As the Government of Quebec seeks to implement the recommendations of the Laurent commission, the National Assembly will resume next week, after a two-week parliamentary recess, the study of Bill no.oh 15 proposing major reforms within the Department of Youth Protection (DPJ).
An important actor in terms of prevention and maintenance of the social safety net around children and families in Quebec is, however, one of the great omissions of this bill tabled by Minister Lionel Carmant: the community sector.
Indeed, Bill 15 nowhere mentions the essential collaboration between the institutional environment and the community organizations that are on the front line to support and accompany families on a daily basis. However, these organizations have extensive expertise in the field and are complementary to the public network, reaching clienteles in vulnerable situations who too often go under the radar of the DYP.
The 280 family community organizations (OCF) in Quebec actively contribute to preventing the aggravation of situations that would otherwise have to be dealt with by youth protection. They thus lighten the burden on the public network.
Faced with this observation, Quebec cannot deprive itself of the essential contribution of the community sector and must deploy additional efforts to deepen the collaboration between the DYP and the community organizations. When it comes to the well-being of children and families in Quebec, we simply can no longer work in isolation, as is still too often the case.
This is why the Quebec Federation of Family Community Organizations (FQOCF) is proposing, in a brief submitted to the National Assembly’s Committee on Health and Social Services, a series of recommendations aimed at increasing exchanges between these two actors, including complementarity can and must be added for the benefit of children and families here.
This deepening of the DPJ-OCF collaboration notably involves the establishment of consultation bodies that will allow an exchange of relevant information and better coordination of prevention action, both nationally and regionally. and local.
If we work together more, our little ones will be the first winners.
As the Legault government’s first term draws to a close, Finance Minister Eric Girard’s next budget, scheduled for March 22, will be a final opportunity to fulfill his commitment to respond favorably to all of the Commission’s recommendations. Special Committee on Children’s Rights and Youth Protection (CSDEPJ), chaired by Régine Laurent.
One of the Commission’s first six recommendations, made in December 2019, directly concerned the family community sector: the government must ensure adequate mission funding for the 280 OCFs in Quebec, i.e. a predictable and recurring sum of at least $200,000 per organization annually.
A first step in this direction was taken in the fall of 2020 when the Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, announced an increase in this envelope of $130,000 per OCF. However, there is still a shortfall of $70,000 per year to reach the target set by the CSDEPJ.
What was our surprise when we heard Minister Carmant declare, in reaction to the recent public outing of the former vice-president of the Laurent commission, André Lebon, that of these six recommendations of December 2019, “all , all have been fulfilled. It is totally false.
An opportunity to seize
Since the start of the pandemic, the OCFs have demonstrated beyond any doubt their ability to maintain the social safety net around children, mothers and fathers throughout Quebec. They did so with kindness and resilience, despite limited means, and in the face of an unprecedented global crisis.
But while the needs continue to increase in the field and the operating costs explode, the family community environment is more and more out of breath.
The Legault government therefore has before it a golden opportunity, with the budget of next March 22, to keep its word and truly follow up on all the recommendations of the Laurent commission.
If we want to continue to act in prevention for the well-being of families here, Quebec will one day have to give itself the means to fulfill its ambitions and settle once and for all the chronic and historical underfunding of OCF.