(Quebec) The Parti Québécois (PQ) urges the Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, to “get out of his torpor” and to set up a crisis unit bringing together the mayors of large cities, community organizations and Quebec to add roaming resources before the cold snap that will cross the province this weekend.
Posted at 1:25 p.m.
“Minister Carmant must take leadership on the issue of homelessness. This is his file. He must launch an emergency plan to intervene quickly in support of cities and community organizations to ensure that we have a warm place to accommodate all homeless people in a period of freezing cold, ”said the parliamentary leader. péquiste Joël Arseneau.
While Montreal announced Tuesday that the soccer stadium on Papineau Street in the Saint-Michel borough will host nearly 300 homeless people infected with COVID-19 as of Thursday, Mr. Arseneau is worried that the resources on the ground are insufficient. .
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Joel arseneau
“That the government set up a roaming crisis unit and that it deploy resources complementary to those of the cities to ensure it gets through the cold snap. We cannot sit idly by as the cold wave sweeps away one, two or three homeless people. These are tragedies, preventable tragedies, ”says Mr. Arseneau.
On Monday evening, a 74-year-old homeless man was found dead in Montreal in a state of hypothermia. “I am upset, like the rest of the Montreal population. I want to tell you that it is an important demonstration to live in a makeshift shelter, it is not the solution ”, then affirmed the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante.
Earlier this week, before handing in his resignation, the former national public health director, Dr Horacio Arruda, also issued a notice so that homeless shelters open their dormitories during cold spells “according to the capacity established before the pandemic, regardless of the outbreak status of the environment”.