By Hilary White
MONTREAL, November 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After decades of suffering the lowest birth rate in North America, Quebec is enjoying a mini baby boom the Globe and Mail has reported. According to data from the province’s Institute de la Statistique, Quebec has seen an increase in the birth rate of 9 per cent between 2005 and 2006. This year, the statistics show almost 1,000 more births between April and June 2007, than in the same period last year.
It is not the first time that such increases have been recorded, however, and Quebec’s birth rate still remains well below replacement level. In 2001 a University of Toronto economist, Kevin Milligan, found that Quebec’s birth rate rose during a nine-year baby bonus program that ended in 1997. He said the bonuses caused a 10 per cent increase in births by first-time mothers, 13 per cent for mothers who already had one child, and 25 per cent for those with two or more children. The program offered $500 for a first baby and up to $8,000 over five years for three or more births.
But even with these increases, Quebec’s birth rate in 1997 was one of the lowest in the world, at approximately 1.5 children per couple. Meanwhile, the number of abortions in Quebec doubled from 1980 to 2000. According to the most recent available statistics, Canada’s overall fertility rate stands far below replacement level at 1.61 children born per woman.
In 1998 the Institute de la Statistique showed 38 abortions per 100 live births in the province. Quebec’s 38 per cent abortion rate is surpassed only by that of former Soviet-bloc countries where abortion is used as a method of contraception.
The Globe and Mail quoted experts who said that two years is not enough to indicate a definite upward trend or a slowdown in Quebec’s overall population decline.
In the meantime, the Quebec government announced November 2 that it will increase the number of immigrants to the province over the next three years to attract 55,000 per year by 2010. The government admitted that the increase in immigration was to help meet a labour shortage caused by the low birth rate and aging population.
Despite the province’s historical focus on maintaining its French cultural heritage, an almost equal proportion of the hoped-for immigrants will be drawn from Africa (27 per cent), Asia (26 per cent), Europe (26 per cent) and the Americas (21 per cent).