“The data shows that our English-speaking children aged five and under are proportionately more likely than their French-speaking counterparts to live in a family with a low annual income,” said the Executive Director of Connexions Resource Centre, Danielle Lanyi in a press release.

The study reports that English-speaking children in the Outaouais are more likely to come from a family with a higher unemployment rate and a lower average income.

The average annual income for English-speaking families is $80,190 while French-speaking families have an average income of $92,255. Bilingual families have an average income of $98,951.

The study also uses data from the Quebec Survey of Child Development in Kindergarten and found that 33.5 per cent of all children under five in the Outaouais are vulnerable in at least one area of their education compared to 27.7 per cent of children under five across the province.

The education gap is starker when the Anglophone population goes under the microscope.

While 36.8 per cent of Anglophone Kindergarteners in Quebec are vulnerable in at least one are of educational development, that number jumps to 42.9 per cent in the Outaouais.

Here in the Pontiac

The situation is even more stark when the Pontiac is singled out compared to the rest of what the report describes as a “vulnerable” region.

The Pontiac is the only region in the Outaouais where a majority of the population is Anglophone with 53.4 percent claiming English as their mother tongue.

While the average income of Outaouais Anglophone families with children under five is $80,190 that number drops to $69,461 in the Pontiac.

Pontiac’s unemployment rate among Anglophone families with a child under five, which sits at 14 per cent, is higher than the Outaouais average of 10.1 per cent.

English speaking families in the Pontiac with a child under five are also less likely to have a member of the family with a university degree with just 9.7 per cent of families in the Pontiac with a university degree compared to 32.7 per cent across the Outaouais.

However, the data also shows that more Anglophone families in the Pontiac with a child under five has a college diploma than the Outaouais average. In the Pontiac, 30.8 per cent of families have a member with a College degree compared to the 25.8 per cent in the Outaouais at-large.

The report emphasizes the need for the province and local organizations to adapt their strategies for minority communities like Anglophones in Quebec.

“English-speaking preschoolers in the province have many challenges to overcome,” the report concludes.

To view the full report, go to http://centreconnexions.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/rapport_0-5ans_ANGLO_print4.pdf

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