Mayoral candidates share commitments to Gatineau’s growing homelessness population

Taylor Clark

Frustrated by the worsening homelessness crisis, changer makers gathered at the third Citizen Symposium on Change to share solutions on how to prevent poverty not only in Gatineau but Outaouais as a whole.

“When unwanted changes occur in our society, there are two things we can do. Nothing or something. This meeting is for those of us who want to do something about the changes we want to experience in our world,” said organizer Sylvain Henry. “It is our hope, our belief, and our most sincere desire to ensure that what begins here in this room, with your collaboration, can soon change our entire region for the better.”

Henry has been organizing these collaborative community events since February to unite citizens and politicians in developing working solutions to tackle the growing issue.

Since his previous symposiums, Henry has been able to collect 800 immediate solutions for what he referred to as the Citizen Idea Bank. He hoped to put some of the ideas into action and share the success stories with all levels of government.

Stirring away from a traditional debate, five of the seven prospective mayoral candidates were asked to share their plans to boost the local economy and prevent poverty.

Independent candidate Olive Kamanyana said she would tackle it straight away by assisting the on-the-ground organizations and later footing the bill to Quebec.

“I cannot accept that people continue to live in unacceptable situations because the provincial government did not listen,” said Kamanyana. “I don’t want politics to affect people, our people, our children, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters.” 

With the issue spanning far beyond the municipal realm, independent candidate Stéphane Bisson also stressed the involvement of the provincial government.

“The City takes on a lot of responsibility, and it’s also all of your money that we use to help homeless people, instead of the Government of Quebec, which must be part of it,” said Bisson.

Action Gatineau head Maude Marquis-Bissonnette said relationships need to be rebuilt with both the provincial and federal governments to ensure the proper funding to solve the issue.

“The mayor’s role is to remind Quebec that we need our share of investments to ensure that these issues with these vulnerable people are resolved,” said Marquis-Bissonnette. “Quebec City is far away, but I want to make sure that politicians at the provincial level, as well as the federal government, hear us.”

Independent candidate Daniel Feeny said a major element was the inaccessibility of housing. “It’s difficult to find housing and the crisis didn’t start yesterday, didn’t arrive suddenly but we haven’t dealt with it sufficiently in recent years.”

The former communications director of France Bélisle proposed upping the construction of social and transitional housing to fill the glaring gap.

Fellow independent candidate Mathieu Saint-Jean also dove into the scarcity of affordable housing and put forward what he referred to as a permanent solution by establishing a community of tiny homes which in return would stimulate the economy and generate jobs with their construction.

“I launched a GoFundMe to support this initiative, under the name Pour l’action. I invite you to give generously to speed up the process,” said Saint-Jean.

Come July, the fourth symposium will centre around potential candidates for the next federal election and their plans for Canada. Visit the Tent City Network group on Facebook for more updates on the next event.

If you like to contribute to the Citizen Idea Bank, solutions can be shared with Henry via email at sylvain.henry@gmail.com or by phone at 613-501-4357.

Photo caption: Citizens gather at the Cabane en Bois Rond on May 19 to offer their solutions to the growing homelessness crisis grappling Gatineau.

Photo credit: Taylor Clark