The CAQ government says it will help some of Quebec’s most vulnerable live with more dignity.
Labour Minister Jean Boulet announced Wednesday $1.5 billion in funding to help Quebec’s poor over the next five years.
$1 billion of that is earmarked specifically for people with physical and mental disabilities who are unable to work.
Currently those with serious physical or mental disabilities who are unable to enter the workforce are given $1,035 per month.
Boulet said the provincial government is going to increase that amount by $72 on Jan. 1, and that amount will go up by $367 over the next five years. Boulet said more than 84,000 will benefit from the increase.
"All the people that have a confirmation of diagnosis of no capacity work, so they have no wherewithal to make doe and to have a decent life, so they will be helped by the government to have the financial capacity to live adequately," he said.
The minister said others in poverty, including those who are not disabled and on welfare, will get incentives to try to get them to find work.
Kathy Inouye of Project Genesis was not impressed with the announcement.
"It was disappointing because the revenue de base program doesn't include nearly enough people. There are so many people that could use that money to live in dignity and they're being excluded," said Inouye.
She added that the minister did not specify how much of an increase others living in poverty might get which leads her to think it might be just indexed for inflation.
Boulet said he is still consulting with anti-poverty groups.
