A coalition of community organisations from across the Pontiac demonstrated outside the MRC building on Tuesday to demand the government of Quebec provide them more funding.

This action was just one part of a week of demonstrations across the Outaouais region organised by Table régionale des organismes communautaires de l’Outaouais (TROCAO).

All groups present at the protest expressed concerns . . .

that the services they provided to the public were under threat due to the lack of investment from the provincial government.

“We are here to get adequate funding to be able to provide a good salary and benefits, like pension and insurance to our employees,” said Martin Riopel director of the Le Jardin Éducatif du Pontiac.

“We’re asking for the promises the (provincial) government was elected on,” said Silvianna Geoffray, director of the Quyon Family Centre. “They said community organisations were doing enormous work and that they were going to raise funding. Some ministers have done that, but not to the level of what was asked.”

Members of organizations ranging from L’EntournElle, Maisons des jeunes du Pontiac, Comptoir St-Pierre, Maison de la Famille du Pontiac, Jeunesse Idem, (a local LGBTQIA+2 group), Table Développement social du Pontiac, l’Association Pour les Droits Sociaux and others were also in attendance at the demonstration.

The services provided by these groups are diverse ranging from supporting food banks, providing activities for youth, operating free tax clinics, providing cheap clothing, supporting LGBTQIA+2 youth, drug prevention workshops and more.

All of the groups’ repersentatives THE EQUITY spoke with had similar grievances related to their ability to pay staff. The combination of COVID causing a surge in demand for their services, the nationwide labour shortage making the retention of staff more difficult and the rising cost of living are exacerbating these problems.

Riopel explained his difficulties recruiting staff, stating how some employees at community organisations had to work two to three jobs to survive and don’t receive benefits. These problems are made worse when considering that social workers, the people most qualified for this kind of work, require three-four years of school.

He also explained that funding is usually given on a fixed-term basis, meaning the programs they provide are not sustainable.

“When a program is done, we don’t get any more money and we need to support it ourselves,” said Riopel. “But usually what it means is we cut the salary of a person and the project is gone, it’s done. So we’re not able to provide services year after year in good quality, which is bad, because we are all here for people’s needs.”

The lack of funding also prevents these community organisations from providing as many services as they potentially could.

“We have 18 municipalities [in Pontiac], but I can only offer four youth centres,” said Stephane Durocher, Director General of the Maisons des jeunes du Pontiac. “Basically to cover the territory probably would need an extra two youth centres.”

“We’re seeing more and more demand from schools who need us to give workshops for kids, teens and young adults who need help from parents who are lost and don’t know what to do when their kids need help,” said Stephanie Meurier, community worker with Jeunesse IDEM. “We try to do our best but there’s only so much we can do with the resources we have.”

Warden of MRC Pontiac regional government Jane Toller came out and greeted the demonstrators, using it as an opportunity to speak about how nurses are paid $10 less on the Quebec side of the river, and therefore unable to retain them.

“The timing of this demonstration is perfect because they need to honour their promise and give $10 more, but it’s not just the nurses”, said Toller. “It’s all of our social services that have held the Pontiac together through the two years of COVID.”

“It’s a question of policy choices, political choices. We’ve seen though, with the pandemic we’ve seen over the years, the critical role that a lot of groups play, to support families, to provide food for people in need to take people out of situations of violence and things like that”, said Daniel Cayley-Daoust, director of TROCAO

“What we’re saying is our expertise, our role has been ignored and undervalued for so long,” said Cayley-Daoust. “Why they aren’t choosing to fund the community sector more is beyond me. I think it’s about time, and that’s why we’re here.”

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