Abstract

The TRANSFORMATION of QUEBEC’S Disability Policies in the Canadian context

Yves Vaillancourt, Normand Boucher and Lucie Dumais

Over the past decades, both the federal and the Quebec governments were active in disability policies and had an impact on the social development models. Historically, the federal government played an important role namely through disability benefits, rehabilitation programmes and cost sharing of provincial programmes. Yet, the Quebec government has now become a frontrunner in matters of disability policy in the country (e.g. "A part égale", Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ)).

We consider that a sound analysis of disability policies should take into account the role played in this area by families and the third sector. In Quebec, particular attention should be paid to the social economy sector when comparison is drawn with the other provinces. The disability field in Quebec has evolved from a stronghold of the Church and the family in the 1950s, through a bureaucratic system of social services in the 1980s to a model where the civil society plays a significant part in 2000. Undoubtedly, the Independent Living Movement initiated in Western Canada and the USA influenced policy changes in Quebec.

Disabled people represent a significant part of our population (approximately 15%). In a vast research conducted by the LAREPPS and financed by HRDC and OPHQ, the following conclusions regarding disability policies and programmes are presented:

The examination of inter-governmental dynamics helps to explain the evolution of disability policies; The disability movement as a whole has achieved real gains in public organisations in spite of a plurality of views existing within the movement (between age groups or types of disabilities); Tensions between the government and the third sector have induced new forms of service delivery in domains such as labour, housing, domestic care and transportation.

Bios

Yves Vaillancourt holds a Ph.D. in political science and is professor at the School of Social Work at University of Quebec in Montreal where he is also leading the LAREPPS research unit. (Laboratoire de recherche sur les pratiques et les politiques sociales). He has published many books on public policy in Quebec and Canada over the past 25 years and has collaborated extensively with academics across Canada, Europe and Latin America. He is the founding editor of the journal Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales and is currently responsible of the axis dedicated to research on services to the population in the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) on the social economy based at UQAM.

Normand Boucher has a doctorate in Sociology and is associate professor at the Department of Sociology at Université Laval in Quebec city. He’s been working since 1994 on the issue of the integration of disabled people, collaborating with the Réseau international sur le processus de production du handicap (RIPPH) and has also been interested in the question of participative research and its links with the transformations of social policy and social practices with regards to the handicap phenomenon. He has also worked at the Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds (U.K.) and is a research associate at LAREPPS.

Lucie Dumais holds a Ph.D in sociology and is research supervisor at LAREPPS. She has a vast research experience in the fields of occupational health, mental health and social services, both in Quebec and Ontario. She has published numerous articles in books and journals. She is interested in issues related to interdisciplinary research (social science and health sciences) and research in partnerships (with the public sector and the community sector). She received her Ph.D. in 1990 from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Back to Papers