PSPP's First Move as Quebec Premier: Emergency Cash for Homelessness Before Winter

Photo: ACA Galaxy, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file photo).

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has been Quebec premier for two days. His first act wasn't a sovereignty speech or a cabinet reshuffle — it was homelessness. During Wednesday's swearing-in ceremony, the new Parti Québécois premier announced his cabinet would meet that very evening to release emergency funding for the unhoused, telling Quebecers simply: "winter is coming."

It's a striking opening move. But the person who should matter most here isn't PSPP — it's the woman who died in a Montréal-Nord encampment fire on October 7, and the more than 12,000 Quebecers living on the street tonight.

The first order of business

The announcement came at the ceremony where PSPP presented his 22-minister cabinet, per CBC Montreal and Global News Montreal. Emergency money for homelessness would flow to municipalities immediately to prepare for winter. St-Pierre Plamondon went further than any recent Quebec premier: he appointed himself minister responsible for homelessness and set a personal, audacious target — halving the number of unhoused people by the end of his mandate.

Each minister also received a mandate letter outlining the PQ's campaign commitments, and PSPP created a brand-new portfolio for government efficiency, handing it to former Amos mayor and Survivor Québec contestant Sébastien D'Astous.

Why this winter terrifies Montreal

The urgency is real and grim. The Quebec government estimated just over 12,000 people were living on the street province-wide in 2025, with about 42% of them in Montreal. Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada says the city will offer 3,000 spots in emergency shelters this winter — and needs about $20 million to make its emergency plan work, according to building.ca. "I really do hope that this is the last winter that we'll be waiting for funding, knowing that the winter comes every year," she said. "Community organizations need that certainty to retain their teams and workforce and plan ahead." The October 7 death in Montréal-Nord kept her up "two nights in a row," she admitted. PSPP reacted to that death on social media the day it happened, writing he was "making the fight against homelessness a personal matter." Prime Minister Mark Carney said October 8 he would collaborate with the incoming PQ government on the issue.

A premier like no other: sworn in without the Crown's representative

Wednesday was genuinely historic. PSPP was sworn in as Quebec's 34th premier — bringing the Parti Québécois back to power after more than a decade — without pledging an oath to King Charles III, and at his request, Lieutenant Governor Manon Jeannotte did not attend, watching from her office instead. It was the first time a Quebec premier was sworn in without a representative of the British monarchy present. PSPP has called the monarchy's role "an archaic symbol of British colonial domination" and wants to defund the lieutenant governor's office — allocating the savings, pointedly, to fighting homelessness.

☕

Enjoyed this guide?

Canada Pulse is an independent publication. Every guide is researched, written and carefully edited, and kept free forever. If this saved you time or made your life easier, please don't let the effort go unnoticed — support our work with whatever you can, from $1 upward. Every dollar keeps the guides coming.

💛 Donate via PayPal

The cabinet he built

The 22-member team leans on experience: Joël Arseneau takes education, Nicolas Marceau returns as finance minister (a post he held under Pauline Marois from 2012 to 2014), Pascal Bérubé gets culture, Alain Therrien takes the treasury board, Nicolas Girard gets transport, Stéphane Paquet handles the economy and the island of Montreal, and Sarrazin becomes justice minister with a sprawling brief covering interprovincial relations, anglophone Quebecers, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ issues, and secularism. Montreal's mayor attended the ceremony and said she feels the city will be heard.

Will it be enough?

Here's the honest question, and community groups are already asking it. Emergency shelter spots keep people alive through winter — they don't end homelessness. The Welcome Hall Mission's CEO Sam Watts praised the city's planning but said what's needed is permanent: more transitional housing (the city is working on 2,000 units), addiction treatment centres, and mental health support. PSPP promised to halve homelessness by the end of his mandate. That's the kind of pledge that either defines a premiership or haunts it. The emergency money is the easy part. The hard part — housing, treatment, the grinding daily work of getting people off the street and keeping them off — is where mandates get tested. I'll be watching the numbers this winter and next.