stephane st croix

Jean-Philippe Thibault, LJI Jounalist

GASPÉ – Following Demeure Toi’s public announcement regarding the annual funding of its activities, the CISSS de la Gaspésie still intends to reach an agreement.

“The CISSS de la Gaspésie has the necessary funds earmarked for this type of accommodation project,” Cassandra Lévesque, Assistant to the president and acting communications manager, immediately stated in an email exchange.

She also emphasized that no specific amount has been proposed to the organization so far. Demeure Toi mentions a proposal for an annual amount of $50,000. Their expectations were more in the order of $318,000.

Cassandra Lévesque notes that financial assistance was granted in 2024 to hire a project manager.
“Our institution has collaborated transparently for many years with the Demeure Toi organization, notably through regular meetings, coaching, and support in their efforts […] Since the beginning of our approach with Demeure Toi, it has been planned that the funds granted to the CISSS de la Gaspésie should help improve and diversify the residential offerings for people living with autism spectrum disorder in the Côte-de-Gaspé region.”

The agreement yet to be concluded should thus make it possible to provide residential services, explains the CISSS de la Gaspésie. This “is consistent with the clinical profile of the clientele and the funding required to provide them with residential services.”

The amount remains to be determined. Cassandra Lévesque emphasizes that the goal is to enable people living with autism spectrum disorder to integrate into a living environment that meets their needs, in a supervised setting that offers them personal assistance services, the necessary help with domestic life, civic support, and presence and supervision.

The CISSS de la Gaspésie already offers various services to these people, such as support and guidance in achieving lifestyle habits, developing and resuming lifestyle habits, as well as support for partners.

MNA more than speechless

The Gaspé riding Member of the National Assembly was left more than speechless by Demeure Toi’s statement regarding the lack of funding requested by the organization.

Stéphane Sainte-Croix immediately clarified that no promise of recurring funding of $318,000 was made during a meeting in August 2024 with the organization, minister Lionel Carmant, and himself.

“Contrary to what was reported, there was no promise of an agreement. There was a recognition of the needs, and we responded. We listened, we clarified the needs, we identified the measures, we capitalized on the budget, and we disbursed it to the CISSS.”

The money is there, based on the needs identified through the project,” assures Mr. Sainte-Croix.

What calculation?

It’s hard to explain why Demeure Toi projected such a sum of $318,000 when the funding criteria have been known for a long time and are standardized by the Ministry of Health, especially since the potential beneficiaries have also been known from the start, he adds.

“Here, it says that the CISSS’s offer doesn’t match the assessment of their request, but these are the same criteria that have been in place since the first day of the project’s development. How do we arrive at $318,000?”

“In other words, they estimate the needs at approximately $25,000 per person, but where does that come from and based on what? Is it projected, real, desired? We’d also like to have honest answers to that. If they’ve been targeting $25,000 per person since day one, but the client profile assessment brings us to $5,000, they should have known this earlier than June 23. I’m a bit stunned,” specifies Mr. Sainte-Croix.

Criteria

Demeure Toi explained in its open letter that the service agreement proposed by the CISSS de la Gaspésie offered $50,000 per year through the Iso-SMAF ​​assessment. The Iso-SMAF ​​profiles represent a management system focused on classifying (from 1 to 14) users’ needs based on their autonomy. This tool produces results that underestimate the specificities of autism, Demeure Toi argues.

“If it’s a fight to change the criteria, that’s a different ball game,” says the MNA. “The ministry will not disregard its own rules to meet a need deemed unrecognized. The Demeure Toi project is anticipated and legitimate. We’ve worked hard on it along the way. But if the rules of the game aren’t working along the way, we should have said so beforehand. We could have worked on those rules, that’s for sure; that’s our job. But that was never part of the discussions”.

Subtitle: Deadline

Stéphane Sainte-Croix wants to be clear and reiterates that the money has been allocated; that the total budget for the needs estimated for Demeure Toi by the ministry is allocated to the CISSS de la Gaspésie. However, the precise amount of this budget was not known at SPEC’s deadline.

“The perception is that the money isn’t there. It’s there, the check is there. I’m sure of that,” Mr. Sainte-Croix adds.

“I agree with this fight, but it shouldn’t be waged in the negotiation of an agreement at one to midnight. These discussions haven’t taken place in five years. Why wasn’t this raised sooner? Now we’re being told we’re not doing our job, but are we just hoping for it or are we complying with the applicable standards?” “I have a bit of a problem with that,” concludes Stéphane Sainte-Croix.