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| Collectif travaillant sur l'Amérique Latine et contre la ZLÉA |
Political plan against the poor".
Charest and Jérôme-Forget, in their crusade against pretty much everything in the social sphere, have made sure that people on social assistance would - again - end up poorer. To reach that goal, they've asked their buddy Béchard to shit out a slick bill to reform welfare, all within the framework of their "Political plan against the poor". How best to boost the State bank account than to cut into the meagre revenues of the poorest? This bill, called Projet de loi 57, Loi sur l'aide aux personnes et aux familles, overtly blames people on social assistance for being poor. Indeed, Béchard states it clearly: " We want to value and make sure that, in Quebec, it will always be more advantageous to be active than inactive [in the workforce]. That's our philosophy
"1 and we can read between the lines that to achieve their goal, they will do everything they can to starve to death those on welfare.
Privatizing public aid
It is mentioned nowhere in this bill that the labour market is in a crisis and that permanent jobs with decent salaries and okay working conditions are now history. It is much easier to put the blame on people's shoulders. Regardless, that's what a capitalist state needs to survive: a cheap labour force that is non-unionized and not regulated by even the most basic labour standards. We are witnessing the end of welfare (which had started with the Parti Quebecois) and we are back to charity. In the past, we could say that charity was public, but we are now moving towards a "private" charity. The State subsidizes half of a person's salary on social assistance, while the private enterprise pays for the rest. That way, enterprises have access to a cheap labour force that can be super-exploited since, in fact, one has no right or resort to defend oneself. This is modern slavery and the first victims are the unemployed, those on welfare and immigrants. For the bosses, this state of things is very advantageous because it allows them to put pressure on employees who do the same work, but are unionized and have better salaries.
The good and the bad poor
In this upcoming reform, the logic of the good poor and the bad poor is dominating. "If you wanted, you could." The State is giving full indexation (a big 2% yearly) to those who will submit themselves to their endless employability and reinsertion programs. Those who refuse will be penalized and only receive a partial indexation, 1% yearly. The dissidents could also lose some special allowances such as those for glasses and dental care if they refuse to enrol in workfare (= work for your welfare). From now on, there will be four categories of people receiving welfare, with one program for each. Under some programs, it will be impossible to bring an unfavourable decision for revision or appeal. People on welfare therefore lose some of their rights and resorts, which were already pretty limited.
There is much more to say about this coming welfare reform. One of them being that with this new bill, there is no basic allowance guaranteed. Moreover, there's the issue of welfare cheque seizure for rent payment, a measure strongly pushed for by reactionary landlords associations. This measure was already included in the bill passed under the PQ regime, but was never applied. This is even more ridiculous since, contrarily to what we are often told, 95% of people on social assistance are good tenants. But that's beside the point. The real question is: why are tenants increasingly unable to pay their rent? In sum, with this Bill 57, we have everything to lose and nothing to win. We will only get out of it poorer with this "plan de lutte à la pauvreté et à la solidarité sociale" (Béchard) .
1 French quote from Béchard found in the journal of debates at the social affairs commission during general consultations on Bill 57 - Loi sur l'aide aux personnes et aux familles.
2Ibid |
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