Quebec is seeing a mini baby-boom, according to numbers released earlier this week.
The number of babies born in Quebec jumped eight per cent in 2006 over the previous year, provincial officials announced.
Last year, the number of births climbed to 82,500 from 76,250 in 2005, raising the birth rate at 10.6 births per 1,000 population, as compared to the national rate of 10.5.
In 2004, 74,200 babies were born in Quebec.
It's the biggest one-year jump since 1909 in a province where governments have worked hard to boost the rate for decades.
Once upon a time, big families were the norm in Quebec, under encouragement from the Catholic Church.
But then strollers and diapers went out of fashion.
"There was a backlash against the Catholic Church and it coincided with the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and the advent of the birth control pill," Alan Mirabelli, executive director of the Vanier Institute of the Family, told 麻豆影视.
Quebec's birth rate in the 1980s was not only the lowest in Canada, but among the lowest in the world.
"So Quebec was faced with a situation that is very unique, the loss of a culture," Mirabelli said.
Amid concerns over the birth rate, the provincial government spent millions to make Quebec a more baby-friendly place.
The birth rate hike coincides with the introduction in January 2006 of a new parental leave program in the province.
The province's generous program provides up to 75 per cent of salary over the first 32 weeks.
When the plan took over from the federal government's employment insurance program in 2006, the average weekly payout rose to $450 a week from 325.
The plan also enabled nearly 100,000 Quebec parents to get time off work as well as better benefits than under the previous employment insurance program.
The number of fathers who subscribed to the program doubled, going from 18 per cent to 36 per cent.
"It's giving families the opportunity to have those children they want," said McGill University assistant professor Am锟絣ie Quesnel-Vall锟絜, a social demographer.
John Babb is one of the fathers who took advantage of the program. He just got back to work after taking a few weeks off to be with his newborn daughter, courtesy of the parental-leave program.
"It's an incredible plan and it's a great way for us fathers to be more in touch with our families," Babb said.
Officials say it will take a few years to know whether the hike was a blip or the beginning of a trend.
With a report from CTV's Genevieve Beauchemin
