Anti-poverty groups question logic of Quebec's $500 payout

Quebec's pre-election budget had a clear, immediate benefit for 6.4 million people: an additional $500 in their pocket.

Anyone who takes home $100,000 or less after taxes — roughly 94 per cent of taxpayers — is eligible for the money.

That adds up to $3.2 billion, in total. 

The payout, announced Tuesday in Premier François Legault's final budget before a provincial election set for October, is meant to help offset the rising cost of living, with the rate of inflation at its highest level in decades. 

But many advocates and community groups argue the money could have been better used either by putting more money into the hands of people with the least spending power, or by investing more into programs and services that would benefit them.

"It's not a targeted response, and it's not going to the people who need it most, so I don't think it's reducing inequity the way we would have hoped to see," said Tasha Lackman, executive director of the Depot Community Food Centre in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood.

Adejoke Olaniyan, a client of the food bank and a single mother of a 12-year-old boy, said the cash won't be sufficient to help her make ends meet. She lives in a small apartment, but says working part-time as a caregiver, it's not easy to pay for things like her son's school uniform.

"It's going to be tough," she said. "I won't lie to you, I'm scared. I'm really, really scared, because as a single mother working as a caregiver, I don't get enough hours."

In its fall economic update, the Coalition Avenir Québec government also gave residents extra cash to help counter inflation but took a more targeted approach. 

The province gave $275 to single Quebecers earning less than $50,000, and $400 to couples with a combined income of just under $56,000. 

The government also doubled its annual payment to low-income people over the age of 70, from $200 to $400. 

Prof. Stephen Gordon, an economist at Université Laval in Quebec City, said a direct payment is a good way to help citizens, but the government should have taken a similar, targeted approach this time around. 

Low-income earners could then have gotten more help to deal with the rising cost of groceries and gas, he said. 

"If they are going to cut the line at $100,000, there's no reason why they could not have put that number way farther down," he said.