Alongside the mayor of Quebec for an announcement on mental health in the Capitale-Nationale region, Minister Carmant committed to meeting with merchants in downtown Quebec, to take the pulse of the situation. roaming on the ground and observing the needs.
Last month, the Saint-Roch Commercial Development Company (SDC) launched a “cry of alarm” on behalf of the approximately 240 companies it represents, concerned by increasingly repeated cases of incivility, mayhem and of theft in the area.
“These are situations which, in the long term, could cause the closure of businesses in the sector,” feared general director Marie-Pier Ménard.
“We are going to meet with merchants and citizens. The minister eagerly agreed to say: we will take the time to meet them. We will find ways, because people have things to tell us,” argued Mayor Bruno Marchand.
This visit, he predicts, will take place “in the coming weeks”.
“We are dedicated to this issue.”
— Bruno Marchand, mayor of Quebec
Saying he was “very sensitive to the situation,” the Minister of Social Services assured that he was hard at work, with the City of Quebec and the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, “to see if we cannot find a better solution. specific for people experiencing homelessness.
The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant (Stéphane Lessard/Archives Le Nouvelliste)
“I made an announcement a few weeks ago in Montreal for people with mental health problems and homelessness, we are working on a solution for Quebec as well,” he promised, without committing. to meet a specific deadline.
No tiny houses this winter
Regarding the tiny house project announced by the Marchand administration last June, the mayor of Quebec says that it is progressing, but that it will not be ready in time for winter. The City wants to deploy modular units on the outskirts, to respond to growing needs and increasingly visible homelessness outside the city center.
“We plan to be able to start work in the spring. We still have to find partners, that’s what we’re working on, but things are going well, we’re progressing well. I have good hope for 2025 that we will be able to put this in place,” said Mayor Marchand.
According to him, the actors are working together to present “something else for the cold season”.
Tiny houses are “different from shelters. This is the second step towards independent housing. We are going to deploy this trajectory throughout Quebec to help people escape homelessness,” said Minister Lionel Carmant.
Data from the Quebec government puts the number of people left from homelessness and integrated into housing at more than 1,500 in 2023.
