Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille, on the edge of the door
This is the story of three Cameroonian women recruited by the Laval Home Support Cooperative to take care of elderly Laval residents. Their names are Nathalie Chalieu, Nicole Meto and Cydrille Tchambda.
In Cameroon, they did not know each other. It was the Coop which recruited them (remotely) and asked them if they would agree to live together in a five and a half house in Laval, originally rented by the Coop (and paid for by the three Cameroonians).
Response from Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille: of course!
This is how in October 2023, Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille flew from Yaoundé to come work and live in Laval-des-Rapides under temporary foreign worker permits on closed permits, valid for two years, renewable.
Since then, they have contributed to keeping around a hundred Laval residents, along with their households, at home. Other employees of the Laval Home Support Cooperative provide other services, such as personal care (baths, etc.).
Taken together, these services provided by this social economy home help enterprise (EESAD) enable hundreds of people to live at home. For society, it is cheaper than taking care of them in a CHSLD, for example.
I say “for society”: these EESADs are financed by the members (the people who receive the care and services) and also, in many cases, by social programs which allow these people to pay for this care and these services.
Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille are paid $22.55 per hour. Each of them takes care of around thirty “clients” who receive their visits from time to time. They work full time.
Yesterday, I listened to three women delighted to do what they do for these vulnerable Quebecers. Listening to them, they have the best job in the world. They are also delighted to be here in Quebec…even our winters don’t put them off!
Think about it. It’s an extraordinary human story that I’m telling you here: Cameroonian women from Banka, Bandjoun and Douala come to speak French to Laval residents from Pont-Viau, Laval-des-Rapides and Chomedey!
You will tell me: are there no Quebecers who can do the job?
Answer: yes.
Yes, because 80% of the Coop’s 300 employees are Canadian citizens. The other 20% is made up of refugees, permanent residents and temporary foreign workers, like Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille.
No, because without these 60 workers, the Coop would be in trouble.
This is why the Coop recruits abroad, as far as the Congo (and Morocco) and pays their plane ticket, their costs of studying immigration files… Because the pool of Quebec workers ready to do housework in Laval is not sufficient to meet the needs of the Coop’s clients.
It’s an extraordinary story that I’m telling you. Everyone is happy: the vulnerable customers of the Coop, the Cameroonians who love taking care of these people and who manage to send money home.
But it’s a story that becomes extraordinarily complicated, thanks to the complicated mechanics of the immigration bureaucracy, this two-headed monster, federal and provincial.
Last Friday, the Laval Home Support Cooperative received the bad news: the “renewable” permits of Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille will not, in fact, be renewed.
Reason: in metropolitan regions where the unemployment rate is above 6%, work permits for people like our three Cameroonians have been limited since 2024 for low-wage jobs. In addition, we read in the response from the Quebec Ministry of Immigration, “there is a reduction in the hiring limit for TFWs (temporary foreign workers) from 20% to 10% per workplace for the low-wage position component.”
When I talk about the complicated mechanics of immigration: I listened to the CEO of the Coop, Gynet Séguin, tell me about the steps taken to keep the three Cameroonian women…
It’s like overdosing on Tylenol, it’s so Byzantine.
Remember that the Coop has help from a lawyer and an “expert immigration advisor” from the City of Laval!
I emphasize that it is the Coop which pays the costs of examining the files of its three employees: $4,638, provincially and federally… only to be told no.
And there is the way. In April 2025, the Coop launched the paperwork to renew the work permits of Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille before the October deadline. Five months in advance…
When did the refusal from Quebec come back, do you think?
Last Friday, October 3… at 4 p.m.
End date of the permit, date they must leave the country: next Saturday, October 11.
So, eight short days to try to contest, to find a solution… Or pack their bags and leave.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille’s permits end on October 11.
Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille, as well as the Coop, are hoping for a miracle, hoping that someone, somewhere, will see the light and allow these three women to continue to take care of a hundred Laval residents.
In the meantime, Gynet Séguin has taken steps to transfer Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille to Saguenay… On a one-year permit, perhaps, perhaps not renewable. They could work in another EESAD in this region which is not covered by the moratorium on temporary workers with closed permits linked to the unemployment rate…
And there, if it works, if the trio decides to leave Laval for Saguenay, they will have to start all over again: find them accommodation, match them with clients, etc.
We know that there are many bugs with the immigration system.
But even when it works, when everyone is happy, the system finds a way to find bugs in the name of large bureaucratic boxes poorly aligned with reality. Sometimes, it’s Ottawa that makes a mistake. This time, it’s Quebec.
I find it odious: these delays, this uncertainty, this way of treating the world like a number. Obnoxious, from a human point of view…
But from an “efficiency” point of view, I find it stupid, stupid! Stupid Soviet Union level!
The Quebec government pays for home support. La Coop de Laval provides home support, for the benefit of Quebecers, relying in part on public funds. And the Quebec government, in an absurd accounting logic, expels Cameroonians who take care of Quebecers.
And all this money paid by the Coop – the $4,638 for the “study” of the file at the federal and provincial levels, the legal costs, the time of employees stuck in this quicksand – is all money that will not go into services for its vulnerable clients… Whom the government wants to keep at home.
If the Laval Home Support Cooperative loses these three trained, integrated French-speaking workers… We will have to find three others, train them and hope that Jell-O “takes” with a hundred vulnerable clients.
So much, but such an inefficient system.
I repeat that Quebec workers are not rushing to clean at $22.55 an hour. So, the current arrangement satisfies everyone: Cameroonians, Quebec customers, the Coop.
But Nathalie, Nicole and Cydrille are on the edge of the door.
Question for the Minister of Immigration, Jean-François Roberge: who wins in this crazy game?
