(Drummondville) Despite a bill that still swells, “the concept of seniors’ homes, we will not see it again,” said Minister Marguerite Blais, adding that the construction of additional establishments is planned by the government for the next few years.
Posted at 10:31 a.m.
The Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers commented on the revelations of The Press on the $430 million increase in construction costs for seniors’ homes, Saturday, at the opening of the CAQ convention in Drummondville under the theme of “pride” and under very high security.
A police deployment never seen before during a political event has been deployed in Drummondville, while streets are closed and a large security perimeter has been established. A thousand activists are registered, according to the CAQ.
During a press scrum, Marguerite Blais defended tooth and nail the concept of seniors’ homes, while researchers from the Pôle Santé of HEC Montréal maintain in a report that their “very high cost […] seems to make it a model that is difficult to sustain, considering the large number of places to be built in the coming years in order to cope with demographic change”.
Photo Patrice Laroche, Le Soleil archives
The Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais
“The interior of seniors’ homes is exactly what all the leading specialists in long-term care accommodation tell us to do. The concept, we are not going to see it again, ”said Mme Blais, mentioning lip service that some construction parameters could be reviewed. She said that “more accommodation places” than those already announced will be developed by the government in the coming years, if re-elected. She will not participate in this new phase, since she is leaving politics at the end of her mandate.
In its own forecast, the Ministry of Health and Social Services estimates that an additional 20,264 people aged 70 or over will need long-term accommodation in 2028, a 60% increase from to the current situation.
And that’s not counting that 3,800 people are on the waiting list to get a place in a CHSLD, a number that has increased under the CAQ leadership.
Minister Blais on the increase in costs, which have just gone from 2.36 to 2.79 billion dollars for the construction of 46 houses with 3,480 places. “When we mention that the costs are high, it’s a fact. But it is also a fact that everything has increased, ”she argued.
“Everything has gone up,” as the minister says, due to runaway inflation. Ministers like Lucie Lecours and Benoit Charette have acknowledged that many citizens are questioning them about the rising cost of living and that this is a dominant “concern” at the moment.
However, the pre-election congress does not address this issue at all. The party is betting on the theme of “pride” with 23 nationalist and identity-based proposals. Mme Lecours and Mr. Charette defended the theme of the congress, however refusing to say which proposal seems to them the most important.
“Prosperity and pride go together, it’s pretty much in line with the priorities of Quebecers,” said Premier François Legault before entering the room.
During the morning, the activists meeting in congress were rapidly adopting the 23 proposals submitted for debate.
Among them, we are asking the Quebec government to “reiterate” its request to the federal government to “transfer all immigration powers as quickly as possible”. Quebec must hold all the powers in the selection of permanent and temporary immigrants “in order to preserve the vitality of French and the demographic weight of Francophones”, we plead.
It is proposed to introduce a compulsory course in the history of Quebec at CEGEP which would notably allow “to develop a feeling of pride in young adults”. We suggest “emphasizing the learning of knowledge related to Quebec culture and society in the context of francization courses” intended for newcomers. The CAQ wants to review the French programs at the elementary and secondary levels in order to improve language proficiency. She militates for the creation of a museum of the national History of Quebec and research chairs in the universities which “would prioritize, in various fields, the study of Quebec and which would correspond to its priorities”.