Carmant looking for solutions to better support young educators

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press Minister responsible for Social Services Lionel Carmant at the National Assembly on October 31

Stéphanie Vallet

Published at 3:55 p.m. Updated at 4:58 p.m.

• Québec

The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, informed the Devoir that he was considering possible solutions with the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux to help educators responsible for the rehabilitation of young offenders in youth centres. These educators have an average of only three years of experience and are hired before they even finish their CEGEP, without receiving adequate supervision, according to a survey by Devoir.

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“It is clear that we cannot let newly graduated or soon-to-be graduates take care of such complex and difficult cases. Let us remember that young people housed in closed custody are there in large part because of aggravating legal problems,” indicated to Devoir the minister’s office.

Lionel Carmant says he is aware that “we need much more supervision for our young workers,” but that “Bill 10 has shaken up the youth ecosystem by allowing youth workers to find jobs elsewhere in the network. We have suffered an exodus of the most experienced people,” he notes.

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The Devoir investigation also showed that youth centres sometimes called on educators sent by private agencies who had never worked with young offenders. “We agree that this is not the recommended solution. And no longer using them inevitably leads to an increase in overtime,” recalls Minister Carmant’s office.

Pressed to act

The opposition parties are urging the Minister responsible for Social Services to take action regarding the lack of experience of educators working in closed daycare units in Quebec youth centres.

“The revelations about the inexperience of educators in closed custody units for young offenders are alarming and require immediate action. Minister Lionel Carmant can no longer ignore the situation. We call on him to strengthen clinical and psychological support for workers and to implement concrete measures to recruit and retain qualified professionals. Our vulnerable youth need stable and safe supervision,” says Quebec Liberal Party spokesperson for youth protection Brigitte B. Garceau.

His PQ counterpart, Joël Arseneau, believes that “the Cité-des-Prairies case has opened a Pandora's box on the many problems of closed youth centres: lack of manpower, use of private agencies, lack of training, little experience, lack of supervision of educators. “All of this is extremely problematic and undermines public confidence,” he said, while calling on the government to thoroughly review the practices that are taking place “in this system that seems increasingly dysfunctional.”

In late October, a sex scandal broke out in Cité-des-Prairies, when nine educators were suspended or fired because of the sexual proximity they had with young offenders in their care. A few days later, the Estrie Youth Protection Department (DPJ) was put on the spot following the publication, by La Presse, of an article about triplets placed in separate families even though the mother was able to care for them.

Calls for the resignation of Minister Lionel Carmant followed one another before the press conference where he introduced the new national director of youth protection, Lesley Hill.

Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, responsible for social services at Québec solidaire, once again called on the minister to step down.

“Mr. Carmant must be replaced, and an emergency plan to get the DPJ out of the crisis must be put in place. The problems at the DPJ continue to pile up without the minister responsible feeling responsible!” he believes.

Mr. Cliche-Rivard also believes that “Minister Carmant is responsible for a network where working conditions are not valued and where the constant use of private agencies puts workers and young people in dangerous situations. Result: workers have fled the DPJ and young people are paying the price,” says the member for Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne.