The Community Sector Stands Up

Last year, the provincial government gave Caroline Chartier’s organization $3,600 to provide raises across her staff. 

Her staff consists of 65 employees, whom she pays for 52 weeks a year. Divided among the staff, she was able to offer them a $1.06-per-week raise.

This is the constant burden of running a community group, the backbone of every neighbourhood and every society. They help specific demographics of society and try to advocate for them. Moisson Montréal is the largest food bank in Canada, addressing food insecurity. La Maison des jeunes L’Ouverture in Montreal North is a community-based centre that provides a supervised meeting place for kids aged 12 to 17, offering educational workshops, sports activities, and psychological support to promote social development and citizenship.

Chartier explained how they can’t budget for the future, because they’re constantly on the edge financially. Beyond that, Chartier says, they’re not able to pay their employees enough, who are bordering on burnout from long hours doing emotional heavy lifting and irregular hours that don’t provide a simple work-life balance.

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To denounce the government’s refusal to finance the community sector, 10,000 workers stood before the National Assembly on April 2 holding signs that read “Le Communautaire à boutte” (“the community sector is fed up”). For the sector to get back on track, Chartier and Mathieu Gélinas, the other spokesperson for Le communautaire à boutte, said they would need an injection of $2.6 billion.

As the crowd chanted, danced, and sang, hoping to see the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government show a change of heart in its dying days, premier François Legault spoke his final speech to the National Assembly. His party applauded frequently, with ministers like Simon Jolin-Barrette tearing up as he eulogized the time that Legault spent as premier of Quebec. 

“It was René Lévesque who was the greatest inspiration in my life,” Legault said, obviously emotional. “It was him who gave me my love for Quebec and the Québécois.” 

Despite extolling his love for the people of Quebec, the premier had overseen a fundamental dismantling of Quebec’s social systems, and had gone so far as to say he was “at war” with unions, who have helped build the celebrated “Quebec Model” of economics and governance. But the CAQ is just another in a long line of governments that have done the same. Since Lucien Bouchard’s Parti Québécois (PQ) of the late 90s, every subsequent government, regardless of party, has followed the “deficit zero” model of budgeting.

This massive protest in front of the National Assembly grew from a conversation in Shawinigan and exploded into an organic strike that has united the community groups. From there, the movement unexpectedly took a life of its own.

“We’ve been working on this movement for a year now… Among grassroots groups who expressed anger at the underfunding and the lack of resources to deliver our essential services,” said Mathieu Gélinas, co-spokesperson for the movement. 

Gélinas explained the complications of running a community organization. The organizations worked in silos — applying for funding while struggling to get by. Now, as they face their own extinction, they’ve organized. The movement now sees more than 1,600 community groups working together. “We said to ourselves: we’re going to collectively relearn how to work together,” he said.

In Quebec, community groups are usually independent, non-profit organizations that provide social services and advocate for collective rights. They operate as the “third sector,” bridging the gap between public institutions and the private market to address local needs such as health, food security, and social integration.

All of these groups face the same fundamental problem: the government started leaning on them as an alternative to social services because they are highly skilled, but much less expensive. 

“We’re not cheap labour. We’re not patching the holes of the public services. We’re an alternative — a force of social transformation,” said Tristan, an employee of the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ). “You can’t lower the budget of the public sector and increase the (burden of the) community sector. What would that do? We would just do the work of the public sector at a cheaper rate.”

Chartier described the terrible working conditions across the community sector. Organizations are strapped for cash and often can only pay workers around $20 an hour. The hours are sometimes erratic, and even when employees aren’t working, they might still be contacted in an emergency. 

The underfunding of these community workers is at a crisis point. Chartier said that the groups collectively need an investment of $2.6 billion dollars to get everything working properly again. 

If the government were willing to negotiate, the sector is ready to have hard discussions: “We’re ready to work through every issue step by step,” Chartier said. They have no delusions that $2.6 billion will simply be handed to them, but in this year’s budget, the government earmarked $250 million for the winner of the CAQ leadership race. The leaders of the movement hope some of that money will come to them.

“We have expertise that can be preserved,” Gélinas said. “Let’s take the housing crisis as an example — for decades, human rights organizations have been raising the alarm. (The government) didn’t listen to them, and it’s costing us dearly.” 

In his opinion, an influx of money like that would go a long way to preserving their expertise and societal contributions.

Despite all of this, they’re feeling optimistic. “We’ve had meetings with each of the opposition parties, with the exception of the conservative party,” Chartier said. “Discussions are progressing very well.” 

“Community organizations are on the front lines of strengthening our social safety net. It is crucial to recognize (their) expertise and autonomy,” said Marie-Karlynn Laflamme, member of the Parti Québécois for Chicoutimi, in a statement to The Rover. 

She said the party wants to increase funding while reducing the time spent applying for it, to give community groups more capacity to “fulfill their mission of helping the population.”

“Community organizations are the backbone of our communities,” a spokesperson for the Quebec Liberal Party said to The Rover. “They understand the realities on the ground… and the needs that often go unseen. That kind of insight cannot be replicated, and that kind of trust cannot be manufactured.” They did not clarify how they would address the problems community groups are facing. 

The Rover reached out to Legault and newly elected CAQ leader Christine Fréchette, but did not receive a response.

The PQ is the odds-on favourite to form the next government this fall, but the Liberals are not far behind. Chartier explained that the problem facing community groups is simple: they need money. It is one thing for the leading parties to believe that community groups are important; it is another to finance and realize a robust plan to help them.

But both the Liberals and the PQ recognize that they need the sector’s support in the next election.

“We even had offers to participate when they draft their election platform,” Chartier said. She did not clarify which party (or parties) offered to do so. Some people in the community sector are doubtful. “Isn’t this just opportunism? Right before the election, it seems very convenient,” they said to Chartier. But she remains positive.

Despite acknowledging there is probably a certain level of opportunism, “there was a conversation, there was an openness, whereas we don’t have that at all with the current government,” she said. “We think we’ll be part of the discussions with the other parties at election time.” 

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