Quebec housing minister booed on stage during summit on homelessness

Quebec Minister Responsible for Housing France-Elaine Duranceau responds to the Opposition during question period, at the Legislature in Quebec City, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau's speech at the fourth Homelessness Forum in Quebec City on Friday was disrupted by booing, protests and jeers from community stakeholders.

A statement by the minister to the effect that the Rent Supplement Program was "perhaps a little underused" caused tension in the audience. Voices were heard contradicting the minister.

Seeing the reaction of the audience of a few hundred people, the minister tried to correct the situation by saying, "I'm not blaming you, I'm saying that we need to adapt the program when necessary."

The Programme de supplément au loyer (PSL) allows low-income households to pay rent equivalent to 25 per cent of their income.

A woman then interrupted the minister, saying that she already knew what she had to say, which earned her applause from the audience. Nevertheless, Duranceau continued her speech.

But the last straw was when the minister said that "no one can be evicted in Quebec in a context of renovation."

Her words provoked a wave of protests and booing from the audience.

"It's a disaster," said one woman.

After her speech, Minister Duranceau left the stage to applause and boos from the audience, as well as a number of jeers.

'What does she want me to invest with?'

In a press scrum after the event, the minister backtracked on her remarks, pointing out that her government had put in place a moratorium on evictions.

"It's not for nothing that we're running an advertising campaign at the moment ... People need to know their rights," she said.

"I think this reaction is understandable, given the difficulties people are experiencing on the ground. But I think we've made a lot of progress," she added.

The woman who interrupted the minister, Marie-Jile Cliche of Clés en main, was interviewed by The Canadian Press on the sidelines of the event and said that Duranceau lacked "manners, consideration and sensitivity."

"To tell people like me that all they have to do is invest in real estate. What does she want me to invest with?" she quipped, echoing a past statement by the minister that caused controversy.

In the summer of 2023 during the heated debate on limiting the transfer of leases, Duranceau had said: "You can't use a right that isn't yours, to transfer a lease to someone else, on terms that you decide when it's not your building. Any tenant who wants to do that has to invest in real estate and take the risks that go with it."

The minister was at the États généraux de l'itinérance to announce, with federal minister Jean-Yves Duclos, the selection of 22 housing projects that will result in 500 units reserved for people experiencing homelessness.

According to Duclos, the homelessness sector is "an environment of passionate people who are there with their hearts, who are going through difficult situations from a professional point of view, because every day they are there to help people who really need them."

"And just like the elected representatives of the Quebec government, sometimes the elected representatives of the Canadian government also feel in a more tangible way the pressure that comes with this work, but it's a pressure that's normal," he said.

Québec solidaire MNA Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who also attended the event, said that there was "probably some discontent in the community."

"I've been doing the rounds with the groups, particularly in Montreal, since September, and that's what I'm hearing on the ground, that when it comes to social housing, it's not working," he said.

"I think this was an opportunity for the minister to reach out to the community sector and to those interested in the issue of homelessness, the housing shortage and the housing crisis. I don't think she chose the right words to restore confidence, and that's deplorable," said Parti Québécois MNA Joël Arseneau.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 29, 2024.