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Volume
6 Number 45
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December
12, 1997
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Quebec Intrudes
On Welfare
Watch your kids when Christmas shopping
Editorial
Comics
Quebec
Intrudes On Welfare
By: Kenneth Deer
The Quebec government changed the rules on welfare last September, leaving the Native communities to catch up and allowed some welfare recipients to receive twice the child allotment.
This will all change now that the Kahnawake welfare office has adjusted their program to match that of the Quebec government.
In a letter to welfare recipients in the mailing of the December 1st cheques, the MCK stated that they were neither informed nor consented to changes in the implementation of the welfare system. Because Kahnawake is surrounded by the province of Quebec, Kahnawake must follow Quebec regulations to ensure fair and equal application of social assistance.
This article does not affect Kahnawake residents who are not on welfare. They will continue to get the new family allowance rates from Quebec as usual.
In a new program started last September, Quebec decided to split the child portion of social assistance from the adult portion. The child portion was then added to the Quebec family allowance cheque.
In order to qualify for this larger family allowance, Kahnawake residents were obliged to fill out a Quebec income tax form. Once the form was submitted, the child portion of social assistance was added to the family allowance. The high majority of Kahnawake residents on social assistance filled out the Quebec income tax forms and received the extra child portion on their family allowance.
In the meantime, Kahnawake's social assistance program were not informed or prepared for the changes. They continued to issue cheques to welfare recipients with both the adult and the child portion together. Therefore, many recipients were getting the child portion twice: once from Kahnawake and once from Quebec.
Beginning January 1st, however, Kahnawake will also be splitting the child portion from the regular social assistance cheque leaving welfare recipients with a choice of getting their child portion from Kahnawake or with the Quebec family allowance.
In the letter to social assistance recipients, the MCK is requesting that recipients get their child portion from the Kahnawake welfare offices instead of the Quebec government. The MCK asks recipients to bring their Quebec Family allowance cheques to the welfare office, where the cheques will be collected and shown to the Quebec government as proof that Kahnawake social assistance recipients would rather receive their child portion from our own offices.
The dollar amounts received from the Kahnawake social assistance program will be the same as those received from Quebec.
Fighting child poverty
Quebec's rational for splitting the child portion from the adult portion of the social assistance cheques was two fold: first, it was an attempt to make sure that they money allocated for the children are spend on the children to help alleviate child poverty. It is an attempt to manipulate parents into spending the child portion on the child instead of on themselves.
Second, it encouraged adults to seek work because Quebec offered tax incentives to welfare recipients who would accept low paying jobs by lowering their tax brackets at income tax time. Quebec hopes that welfare recipients would take jobs at fast food restaurants and other low paying industries and eventually leave welfare.
The province also offers five dollars a day for child care. This last incentive has no value in Native communities since income on reserve is tax free and there are no jobs available, even minimum paying jobs, in most communities.
MCK concerned about Quebec
Recipients who have been collecting from both Kahnawake and Quebec for the child portion from September to December will not be asked to reimburse the amounts received. However, any recipient who does not bring their Quebec family allowance cheque the child portion will be deducted from their cheque. Up to press time over 80 recipients out of about 400 have responded to the MCK request.
The MCK are concerned that the Federal government is too eager to turn social assistance over to the province of Quebec. They see this move as a further step in the devolution of the Federal responsibilities to the provinces. Meetings between the Federal government and Quebec are held without any Native people present and our concerns are overlooked.
Davis Rice of the MCK said, "Filling out a Quebec income tax form could lead to Quebec asking for more and more information on your income. The next step could be that they will not be satisfied with the term 'non-taxable income' and ask for exact figures."
Other problems
There are not answers for all the concerns that have been expressed. For instance, what happens to those who have direct deposit into their accounts from Quebec? How do they get out of the system?
And if a welfare recipient stops getting the Quebec family allowance and gets a job a couple of months later how do they get their Quebec family allowance back?
Also, since the Federal family allowance depends on the information from the Quebec family allowance program, is there any assurance that the Federal family allowance wouldn't be cut off?
MCK is working on a letter to the Federal government on this last point to make sure that the Federal family allowance continues.
To add more complications to the issue, the Federal government will be coming out with a new policy on family allowance in July of 1998,
Our own family allowance office?
Since the social assistance office in Kahnawake will now be giving out both the child welfare portion and the family allowance to welfare recipients, is there our own family allowance office in our future?
"It could be," said Rice. As the situation on Native communities are much different than on the outside, Mohawk jurisdiction may dictate a take over of these programs in the future.
Watch
your Kids when Christmas Shopping
By: Waneek Horn
Christmas is a very exciting time of year with all the gift buying and preparations for the holidays. But shopping excursions with your children could turn into a frightful event should your child get lost in the hustle and bustle of a mall.
Last year Amanda Beauvais was doing some last minute Christmas shopping for batteries at the Carrefour Angrignon in Lasalle. She picked up something to look at and let go of her five-year-old daughter's hand for a split second. In that split second, a man led her daughter away from her.
When she realized what had happened, she dropped her bags and yelled her daughter's name who, fortunately, yelled back. The man had already taken her about 300 feet away.
"People sometimes do not think that their kids are at risk; it was five days before Christmas and I was in a rush," said Beauvais.
She wants to warn everyone to watch their kids extra close during the rush of the holiday season. "I am sure that he was following us because I had seen him just before in the Cumberland Drug Store. There are all kinds of weirdoes out during the holidays," she said.
Beauvais' advice to Kahnawake shoppers is that if you have a last minute item to buy, like batteries, you do not have to go out of Kahnawake to get it. Stay in town and conserve your peace of mind over your child's safety.
The advice of Peacekeeper's Chief Warren Lahache is to follow these guidelines. Keep your children in sight at all times while shopping. If you plan to be rushing around and are very busy, do not even bring them. Make alternate plans to keep them at home. It will be less stressful on both of you. Also, try and keep an accurate measurement of your child's height, weight and size to help in identification in case something does happen. It is best to be prepared.
Finally, if your child does go missing, start searching right away and do what Amanda Beauvais did. Call your child's name loudly because the longer they go missing, the less chance they will be found.
Have a good safe holiday and remember that you can never be too careful.
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