The minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers met with leaders from more than a dozen Montreal seniors' groups Friday to hear their concerns.

Kathleen Weil acknowledged that English-speaking seniors require some adapted public services.

“One of the strengths we have in the English community is we have very strong community organizations, so for a minister who comes into that job, I can rely on that partnership. Now is the government going to be able to respond to everything in the short term? Obviously not, but we can start prioritizing and respond to some of these needs, for sure,” she said.

The community organizers say stable core funding from the government is certainly desirable, but a variety of aging-related issues were raised.

“Access to health and social services and information about other things in English, this is always the number one issue, but there are other issues like transportation, housing, abuse, intervening with abuse. Social isolation is becoming more of a topic,” said Michael Udy of Seniors Action Quebec.

Weil and the head of the English-language secretariat have toured the province to gather data on minorities, including information about anglophone seniors.

This data will be used to create a new government action plan.