On May 14, Jean Boulet, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity, tabled the Government Action Plan for Community Action 2022-2027 (PAGAC), 15 years after the previous plan (2004 -2007) and three years after holding a consultation.
Posted at 6:00 p.m.
Unfortunately, its content is very disappointing for the organizations we represent, who make up three quarters of the independent community action movement: the 3,000 independent community organizations in the field of health and social services (OCASSS). PAGAC does not meet their financial or structural demands.
Misleading accounting inflation
Most of the PAGAC amounts had been announced in the budget last March and their presentation has been misleading since that time, because the funding for the global mission will not be increased by $834.2 million, as trumpeted by the minister and repeated by the media, let alone $1.1 billion. These figures constitute the addition of the sums paid in each of the five years, whereas it is almost always a question of the renewal of the amount of year one, with or without subsequent improvement. It is as if the government combined the salary, recurring, paid to the members of the National Assembly to sit for four years.
It should be noted that the Support Program for Community Organizations (PSOC) for the overall mission of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) currently represents 687 million, and that the additional needs already amount to 370 million per year. Considering this, the PSOC’s $37.1 million increase for 2022-23 is starving. What’s more, the amount is capped at 40.1 million from year two. In other words, OCASSS will receive an average increase of $12,000 this year, and then the average will freeze at $13,000 for the next four years.
But where is the MSSS?
The PAGAC provides nothing more for these 3000 groups than these meager sums. Minister Jean Boulet having, according to our information, responded to the requests sent by his colleagues. Those of the Minister Delegate for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, seem to have been very modest, both financially and structurally.
In fact, the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux is particularly absent from the 29 measures announced, being mentioned as a financial partner only with regard to funding for the overall mission and as an administrative partner in only six other measures.
We find it very hard to understand this discrepancy on the part of the department that administers the most important support programs for community organizations.
While we can rejoice that PAGAC has made an important place in funding for the overall mission, the 24 other measures rarely have significant sums, totaling 42.3 million for the year 2022-2023. Two measures are an exception and share half of this amount: $10 million to help community groups support vulnerable populations during crisis situations (COVID-19 being cited as an example) and $13 million for Carrefours jeunesse emploi du Québec , a surprising amount since most of the other measures have less than 2 million to cover a much larger number of organisms.
Structuring measures absent
PAGAC is totally silent on how to strengthen the application of the government policy on community action (2001) and on the instruments that would make it possible to achieve funding equity, such as the establishment of minimum thresholds or amounts basic. But what is even more surprising is the absence of action or reflection on the annual indexation of subsidies, both to ensure that all programs provide for it and to ensure that its calculation is based on the increase in costs. functioning of the groups.
The low indexation of the PSOC highlights the absence of an important lever
While the labor shortage and staff retention seem to worry Minister Jean Boulet, he did not use the PAGAC as a lever to allow the groups to offer good working conditions.
The PSOC is one of the few programs to index the operating subsidies, but not taking into account the increase in the operating costs of the OCASSS, this one comes out impoverished. Indeed, it is based, on the one hand, on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whereas the OCASSS are employers and not consumer households, and, on the other hand, it is out of step with the current situation since it is based on a projection of the CPI, resulting from forecasts by economists from the Ministère des Finances.
The announcement, barely 10 days before the filing of the PAGAC, that an indexation rate of 2.9% will be applied to PSOC subsidies is totally unsuited to the current economic situation, the March CPI being 6, 7%. Indeed, the indexation of OCASSS subsidies will not allow them to bear inflation. For direct and indirect salary costs alone, a quick calculation shows that indexing a $140,000 grant will only equate to $4,000, less than a third of the amount that will be needed to index salaries according to the IPC and cover the corresponding charges. As for the reimbursement of travel expenses according to mileage, it is obviously not with 2.9% indexation that an OCASSS will be able to reimburse the travel costs of its members and offset their bills at the gas pump.
While the PAGAC is supposed to aim at improving working conditions as well as attracting and retaining staff, we believe that the Minister Delegate Lionel Carmant cannot let the OCASSS pass the current year with such low indexation and we invite him to seek with us solutions adapted to inflation: in exceptional circumstances, exceptional corrections.
* Co-signers: Jean-Pierre Ruchonmember of the board of directors of the Table and of the coordinating committee of the CA$$$H Campaign (Autonomous community in health and social services – Increase funding) and co-coordinator in charge of administration and action sociopolitical grouping of alternative resources in mental health in Quebec; Mercedez Roberge, coordinator of the Table of Provincial Groupings of Community and Voluntary Organizations; Gaëlle Fedida is also a volunteer and coordinator of political issues for the Alliance of Second Stage Shelters for Women and Children Victims of Domestic Violence.