Less people on welfare

The Globe and Mail is reporting that a study claims that less people in Canada are getting welfare cheques… but by the wording of the article, they seem to be implying that this is a bad thing:

The number of Canadians receiving social assistance cheques fell sharply in the second half of the 1990s, a new study says, blaming reforms to the welfare system that made many more people ineligible for the money.

Blaming?

That one word pretty much says everything you need to know about the good ol’ Canadian attitude about being a welfare state. I mean, it would be tyrannical of us to expect people to quit abusing the system and actually get jobs!

One element of this study, at least, was no surprise:

For poor people in Quebec and in Newfoundland and Labrador, the welfare rate rose sharply in 1993, then remained high through to 2000. The rate in those provinces surpassed that of all other provinces by 2000.

In 2000, Quebec had the highest overall welfare rate of 21 per cent, but Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest welfare rate for couples with children.

In other words, more than one in 5 people in Quebec sit around and live off handouts. And while I can accept that some of them legitimately need it, there’s no way that 21% of the Quebec population is utterly incapable of doing anything useful to make a living.

But why work when you can get paid to sit at home and drink beer, right? It’s the Canadian way!

Update: Justaguy pointed out that, according to Statistics Canada, that figure is actually 21% of “unattached” people in Quebec on welfare. I still think that’s pretty sad.