Quebec City, March 30, 2016. – Today, the Premier of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, and the MNA for Richmond and Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for Youth Issues, Karine Vallières, launched Quebec’s new Youth Policy. The 2016-2030 Youth Policy will serve as a guide for ministers and government agencies and will determine the areas in which the Government of Quebec will intervene over the next fifteen years.
Each generation brings to the table new ways of seeing the world, does things differently and adopts new identities. This allows our society to continue to innovate, to grow and to prosper. The young people of today will be the leaders of tomorrow, and they will take Quebec to new heights. The role of the Government of Quebec is to support them and to give them the necessary resources so that they can take up their rightful place in society and achieve their full potential.
This new policy will bring young people together, and that is in their best interests, because a society that supports its young people is a society which is oriented toward the future, a society that has given itself every possible opportunity to grow and to succeed.
– Philippe Couillard
Quebec’s new Youth Policy is concerned with five areas of government intervention:
- Promoting healthy lifestyles in a safe and secure environment;
- Developing an educational environment that encourages perseverance and academic success;
- Citizenship Committed youth toward their culture, their community and the society to which they belong;
- Getting young people ready for work, and creating an economy that is ready to welcome them;
- Supporting youth entrepreneurship and business succession.
This policy responds to the concerns of Quebec’s young people and to their current reality. Drafting the policy required unprecedented collective efforts. We listened to young people and to community groups who work with young people. I want to work closely with the Premier to ensure that young Quebecers have the proper tools to make their dreams come true, in a way that will contribute to the viability of their community and of the entire world.
– Karine Vallières
As of the fall of 2016, the areas of government intervention determined in Quebec’s new Youth Policy will become a reality in the next Youth Action Plan. The measures called for in the policy will be implemented over the next five years, and, as announced a few weeks ago in Quebec’s Economic Plan, the Youth Secretariat will invest $181 million to do so. To this sum will be added the amounts spent by various ministries and government agencies to implement the measures that are specific to them in order to fulfill their objectives pursuant to the new Youth Policy.
As a whole, more than $200 million will be invested, over the next five years, to support young people during their transition to autonomy and to help them make their dreams come true. These investments will allow the Government of Quebec to create five major new programs:
- 2016-2021 Youth Action Plan Funding Program – will provide financial support to community groups which offer services and develop projects that are related to the areas of government intervention defined in the Youth Policy;
- Créneau Carrefour jeunesse – will provide the necessary financial support to the entire Carrefour jeunesse network so that it may implement the direct services that are required to ensure the social autonomy of young people, to encourage them to stay in school, particularly those who are at risk of dropping out, and to develop local youth entrepreneurship projects, youth volunteer projects and youth community service projects;
- Funding for the revamping of the Offices jeunesse internationaux du Québec – In order to expand their programmes on Quebec soil, as well as in the rest of Canada and throughout the world, and to increase the number of participants, will create Quebec youth community service programme providing for the implementation of local projects that will allow young people to enjoy greater interregional mobility;
- Funding program to permit implementation of youth action plans that are specific to First Nations and Inuit young people – will develop programs in close collaboration with representatives of First Nations and Inuit, in order to support projects that are specific to and adapted to the needs of their communities’ young people;
- Program allowing for development of government indicators, funding of innovative projects, and research as to best intervention practices to assist young people.
To review Quebec’s Youth Policy, please visit www.saj.gouv.qc.ca.
Click here to read the open letters of Philippe Couillard, Karine Vallières and the Youth Commission.
