy.
Problems solved.
Posted by: Marc | 14-Mar-08 7:37:00 AM
Vive le Quebec libre!
If they done this 20 years ago I'd have moved there and made enough to buy a minivan.
Posted by: dp | 14-Mar-08 9:37:59 AM
Limit the candidates who can receive it to married couples who are both natural parents of the other two children and I think it's a good idea that should be emulated in other provinces.
Couple that idea with defunding abortions and it's even better.
Posted by: Speller | 14-Mar-08 9:54:20 AM
Speller makes a good point. Unfortunately in this day of Charter Rights and equality, you won't be able to get this married couple stipulation past the Supreme Court of Canada. There is also the consideration that if you give $5000.00 for every child born in Quebec, you will not be able to decide who gets that money. For example, the immigrant community in Quebec has a "tendency" to have more children than the upwardly mobile Yuppie, 20 something couples who "can't afford" children. The ADQ should also consider that this amount of money per child would probably result in a wage increase for some of these low-income immagrant families.
Posted by: Servant | 14-Mar-08 2:27:29 PM
Hasn't Quebec tried this sort of bonus scheme before? I believe that they did and that the result wasn't the result that they wanted.
Posted by: DML | 14-Mar-08 10:57:20 PM
People produce CO2 through their consumption habits -- a lot of it. So subsidizing the production of people is equivalent to subsidizing gass guzzlers. Yet Quebec is supposed to be the most "green" province in Canada. All of which just goes o illustrate that when it comes to government, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
Posted by: Grant Brown | 15-Mar-08 10:42:52 PM
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