Quebec

For more information, please see the information sheet on Quebec's child welfare system.

Overview

The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (Ministère de la Santé et Services sociaux) is responsible for providing protection services to children and youth in accordance with the mandate outlined in the Youth Protection Act. There are currently 16 Youth Centres (YC) and three multi-mission centres across the province.  Both of these centres are responsible for services under the Youth Protection Act as well as the Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002). In each centre, there is a director of youth protection (DYP) who is responsible for enforcing the Youth Protection Act. The DYP also has the powers of a provincial director under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In the youth protection system in Quebec, the intervention process consists of the following stages: receiving and processing a report (intake), evaluating the situation (investigation), orienting the child (intervention planning), and implementing interventions and reviewing the situation. These stages are carried out in separate administrative units, except for the evaluation and orientation stages which are carried out by the same workers.

There are several First Nations and Inuit child welfare agencies across the province which serve children living on reserve. First Nations and Inuit children living off reserve or in regions without a designated First Nations Child and Family Service Agency are served through local DYP offices. First Nations Child Welfare Agencies in Quebec are required to uphold the Youth Protection Act.

Statistics

External Statistics Links

Family and Household Statistics
Taux d'incidence des nouvelles prises en charge dans le cadre de la Loi sur la Protection de la Jeunesse (LPJ)
Certains indicateurs repères en vertu de la LPJ, 1994-1995 à 2006-2007

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec, 1998, 2008* and 2014**

 199820082014
Child population1,658,4801,549,2001,521,298
Number of child maltreatment investigations25,61528,60831,529
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1000 children15.4418.4720.72

Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Quebec in 2014**

 #Rate per 1,000 children%
No Risk or Substantiated Maltreatment 8,5655.6327%
Confirmed Risk of Future Maltreatment4,1012.7013%
Substantiated Maltreatment18,86012.4060%

Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec in 2014**

Category of Maltreatment#Rate per 1,000 children%
Physical Abuse4,4572.9319%
Sexual Abuse7320.483%
Neglect6,1274.0327%
Emotional Maltreatment2,4861.6311%
Behavioural Problems4,3642.8719%
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence4,7903.1521%

Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec, 1998, 2008* and 2014**

 1998 #1998 Rate2008 #2008 Rate2014 #2014 Rate
No Placement16,77610.1224,23815.6527,22117.89
Informal Kinship Care--7800.501,6641.09
Formal Placement7,7904.73,1782.062,5581.68
Type of Placement Unknown8340.503400.22--0.04

-- n <100


Children and youth in out-of-home care in 2022 ****

Children in care Child (0-17) populationRate per 1000
15,201 1,604,1959.48

* Hélie, S., Turcotte, D., Trocmé, N., & Tourigny, M. (2012). Étude d’incidence québécoise sur les situations évaluées en protection de la jeunesse en 2008: Rapport final (p. 252). Montreal, QC: Centre jeunesse de Montréal-Institut universitaire. Retrieved from https://cwrp.ca/fr/publications/etude-dincidence-quebecoise-sur-les-situations-evaluees-en-protection-de-la-jeunesse

** Hélie, S., Collin-Vézina, D.,Turcotte, D., Trocmé, N., & Girouard, N. (2017). Étude d’incidence québécoise sur les situations évaluées en protection de la jeunesse en 2014: Rapport final. Montreal, QC: Centre jeunesse de Montréal-Institut universitaire. Retrieved from https://cwrp.ca/publications/quebec-incidence-study-2014-eiq-2014-final-report

^Gouvernement du Québec. (2019). 40 ans d’expertise pour bâtir l’avenir - Bilan des Directeurs de la Protection de la Jeunesse / Directeurs Provinciaux 2019. http://www.cissslanaudiere.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/internet/cisss_
lanaudiere/Documentation/Rapports/DPJ/2019/Bilan2019_VersionW EB.pdf.

*** This number does not include the administrative regions 17 and 18 in Quebec. It is therefore an underestimate.

**** Pollock, N., Ouédraogo, A., Trocmé, N., Hovdestad, W., Miskie, A., Crompton, L., Campeau, A., Tanaka, M., Zhang, C., Laprise, C., Tonmyr, L. (2024) Rates of out-of-home care among children in Canada: an analysis of national administrative child welfare data. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada (44)4. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.44.4.02

§ Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities, making it difficult to compile statistics at the national level. The most notable variations between provinces include mandate variation by jurisdiction with respect to the age to which children are eligible for services, differences in the length of time a child can receive out-of-home care and the definition of out-of-home care.

Reports