The results of the most recent financial anxiety index survey by Centraide of Greater Montreal are grim: Nearly nine out of 10 Quebecers are experiencing some level of financial anxiety and, for nearly one in two, that level is significant.
Many indicators show Quebecers have become more financially vulnerable over the past year, according to the survey, conducted from Feb. 17 to March 11 in collaboration with the polling firm Léger, which surveyed 2,003 adults; results were made public this month.
Twenty-five per cent of respondents said their situation had grown worse in the previous six months and 45 per cent said they have a financial buffer of less than a month to deal with a loss of income or an unexpected expense of $500 to $1,000. And 60 per cent of Quebecers say they are worried about the province’s economic outlook and that this concern is contributing to their sense of financial insecurity.
The findings of the survey, the sixth in four years, confirm a reality observed on the ground, said Centraide president and chief executive officer Tasha Lackman.
“It reflects what the organizations tell us. Demand is growing. Community organizations have new clients. People are suffering. More people are getting evicted. More people are being stretched,” she said. “Many individuals are in states of perpetual crisis and the impact on people is quite terrible.”
Thirty per cent of Quebecers report that they are food insecure, up from 22 per cent last year. That means they’re having trouble accessing healthy food or enough food. For 54 per cent of Quebecers, food has become the main concern — ahead of housing and child-related costs, the survey found.
“One out of three people in Quebec is experiencing food insecurity at some level,” said Lackman. “They are wondering where their next meal is coming from. That means skipping meals. It means moms not eating so their kids can bring lunch to school.
“Think how it impacts productivity at work and kids’ ability to learn and to play sports. It is the breaking down of our social fabric. It’s not a short-term thing. It impacts the future. It means not saving; not going to dentist; not being able to pay for medication. So we are going to have a more poor, isolated, sick population going forward.”
People are suffering. More people are getting evicted. More people are being stretched.
Tasha Lackman
Centraide president and CEO
And with an aging population, it also means fewer people are employed. “It’s a very bleak portrait,” Lackman said.
For many Quebec households, the survey also found, housing is a major source of instability: 27 per cent of tenants fear getting evicted — more than last year.
Before being appointed Centraide CEO in February, Lackman, 50, spent four years as executive director of the Depot Community Food Centre in Notre Dame de Grâce.
“At the Depot, we saw demand more than triple for food banking, and people coming in to front-line organizations are more and more in crisis,” she said.
Last year, one person in three was accessing the services of community organizations for help in addressing their needs, Lackman said: This year the figure was 54 per cent.
“I wanted this job because I think that Centraide is one of the organizations in Montreal with the most potential levers to effect change,” she said.
Through money raised in its annual campaign, which last year raised $72.4 million, Centraide supports a network of 375 community agencies and organizations like the Depot in Montreal, Laval and on the South Shore — organizations working to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people. It supports them financially, helping more than 800,000 vulnerable people every year, and through leadership training and professional development, Lackman said.
“That is one lever Centraide has. Also, we are connected to the business community in a big way, so we can connect and build bridges and mobilize people to be engaged in the community,” she said.
Centraide’s role, as Lackman sees it, “is to continue to support the social fabric of Montreal through these incredible organizations. The way we support is through long-term mission funding, which is how they can plan. That is our DNA. And then because of these long-term relationships we have, we have access to this incredible knowledge from the ground of the main issues and the solutions. And the next part is: How are we tapping in to that knowledge?”
Centraide “is the second-biggest social lever” after government, Lackman said.
“Centraide and philanthropy can have some impact. But the issues are so big that we need to be influencing the state. … Centraide is well-positioned to do that because we understand the situation on the ground.”
She used an example from the Depot, which has “succeeded in transforming food banking to make it an accessible place for healthy food and a dignified experience.” But it is still a charity model, “and it’s better to have food access than food banks,” she said.
The Carte proximité program, launched in 2020 by the Carrefour Solidaire community food centre, supplies prepaid credit cards to families with low income so they can buy healthy food. It’s in place in several organizations and the Depot uses the Carte proximité program in its summer markets.
“We saw that the program was having a huge impact on people’s lives — and we saw the potential to do so much more,” Lackman said.
“Let’s think about scaling the program so it is more impactful and do research with university players and use the information to be even more strategic in how we influence government.”
The ultimate goal is about “wanting to make our city safe and beautiful for everyone. When we can reduce poverty, we can also reduce polarization in an increasing polarized society,” she said.
Lackman, who holds degrees in environmental studies from the University of Waterloo and in social work and law from McGill University, spent more than 10 years at the top-tier law firm Fasken, specializing in real estate financing and institutional partnerships, before leaving corporate law in 2017 for community-focused leadership roles.
She was associate director of strategic initiatives in McGill’s advancement office and then vice-president of philanthropy and community at the Foundation of Greater Montreal, where, among other projects, she worked on a first-ever initiative to bring together a number of foundations to support Indigenous-led projects. In early 2022, she took over as executive director of the Depot.
We used typewriters when I started at The Gazette, and heavy black rotary phones. Today’s newsroom looks different but the work – reporting and informing my readers – remains constant and rewarding. I am grateful to my academic adviser at McGill, where I was a neurobiology major, for steering me to journalism. Evidently he realized I wasn’t cut out for neurobiology.
sschwartz@postmedia.com