Laval’s English social services agency ends 2024-2025 with a surplus
The Youth and Parents Agape Association – known to most people in Laval simply as Agape – “had another productive year,” according to its directors, with a consistent number of English-speaking clients receiving a range of social services in 2024-2025.
5,000 served and climbing
“Over the past 12 months, we have provided services, resources, presentations, referrals, emergency food relief and other essential support to over 5,000 individuals,” the non-profit group’s board of directors stated in their latest Report of Activities.
Tabled during Agape’s annual general meeting on June 26, the document offered a comprehensive overview of Agape’s efforts to improve the lives of the underprivileged English-speaking and multicultural communities in Laval between April last year and this past March.
Founded in 1976 by Cliff and Leo Young in a Chomedey church basement, the organization progressed since then from a food and clothing bank to become a corner stone for the provision of a range of social services directed primarily at English-speaking Chomedey and Laval residents.
Drawing city’s attention
While it’s notable that the City of Laval has tended over the years to overlook Agape when determining its budget priorities, among the guests at this year’s AGM were close to a half-dozen elected officials from the city – although it’s perhaps also worth noting: 2025 is a municipal election year.
They included Chomedey independent councillor Aglaia Revelakis, Saint-Martin Mouvement lavallois councillor Aline Dib, L’Abord-à-Plouffe Mouvement lavallois councillor Vasilios Karidogiannis, Sainte-Dorothée Mouvement lavallois councillor Ray Khalil, and Fabreville Parti Laval councillor Claude Larochelle (who is running for mayor).
According to an audited statement prepared by the accounting firm Leuzzi & Associé, Agape’s financial statements for 2024-2025 “present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Organization as at March 31, 2025, and the results of its operations and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Accounting Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations (ASNPO).”
Ending year with a surplus
The statement indicates that Agape’s revenues in 2025 were nearly $80,000 higher than the year earlier, and that the organization ended the year with a surplus of revenues over expenditures of $31,785. This compares to a loss last year, largely because of high operating costs for the Senior Wellness Centre.
Agape is projecting revenues of $1,170,346 in 2025-2026, the largest portions of which will be from the Quebec government’s Sécrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d’expression anglaise ($300,00), the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux ($206,896), and Health Canada ($142,150).
Among other things, the Quebec government is also expected to contribute an additional $70,000 for the operation of the Senior Wellness Centre.
Rising Anglo jobless
Some significant statistics cited during the meeting: In 2021, there were 20,460 English speakers aged 15+ with income under $20k in the Laval region, where they represent 23.7 per cent of the English-speaking population aged 15 and over.
However, nearly 31 per cent of Laval English-speaking seniors aged 65+ were living with a household income below $20k per year. In 2021, there were 6,575 unemployed English speakers in the Laval region who experienced an unemployment rate of 10.8 per cent.
(In May, Quebec’s unemployment rate was 6.2 per cent, according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, while it was 7 per cent across Canada in the same period, according to Statistics Canada.)
Growing English population
According to Agape executive-director Kevin McLeod, the size of the potential client base served by Agape has climbed significantly since the last federal census four years ago, when there were 104,525 English speakers said to be living in Laval, compared to around 92,000 when the measurement was taken before then.
Laval’s English-speaking population rose from 21.8 per cent to 24 per cent now. “We can only assume that with the next census that it’ll keep on growing some more,” said McLeod.
