Despite urgent need, new women's shelter spaces in Quebec held up by bureaucracy

Several new women's shelters for victims of intimate partner violence that had been approved for construction in Quebec are seeing their funding rescinded or threatened due to conflicting bureaucratic demands from the provincial and federal governments.

"It's unfair. We're talking about people's lives," Constance Laurin, political affairs co-ordinator for Alliance MH2, a network of women's shelters, told CBC in an interview Thursday.

Laurin said three shelters that had funding approved and are ready for construction have now seen that funding cut, and three other projects are waiting for an answer.

The planned shelters, representing 70 spaces in total, are in Montreal, Gatineau, the Laurentians, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Chaudière-Appalaches — all regions with a shortage of spaces.

"We're talking about really basic needs that are growing. It should be easy, it should be simple, but we see that it is not," Laurin said.

Louise Riendeau, spokesperson for another network of women's shelters, the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, said 10,000 women looking for help are turned away from shelters in the province each year.

"The government says it's a priority to have new shelters, but then they don't make it easy for these shelters to be built," Riendeau said.

Contradictory demands 'making everything difficult'

The problems began last year, when Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau put construction of new shelters on hold because she said they were too expensive. She asked groups looking to build new shelters to go back to the drawing board.

Many did, revising their plans and reducing costs. They then had to reapply for provincial funding from the Quebec Housing Corporation.

But the shelters are funded by both the province and the federal government. So they also had to resubmit their new plans to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for approval.

That's where many projects hit a snag.

Laurin said three projects that had previously been greenlit by the CMHC have had their federal funding cut.

"We don't have a lot of explanation right now," Laurin said. 

"They said we weren't able to provide all the documents that were needed. They wanted some kind of plans that we didn't have."

In some cases, the CMHC or the province require finalized plans and building permits before approving funding, but Alliance MH2 says they can't finalize plans or obtain permits without getting funding first. 

And the group says in some cases, while waiting for approval from the province, deadlines for getting approval from the CMHC expired.

"It's really an issue of communication between the two," Laurin said.

"There's a contradiction in what they're asking for and it's just making everything difficult."

Ottawa says it's showing 'flexibility'

Audrey-Anne Coulombe, spokesperson for the CMHC, said organizations must meet a deadline for submitting their projects.

"CMHC always shows flexibility if an organization encounters certain constraints during this process," Coulombe said in an email to CBC. 

"If the file remains inactive and does not progress … the sums conditionally withheld are then redirected to avoid penalizing other similar projects in the pipeline."

She said organizations that have missed the deadline and whose funding has been declined can submit a new application.

Duranceau wasn't available for an interview. Her office responded to CBC in an emailed statement, saying fighting violence against women was a priority.

"For the projects in question, the Quebec Housing Corporation is supporting them to optimize them and find solutions to ensure they are completed as planned," the statement said, without offering any details or timelines.

Riendeau is frustrated by those responses.

"I think they're talking out of both sides of their mouths," she said.

"There's one side of the conversation that comes from elected officials, and on the other, bureaucrats who impose all sorts of administrative red tape."

She wants to see clear guidelines from both levels of government "so that these shelters can see the light of day."