Community groups protest Quebec’s ‘insufficient investment’ for vulnerable populations

The Front régional d’action communautaire autonome (FRACA) of Montreal took to the streets on Tuesday protesting Quebec’s “insufficient investment” for vulnerable populations — denouncing the Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) contempt as Finance Minister Éric Girard tables the 2025 Quebec budget today in the National Assembly.

“It is astonishing that our leaders blame the people most affected by the policies they implement,” says Olivier Gauvin, spokesperson for FRACA. “These people are vulnerable; perhaps we should help them instead of pointing the finger at them.”

Starting from Phillips Square, the group — made up of regional community groups and organizations — marched to François Legault’s Montreal office located on Sherbrooke West.

“A protest because today is budget day and we want to send a very clear message to Minister Eric Girard, Premier Legault and everyone in the political class,” said Gauvin. “We are indignant about the way they’ve been treating our fellow citizens, about the way they’ve been talking about them, about the ways they’ve been talking about our communities, because they’ve been blaming for the past few years.”

FRACA is calling on state representatives to stop normalizing division and exclusion.

Adding that they call for a massive reinvestment in the social safety net, including the implementation of laws and policies that promote access to truly affordable housing, an income that meets basic needs, and “public, universal, free, functional, sufficient, universally accessible, non-discriminatory, high-quality, and socially and culturally acceptable health care and social services that are accessible to all.”

FRACA is composed of the following regional community groups:

● Women’s Action Network in Health and Social Services (RAFSSS)
● Montreal Network for the Support of Single and Homeless People (RAPSIM)
● Montreal Intersectoral Group of Community Organizations (RIOCM)
● Montreal Women’s Groups (TGFM)
● Montreal Community Organizations Fighting AIDS (TOMS)
● Regional Table of Women’s Centres of Metropolitan Montreal – Laval (TRCFMML)
● Montreal Regional Table of Voluntary Organizations for Popular Education (TROVEP)

“We want to see measures that will help the most marginalized folks in our society get access to housing, healthcare and other needs that they need to fulfill,” said Gauvin.