Outaouais leaders hope budget can address housing, nurse shortages

Representatives of West‐ ern Quebec municipalities say they'd like to see an in‐ crease to nurses' wages in the province, money to ad‐ dress homelessness and funding for public transit in the 2024-2025 budget.

Finance Minister Eric Gi‐ rard will present the budget to the National Assembly of Quebec Tuesday afternoon, which will outline the province's spending over the next year.

But with the Quebec grap‐ pling with a deficit, there are some questions about just how much government spending there will be on cer‐ tain issues, said MRC des Collines-de-l'Outaouais warden Marc Carrière.

"It's always an issue when the economic situation is more difficult for a govern‐ ment to complete their budget," he said.

Still, Carrière said there's hope the Outaouais will get some much needed funding for education, infrastructure and more.

Here are some of the top priorities for representatives of western Quebec.

Housing and homeless‐ ness

In a letter sent to Girard's office before her resignation, former Mayor of Gatineau France Bélisle outlined a number of issues the city was facing, including housing and homelessness.

She said the number of people experiencing home‐ lessness in the city grew five times from 2018 to 2022.

It's meant more people are living in encampments in Gatineau, which places more people at risk. At least two people living in tents have died since November.

Bélisle asked for more programs to help build new housing, with a focus on soci‐ al and affordable housing. Other requests included rental supplements.

In an emailed statement to Radio-Canada, a city repre‐ sentative said the current mayor of Gatineau, Daniel Champagne, is aligned with Bélisle's concerns.

Nursing wages

Another item on the wish list for MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller is an improve‐ ment to nurses' wages.

At $53,000 per year, Que‐ bec nurses starting out in en‐ try level positions are making 40 per cent less than Ontario nurses whose salaries begin at $74,000.

With more money offered right across the provincial border, Toller said there's now a shortage of nurses in the region.

Between 2019 and 2022, the number of Quebec's reg‐ istered nurses applying to positions in Ontario jumped from 224 to 435, according to data from the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).

The number of nurses with Quebec addresses regis‐ tered to work in the neigh‐ bouring province increased by nearly 30 per cent.

She said there have been numerous closures in the Pontiac Hospital's obstetrics department because there are too few nurses to consis‐ tently keep it open.

"I would hope that once the salary issue is equalized, we'll be able to keep our nurses and maybe encour‐ age some of them to come back," Toller said.

Transit and roadways The mayor of Chelsea, Que., said he'd like to see funding for public transit in the Outaouais.

Despite having a much smaller transit system com‐ pared to cities like Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau, Pierre Guénard said operat‐ ing costs are rising, particu‐ larly the cost of fuel.

"It would be nice to get our share of that envelope," he said.

If there's funding to help keep costs lower, it means fares can be kept as low as possible to make public tran‐ sit as inclusive as possible, said Guénard.

Some roadways in the re‐ gion, including Highway 5, are also in need of major re‐ pairs, said Liberal MNA André Fortin, who represents the riding of Pontiac.

"I expect those to be named in the budget for the region, to be singled out in the budget and for those in‐ vestments to be at the ap‐ propriate level," he said.