Quebec aims to support 50,000 additional people towards employment and social reintegration by 2030, in order to combat the increase in homelessness. The Minister responsible for Social Solidarity, Chantal Rouleau, however, reiterates that the number of asylum seekers received puts pressure “almost everywhere” on existing resources.
“Asylum seekers represent 30% of the number of people receiving the social assistance system. That means over 50,000 people. It’s still important. And it has an impact on community organizations, on services to citizens, in short almost everywhere,” explains Ms. Rouleau to La Presse, who is due to present this Friday the new Plan to combat poverty and social exclusion.
His exit comes as Quebec and Ottawa divide again on the issue of immigration, with Prime Minister François Legault declaring that without the 270,000 additional temporary immigrants that Quebec has welcomed over the past two years, “there would be no no more housing crisis.”
“Enough of the bad blood about immigrants,” federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller replied, describing Mr. Legault’s comments as “unfair” and “unreasonable” amalgams.
For Chantal Rouleau, everything should first and foremost be about balance. “We are a welcoming people, we want to continue to be so, but it must not have an impact on services for all Quebecers, or even have an effect on French,” she said. .
“We want to offer francization, so we need teachers, we need premises. It’s all a chain. And when we take premises for francization, it is possible that it is community organizations that are displaced, because we need classes. There is nothing simple,” adds the minister.
She is concerned that people in precarious situations are “increasingly removed from the labor market”.
In his eyes, this context is all the more “difficult” in Montreal, where accommodation resources are already full and distress is more perceptible than ever in the streets and in the metro.
His plan sets the number of people to be “reintegrated” through employment or education at 50,000. “We want to change paradigms and be more supportive. In particular, we will expand the Objective Employment Program, which allows you to obtain additional benefits when going to work. Until now, it was only aimed at people who were on social assistance for the first time,” illustrates Ms. Rouleau.
In total, the fight plan will total 4.3 billion, including 750 million in the implementation of 71 actions to “consolidate the support allocated to the needs of vulnerable people”. A good part of these resources will go “to Montreal community organizations and the City,” assures the minister.
