(Djerba, Québec) François Legault believes “everyone understands his government’s decision” to delay delivery of 31 of the 33 retirement homes promised by the end of the year due to labor shortages in the construction industry.
Posted at 5:00 p.m
“I think everyone understands, this applies to homes, hospitals and schools,” said the prime minister on arrival on the Tunisian island of Djerba, where he is attending the Francophonie summit this weekend.
François Legault attributes the delay in the delivery of almost all the retirement homes promised for autumn 2022 to the shortage of construction workers, an issue he emphasized several times during the election campaign.
“We need to find ways to accelerate the arrival of new workers in the construction sector, there are retirement homes that will be delivered on schedule, others that will be delivered in 2023 due to the lack of workers,” he added.
The Société Québécoise des Infrastructures (SQI) confirmed to La Presse on Thursday that the new deadlines range from “Winter 2023” to “Spring 2023,” with no further details. Only the retirement home in Rivière-du-Loup has been delivered, while that in Sherbrooke is due this autumn. With these first 33 houses, 2,600 residential places are to be added.
It should be noted that the Legault government wants to build a total of 46 homes for the elderly, but 13 are planned for 2023 and 2024.
During the election campaign, François Legault said in an editorial interview with La Presse that he wanted to start a second phase of construction of retirement homes so that there would be “everywhere” and “for everyone” who needs them. This renewed postponement does not call into question his goals, he said, but reminded that his government is also working on the renovation of CHSLDs.
“Our long-term goal is high-quality housing for our seniors […] We have to be proud of what we offer seniors, now the challenge is being built on a large scale,” he added.
These cumulative delays are an important element for the Legault government. Meeting deadlines was a critical element in the construction of retirement homes, a flagship promise of the Coalition avenir Québec. These projects are also covered by the Accelerating Certain Infrastructure Projects Act (Bill 66).
Bill 66, passed during the pandemic, was intended to give a “shock” to shorten construction times and “speed up key projects” to boost the economy.
The SQI attributes the delays to rising building material costs and overheating in industry, among other things.
Proof of a bad idea, so the objections
Opposition parties say the delay is further evidence that retirement homes are a bad idea.
“It’s a bit like the chronicle of a foretold failure. We knew that massive government investment would overheat construction. And we somehow got the result we expected: we didn’t deliver the announced 2,600 places, despite pushing the deadlines from month to month, and we can’t reach the budgets announced at departure,” he told PQ- MP Joël Arsenault.
He also emphasizes that these places that are still not being supplied are just a drop in the bucket of current needs. “That leads us to the same conclusion: This model is not suitable for the current problem,” he says. Rather, he believes that rather than investing in “concrete,” the Legault government should focus its budgets on home care services.
The same story with Québec solidaire. “It’s the kind of promise that nobody would be angry with for the CAQ giving up,” says Rep. Christine Labrie. “They have realized very poorly what the priority should be in terms of senior housing. They went there for partisan reasons, I think,” she interjects.
While Quebec is putting all its eggs in one basket, it is doing nothing to get private CHSLDs and is not acting while retirement homes across Quebec are being closed, she denounces. “We’ve been saying for a long time that we would pull the plug,” she says.
The Liberal Party has made a similar observation. MP Linda Caron believes the Legault government must draw conclusions and stop building new houses. “We can finish the projects that have already started, but we cannot start again. The costs are enormous, overwhelming. It’s not realistic to do enough to fill the waiting list,” she says. She confirms that François Legault “talked about a generation’s project but has been selling dreams for 4 years”.