Lionel Carmant

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Resilience Montreal put together a detailed budget into its services and its financial needs specifically because provincial Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant asked them to. Why, then, Executive Director David Chapman wants to know, are they now being ignored?

Resilience Montreal is planning a move to a larger, better facility – from its current location at the corner of Ste. Catherine and Atwater to 780 Atwater a few blocks further south. The move will come with extended hours, and will require new hires to respond to increased need in the community. And that requires funding.

Last November Carmant’s office reached out to the shelter, offering to help. Carmant, the CAQ MNA for Taillon, met with Chapman, and brought along Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, the opposition MNA for Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne. They toured the site of the new facility, discussed the shelter’s mission and needs, and talked about funding.

Carmant acknowledged, at the time, that the money Resilience does get is nowhere near enough. Cliche-Rivard had also asked about the shelter’s budgetary shortfall. But since then there’s been no contact from Carmant’s office. So Chapman sent a letter to Carmant, co-signed by Nakuset, director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (and co-founder of Resilience).

In the letter, a copy of which was sent to The Suburban, Chapman writes, “we were surprised in January to learn that no funding would be allocated to address this shortfall and that our expansion proposal, designed with the neighbourhood’s well-being in mind, was not being supported.”

Carmant’s office says that Resilience Montreal already receives funding through the provincial government’s plan to alleviate homelessness and its Indigenous support. His office then suggested they ask the federal government for more funding.

Chapman explains that Carmant is referring to money that comes from the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Premières Nations et les Inuit (SRPNI). It’s something Chapman says Resilience gets every year to the tune of $100,000. Their budget, however, is $2.2 million. “$100,000 is two months’ of groceries.”

Resilience Montreal operates with an all-Indigenous board, a team of 50% Indigenous operating staff, and an 80% Indigenous intervention team. “And a lot of the clients we service,” Chapman tells The Suburban, “are second-generation residential school survivors.”

Chapman acknowledges that Resilience does get $500,000 a year from the CIUSSS. But combined with the funding that Carmant is referring to, they start off each year with less than half of their budget, having to scrounge to make up the balance via private donors.

So Chapman is wondering why, if the provincial government either can’t – or won’t – help, why did they approach Resilience Montreal in the first place?

“Our situation is dire,” Chapman’s letter warns, “and the future of Resilience Montreal is uncertain.”

He says they have enough money left in the bank to get them through the next three weeks. “After that we go below zero.” If no money is forthcoming after that, Chapman says, they may have to close “for a while.”

He says that Resilience Montreal remains committed to the partnership that Carmant proposed. “We believe that with your support,” he wrote to Carmant, “we can make a significant difference in the lives of the homeless population and the community at large.” n