Children in vulnerable situations: Outaouais has a high rate of 32.2%.

Mélissa Gélinas

The results of a province-wide study about quality of life for children was shared at a city committee. Étienne Soutière, planning and research agent for quality of life in children, presented the results of the Quebec survey on children's development in kindergarten (the EQDEM) to Gatineau’s November 1 meeting of the Ville en santé.

This survey has been carried out every five years since 2012 and is funded by the Ministère de la Santé, de l'Éducation et de la Famille and the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon. The survey looks at five major areas of development including: physical health, well-being, communication skills, general knowledge and emotional maturity. There are also sub-domains.

“Once again, the Outaouais region is a little high on the statistics,” says Soutière. “We have proportions of 32.2% of vulnerable children in Outaouais schools,” he continues. “Still, there has been some improvement since the last survey [...]”.

“It is in the areas of physical health, well-being, communication skills and general knowledge that we find the greatest proportion of vulnerable children,” he explains.

In Gatineau as a whole, the CLSC Vallée-de-la-Lièvre in the Buckingham sector had the highest proportion of vulnerable children. “Overall, Gatineau has a 34% rate of vulnerable children, compared with 31.6% in Aylmer and 31% in the Hull sector,” says Soutière. In more remote regions of Quebec, such as Gaspésie and Îles-de-la-Madeleine, the rate of vulnerable children is 24%.

Statistics show that 32% of these children were born in Quebec, 34% in Canada and 43% outside the country. “We found that a proportion of English-speaking children is five to eight percent more vulnerable than elsewhere,” he says. “So there are questions to be asked there,” he adds.

The proportion of children who have benefited from educational childcare represents a 30% rate of vulnerability, compared with 51% who have not. “We can see, however, that daycare services are quite an interesting safety net for toddlers,” says Étienne Soutière.

In order to take action, the EQDEM set up a steering committee in winter 2023. “Our objective was to gather all the wishes and good costs, so that they could become a lever for strategic planning and action,” he points out. “Our aim has been to collect all the wishes and good costs, so that they can become a lever for strategic planning and action,” he points out. These wishes include: more affordable housing, better active transportation, free play, socialization, promotion of volunteering and much more.

Meetings, conferences, activities, mobilization and awareness-raising are just some of the actions being taken to continue to support and help the situation.