Community groups rally for more funding
Community groups such QUEBEC as MultiCaf — Côte-des-Neiges’ community cafeteria — are denouncing government underfunding in a series of actions this week, which will culminate in eight protests Wednesday, including in Montreal, Laval, Terrebonne and Quebec City.
Organizers say it is the first time that 1,200 community groups from all sectors — notably health, education, housing and food banks — have joined together to express their frustration at being taken for granted by the government.
At MultiCaf, an annual budget of $662,500 means being able to meet people’s basic needs, but not helping them long-term, spokesperson Bernard Besancenot told the Montreal Gazette.
About 300 people a day stop by MultiCaf to buy nutritionally balanced meals for two dollars.
“We detect patterns, what each person would need — go to Maison Jean Lapointe for detoxication, change apartments because where the person lives is cockroach-infested, we know all this,” Besancenot said.
“We have one social worker and she’s swamped; we’d need two, three, four more to satisfy the demand.”
“Could we help them more? Certainly. Do we have the means? No.”
Founded in 1986, MultiCaf’s mission is to provide food aid for an increasingly large number of low-income people in the Côtedes-Neiges/Snowdon area. It is also a meeting place that helps people fight loneliness and isolation. It counts nine full-time employees. Its location on Appleton Ave. is plastered with signs announcing the upcoming protests.
Many community groups have decided to close their doors this week to protest what they consider under-funding by Quebec, but MultiCaf has opted to stay open. However, Besancenot urged all MultiCaf users to join him in the Montreal protest on Wednesday.
“We have to remember that the government has a budgetary surplus,” said François Saillant, protest organizer and coordinator at Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU). “The government is choosing to put $5 billion in the Generations Fund to eventually reduce the debt; what we say is yes, there is a debt but it’s a social debt.”
Saillant demanded the Couillard Liberals invest an additional $475 million for funding for community groups, an increase that he estimated is less than one per cent of Quebec’s total spending.
Simon Laboissonnière, press attaché for Employment and Social Solidarity Minister François Blais, said the minister is currently meeting with groups and working on a new five-year plan to fight poverty.
PQ MNA Harold LeBel accused the minister of being “illogical” in passing Bill 70, which sets new rules for welfare, before having reflected on a larger strategy.
“The plan, it’s all for show,” LeBel said.