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

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec, 1998, 2008¹ and 2014²
	1998	2008	2014
Child population	1,658,480	1,549,200	1,521,298
Number of child maltreatment investigations	25,615	28,608	31,529
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1000 children	15.44	18.47	20.72

Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Quebec in 2014²
	#	Rate per 1,000 children
No Risk or Substantiated Maltreatment	8,565	5.63
Confirmed Risk of Future Maltreatment	4,101	2.70
Substantiated Maltreatment	18,860	12.40

Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec in 2014²
Category of Maltreatment	#	Rate per 1,000 children
Physical Abuse	4,457	2.93
Sexual Abuse	732	0.48
Neglect	6,127	4.03
Emotional Maltreatment	2,486	1.63
Behavioural Problems	4,364	2.87
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence	4,790	3.15

Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in Quebec, 1998, 2008¹ and 2014²
	1998 #	1998 Rate	2008 #	2008 Rate	2014 #	2014 Rate
No Placement	16,776	10.12	24,238	15.65	27,221	17.89
Informal Kinship Care	-	-	780	0.50	1,664	1.09
Formal Placement	7,790	4.7	3,178	2.06	2,558	1.68
Type of Placement Unknown	834	0.50	340	0.22	--	0.04

Children and youth in out-of-home care in 2022 ³
Children in out-of-home care		Child (0-17) population	Rate per 1000
15,201		1,604,195	9.48

External Statistics Links

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 service, differences in the length of time a child can receive out-of-home care and the definition of out-of-home care.

References

¹ 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. https://cwrp.ca/fr/publications/etude-dincidence-quebecoise-sur-les-situations-evaluees-en-protection-de-la-jeunesse.

² 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. https://cwrp.ca/publications/quebec-incidence-study-2014-eiq-2014-final-report.

³ Pollock, N., Ouédraogo, A., Trocmé, N., Hovdestad, W., Miskie, A., Crompton, L., Campeau, A., Tanaka, M., Zhang, C., Laprise, C., Tonmyr, L. (2024) Original quantitative research – 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

Publications

Title	Authors	Year
Analyse descriptive d'un service d'intervention psychosociale en CLSC pour enfants de 6 à 12 ans victimes d'abus sexuel ou manifestant des comportements sexuels problématiques	Turner, Julie Chamberland, Claire Hamelin, Annie Tourigny, Marc	2001
Comparing the CIS and the NIS: Design Implications and Strategies	Sedlak, Andrea J. Westat, Marianne W.	2001
Entente multisectorielle relative aux enfants victimes d’abus sexuels, de mauvais traitements physiques ou d’une absence de soins menaçant leur santé physique	Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux Ministère de la Justice Ministère de la Sécurité publique Ministère de l'Éducation Ministère de la Famille et de l'Enfance	2001
Transmission intergénérationnelle de la maltraitance : étude des liens entre les facteurs de protection et les facteurs de risque auprès d’une population de mères en difficulté	Moreau, Jacques Chamberland, Claire Oxman-Martinez, Jacqueline Roy, Catherine Léveillé, Sophie Laporte, Lise Tabakian, Nayiri	2001
Violence conjugale et mauvais traitements envers les enfants : étude des cas signalés à la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse au Québec	Lavergne, Chantal Chamberland, Claire Laporte, Lise	2001
Étude exploratoire des manifestations possibles de mauvais traitements psychologiques chez de jeunes parents à risque avec leur enfant d’âge préscolaire : Rapport final	Malo, Claire Moreau, Jacques Chamberland, Claire Roy, Catherine Léveillé, Sophie Beauvais, Brigitte	2000
Évaluation d'implantation et d'impact du projet d'intervention massive à l'enfance (PRIME) : Rapport final	Dagenais, Christian Bastien, Marie-France Bégin, Jean Tourigny, Marc	2000

Legislation

Links