Mr. Legault,
Gisèle Chiasson, a retired teacher, was ousted twice in a row in a fashionable Montreal neighborhood. In Granby, not far from the seniors’ housing project just announced by your government, Louise Patenaude, Gisèle Roy, Laurent Leduc and several elderly tenants on low incomes are under pressure to sign and leave their homes.
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We can debate at length about the causes of the housing crisis, you and I do it every day, but its consequences are undeniable and well documented: eviction notices are raining down on senior tenants across Quebec.
This situation – poor and often lonely people evicted from their homes after having worked all their lives – is immoral. No need to be Quebec Solidarity to achieve it. The PQ and the PLQ are of the same opinion. In recent weeks, a broad consensus has built around the urgency of modernizing the law adopted in 2016, nicknamed the Françoise David law, in order to protect more elderly tenants against evictions.
A call for compromise
My political party’s new bill would extend the Françoise David law to people aged 65 or over who have lived at the same address for at least five years, compared to 70 years and 10 years, respectively, in the current law. We also propose updating the income criterion to reflect the spectacular explosion in the cost of living since the adoption of the law in 2016. In short, it is a question of modernizing the law and protecting more people from to the worst housing crisis in 40 years.
If I am writing to you today, it is to extend my hand to you again and, above all, to assure you of my openness to negotiate in good faith the content of our bill. I tell you bluntly: we are ready to make compromises to allow its adoption.
To do this, I invite you to intervene so that the bill can be studied in parliamentary committee. I am ready to work with you and other elected officials, regardless of their party, to find the common ground that Quebecers expect of us. The most important thing is to move forward. The most important thing is to protect more seniors.
Taking a favorable position
The study of the bill in parliamentary committee would also be an opportunity to hear the main stakeholders. A few days ago, representatives of FADOQ and AQDR, two of the main seniors groups in Quebec, took a position in favor of our bill. They will be the first to welcome a true transpartisan approach and to come and bear witness to the reality of the hundreds of thousands of seniors they represent.
The nation of Quebec is only as strong as its weakest link. The elected representatives of the Quebec people have the responsibility to work together to protect the most vulnerable among us. If you choose to act to protect seniors from the housing crisis, I promise you my full cooperation.
Please receive my most respectful greetings,
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Parliamentary leader of the second opposition, Member of Parliament for Gouin