QUEBEC CITY -- The Francois Legault government pledged to eliminate the waiting list for mental health services, but instead, the list keeps growing.

In November, Quebec had 16,000 people waiting for a mental health appointment, when the minister responsible, Lionel Carmant, pledged to do everything possible to eliminate the wait.

But far from being eliminated, six months later, the distress is spreading and the waiting list currently stands at 20,000 names.

Opposition parties stepped up the pressure on the government on Friday to take the situation seriously and make the necessary corrections urgently.

For two hours on Friday morning in the National Assembly, Minister of Health and Social Services Lionel Carmant was called to account by the opposition for his management of the file.

Carmant announced in November that he was releasing $100 million in emergency, one-time funding to increase the supply of mental health services by March 2022.

One-third of this money was to be used to purchase psychologists and other professionals from the private sector to rapidly increase the supply of care.

He hoped this would be enough to "eliminate" the wait time for needed services, which can be as long as two years.

The minister admitted Friday that the program has hit a snag and that the anticipated rollout of services has been slow to produce the desired results.

"We could have done better," he agreed, acknowledging that he would have liked "it to go faster" to meet the growing demand.

The minister refused the opposition's invitation to describe the current situation as a "crisis".

Prior to the questioning, PQ MNA Joel Arseneau described himself as an "angry man", noting the government's failure to intervene in mental health. According to him, this area remains "the blind spot" of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liberal MNA David Birnbaum echoed the call for free and universal access to psychotherapy services.

Carmant also acknowledged that some community mental health organizations are still waiting for the cheque promised in August.

At that time, he committed a total of $17.6 million in emergency funding to be shared among a few hundred organizations.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 28, 2021.