By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A petition calling on the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS to rethink its decision to cancel a planned expansion of the CHSLD de Bedford has gathered more than 3,300 signatures, according to a spokesperson for the Bedford Pole Health Committee (BPHC).
In 2022, then-seniors’ affairs minister Marguerite Blais announced plans to move forward with a $15.1-million expansion of the facility, which would have allowed 49 residents to live there in private rooms and created a protected unit with eight places for people with cognitive disabilities who are susceptible to wandering. The planned expansion was first outlined in 2019 before running into delays due to the pandemic. However, the CIUSSS announced in June that it was cancelling the expansion altogether, ostensibly due to a cultural shift to home care; it later came to light that the CIUSSS had a deficit of more than $30 million. Days after the cancellation was announced, at the initiative of a local resident, BPHC volunteers began circulating the paper-only petition at summer events such as Fete nationale celebrations and the Bedford Fair parade.
BPHC spokesperson Pierrette Messier-Peet said she believed the petition resonated with people who wanted their elderly relatives to stay nearby – and who wanted to grow old close to home themselves. “We don’t want our elderly people to be sent to the city to end their lives. People are being sent to Farnham, Cowansville, Sutton, Granby, I’ve even heard of one person sent to Longueuil. People are very angry at the idea that their parent might be the one sent away. It’s a lack of respect for our region.”
“We thought we would be happy with 1,000 signatures [on the petition], but we got to 2,000 very quickly,” said Messier-Peet. Liberal seniors’ and caregivers’ affairs critic Linda Caron has said she is willing to table the petition at the National Assembly, ramping up pressure on the CAQ government.
“I understand their frustration, and it’s great that they are doing all this work,” Caron said of the BPHC and the Fondation Lévesque-Craighead, which has also been at the forefront of efforts to get the expansion approved. “Madame Blais made this promise in 2022, and the data hasn’t changed that much since then. On a human level, when people need CHSLD care, they are vulnerable. It is already a big change to move into a CHSLD, even more so if the CHSLD is an hour away and they are further from their spouse, children or neighbours who would come visit. Our seniors deserve better.”
Christiane Granger, president of the Lévesque-Craighead Foundation, said the petition was “important” and showed that community members were mobilized. She said the foundation had written to health minister Christian Dubé and expected to meet with Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest in the short term to discuss the future of the project.
Charest “has been working hard for several weeks to shed light on the situation. She has questioned the ministerial offices of seniors and health as well as the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS,” said her press attaché, Maryse Dubois. “She is still waiting for some answers.”
CIUSSS spokesperson Éliane Thibault said the CIUSSS was aware of the petition, but did not comment on the future of the project or the institution’s budget difficulties as such. She did say smaller renovations would go ahead as planned in the fall, with input from a resident life committee.