Sending checks for $400 or $600 to counteract the rising cost of living will not make it possible to fight poverty in the long term, but will only create a kind of association with “inadequate and unjust” measures, according to the Collective for a Quebec Without Poverty.
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During the recent election campaign, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) pledged to pay before Christmas $600 for Quebecers earning less than $50,000 and $400 for those earning between $50,000 and $100,000.
If the collective realizes that it can be a “boost” for people living in poverty, that will not be enough.
“[Ce] Boost in most cases is used for unpaid bills, groceries, buying clothes for the coming winter. When you’re short of everything year-round, a $600 check is quickly spent. And what happens afterwards?” Underlined the spokesman for the collective, Serge Petitclerc, in a press release on Wednesday.
“As this is a one-off aid, it will temporarily slow people’s impoverishment without improving their living conditions,” he argued.
The idea of giving Quebecers with a wealthy income a check for $400 was also questioned by the collective, who believe that that extra sum could have been sent to people struggling to make ends meet.
In view of the promised tax cuts, this would also be an unfair measure for the organization.
“These tax cuts don’t benefit the poorest because they just don’t pay. Then they will deprive the government of revenue that could be used to bolster them financially or to fund social programs and public services… that desperately need them,” Mr Petitclerc said.
Among the few solutions that the collective proposes to help those living in poverty are increasing the solidarity deduction, raising the minimum wage or increasing the level of social assistance benefits.