Quebec youth protection reports 5% rise in overall cases, calls for ‘community response’
Posted June 19, 2025 2:25 pm.
Last Updated June 19, 2025 3:11 pm.
There has been a five per cent increase in cases reported to Quebec’s youth protection services over the course of the past year, according to the latest annual report from the Director of Youth Protection (DYP).
The DYP told reporters Thursday that 141,622 cases were processed in 2024-25 compared to 134,871 the year before.
DYP officials attribute the increase in cases to recent reports recommending public professionals to seek help from protection services before a child could potentially be put at risk. Eighty per cent of all reports were made by public professionals, including social workers, police and daycare workers.
Montreal West Island director of youth protection Nelson Pimentel says the statistic represents a collective effort of both community members and youth protection officials to provide better support systems for at-risk youth in Quebec.
“We’ve got a community that’s also supporting this clientele,” Pimentel said. “Our hope is that we work better together with one another to ensure that we have a very good safety net around our clients in the community.”
Many youth within the protection system also remain embedded within their community, Pimentel said. Around half of all youth protected by the DYP remain at home or connected to their significant others.
But the DYP is calling on the community to double down on its involvement, particularly concerning this year’s rates of cases linked to neglect. Around 50 per cent of all cases reported this year were made on the basis of neglect or risk of neglect.
“Neglect is something that we hope, as a modern society with a pretty robust social network, that we wouldn’t have such a high level of,” Pimentel said. “However we still do.”
Maintaining familial connections is especially important in lowering rates of cases related to youth offenders, Montérégie-Est director of youth protection Marie-Josée Audette said.
“A child who experiences neglect, in particular, who lives in a context of neglect when he or she is very young is a strong determinant in child delinquency,” she said.
This year, the DYP reported an more than seven per cent increase in youth who received services under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
“That’s a lot of teenagers who received services this year,” Audette said. “We’re asking the question, and it will certainly take a little more study to give us a better idea of what it’s all about. But is it a real increase in youth offences, or is it a tightening up our police services?”
However, contact with the DYP can be beneficial for youth offenders, Audette said, noting that early intervention has the potential to create a “seismic shift” in their employability.
