The end of the COVID-19 bounty: Resources for people with disabilities fear their disappearance

Managers of accommodation resources in a community setting for people with disabilities are afraid of having to close their doors due to inequality in the salaries of beneficiary midwives in the health network.

The $4-hour bonus awarded to benefactors will become permanent throughout the network, with the exception of Quebec’s nine handicapped community dwellings.

Without this bonus, attendees would earn between $15 and $17 per hour in accommodation resources than they would earn anywhere else in the Health Network, i.e. between $21 and $26.

According to the president of Résidences Entre-Deux in Trois-Rivières, in Morrissey, if wages were to drop, attendees would inevitably leave the ship. Julie Durand insisted, “We’re really in a state of regular staff turnover.”

“It is really difficult to recruit competent people. How can you be attractive with a salary of $15 an hour?”

The same goes for Sophie LeBlanc, general manager of Villa Turnsol in Shawinigan. “If we remove the premium, people will definitely go to the public network or to intermediate resources. And there, the resource will be at risk. Personally, I will not be able to work day, evening, night and exit.”

Annie Kim Charst Talbot has lived in one of these resources for two years. You’ve gained a lot of independence and don’t want to come back in any way. “I don’t like to think about it, but I definitely catch myself in a little room at CHSLD,” she fears.

Officials are not hiding: if the bonus is withdrawn, the housing will be closed. However, according to the calculations of M.^I Leblanc, even with the extra $4, costs a resident of the state’s community resource far less than the public network.

That same tenant would cost the Health Network $57,500 compared to $89,000 at the Health Network. We’re still saving $31,500 per head.”

If community housing is closed, 136 beneficiaries across Quebec will have to take the public order route.