Montreal's 'chronically underfunded' community sector seeks additional $100 million per year

A group representing hundreds of community groups in Montrealis calling on the government to invest an additional $100 million per year in basic funding for groups working in health and social services, which it says are "chronically underfunded" and facing"a perpetual crisis."

The Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montral (RIOCM),which represents 350 organizations, helda news conference Monday, accompaniedbyrepresentatives of Quebec's three main opposition parties, to implore the government to hear its demands and prioritize the community sector in its upcoming budget.

"[These organizations] are in survival mode," saidRIOCM co-ordinator Marie-Andre Painchaud-Mathieu. "Groups must fight every day to stay open."

According to the RIOCM, half of the 531 Montreal organizations it represents receive less than $160,000 per year from the government, and a fifth receive only $100,000 an amount deemed insufficient, according toPainchaud-Mathieu.

"That's barely enough to pay for our office space, and two people at a salary well below average.What do you want us to do with that?" she said.

Lily Shwarzbaum is asking that same question. She works the front desk at the Carrefour d'Education Populaire in Pointe-Saint-Charlesone of Montreal's sixpopular education centres (CEP) which has provided adult literacy programs, creative workshops, technological assistance and more in the neighbourhood for 50 years.

ButShwarzbaumsays the centre,which currently operates out of a free spaceprovided by the Centre de services scolaires de Montral (CSSDM),is fighting for its future.According to a lease signed years ago, the CEPwill need to start paying $37,000 in rent to theCSSDM come July, aprice Shwarzbaumsays will be impossible to pay.

"We don't have the means to pay the lease, we don't have the means to pay utilities," she said of the centres, which are funded by the Education Ministry."We are the community sector. We are a not-for-profit organization. We make sure that our activities are free to make sure they[stay] accessible to everyone in the neighbourhood."

In a statement to CBC, the CCSDMsaid it must start charging all six CEPs in order to cover maintenance and renovation costs for thebuildings they're housed in or be forced to cut programs to make up the difference.

TheCCSDMis anadministrative body of the Education Ministry, "so, we'rebasically being told to pay money ... tothe one who gives us our funding in the first place," said Shwarzbaum.

In a statement, the ministry said it is allocating nearly $360,000 to the Pointe-St-Charles CEPfor the 2021-2022 year. Shwarzbaumdescribes the amount as a drop in the bucket of what's needed.

She says the CCSDM and CEPs shouldn'tbe "fighting over peanuts," and thegovernment should instead be funding all of these crucial public services withsustainable and recurrentfunding.

'It's time to show us the money'

At Monday's news conference, Painchaud-Mathieu argued that one-time investments from the government create even more problems due to the added administrative burden and their temporary nature, which prevent the retention of staff.

"We get caught hiring contract workers, and as soon as we train them, they leave, because that's the end of the funding," she said.

Painchaud-Mathieu said this turnover of staff exacerbated by salaries that are "ridiculously low" make it difficult to build ties with people in the communities that these groups serve.

Throughout the pandemic, she said the government has repeatedly thankedcommunity organizations publicly,"yet itrefuses to give us the means to do our work decently," she said.

"It's all well and good to thank us, but now it's time to show us the money."

Opposition supports demands

The Liberal MNA for Montreal'sViaudistrict,Frantz Benjamin, says it's high time Quebec Premier Franois Legault recognizedthe city's community groups as vital.

"[They] play an essential role in a lot of critical issues that [Legault] ignores, denies, or blames on the pandemic," he said, citing housing, mental health, help for seniors, homelessness or those facingfinancial precariousness.

Qubec Solidairehealth critic andMNA for Rosemont Vincent Marissal said community groups are more than useful, "they are our partners." He said the least the Legaultgovernment can do is meet with these groups, openly calling outChantal Rouleau, the minister responsible for Montreal, who he says has not met with them since taking office more than three years ago.

Parti Qubcois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon criticized theLegaultgovernment, saying it's"always very tempted by ad hoc announcements that allow them to make political statements." But those one-offscontributeto"the non-recurring, poorly targeted, hardly accessible" nature of the funding that these groups currently see.

In a statement to CBC News, Minister Rouleausaid the province has always beenthere for community organizations, adding that Quebec has increased funding to andindexed theProgramme de soutien auxorganismes communautairesto$90 million since she took office.

"The health crisis has made poverty issues in Montreal more complex," she said. "And from the start, we took the time to support and listen to [organizations'] demands. We will continue to reach out to them."

But Benjamin says it's impossible to listen to people who have never been consulted.

"You cannot be the spokesperson for your government on matters of community groups if you refuse to meet them," he said.