Quebec wants certain contracts concluded during the COVID-19 crisis to remain in force for up to five years after the lifting of the state of health emergency. The government also wants to retain some of its exceptional powers until the end of 2022.
As expected, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, tabled his bill on Wednesday aimed at ending the state of health emergency. The adoption of this must come to mark the end of the exceptional means that the government has acquired since 2020, but it includes several exceptions.
Thus, Quebec hopes that the decrees and ministerial orders that will still be in force when the state of health emergency is lifted can remain so until the end of 2022. The government still wants to keep the possibility of modifying or repealing a decree “in order to allow a gradual relaxation of the measures”.
Similarly, the Minister of Health wants to retain the possibility of ordering “any person, department or body to communicate to him or give him immediate access to any document or information” necessary for the protection of the population, “in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, even if it is confidential information”.
The government also wants contracts that are “still in force at the end of the state of health emergency and which are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of screening or vaccination clinics” to be extended until the end of 2022.
Contracts for the storage or transport of goods acquired during the pandemic could be extended or increased “until stocks are exhausted”. “However, the duration of these contracts cannot exceed a period of five years following the end of the state of health emergency”, proposes the minister in his bill.
Further details will follow.
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