According to Québec solidaire, the Legault government can make great strides to resolve the crisis in the health network if it gives up building the two private hospitals it promised in Montreal and Quebec and if it legislates to free itself. private agencies.
At the end of the pre-sessional training caucus on Monday in Montreal, parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois argued that there is no shortage of nurses in Quebec, but that it is in the public network that there is shortage because of the exodus of these towards private agencies, a situation which one is on the point of aggravating with private hospitals.
The Results Mandate
At his side, the team’s co-spokesperson, Manon Massé, said that the time had come to be accountable: “Mr. Legault’s second mandate is the mandate that must produce results in the top priorities of Quebecers. It is the result, it is the mandate in which Mr. Legault is expected to be accountable for his actions and his non-actions. »
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois also intends to get on the battle horse of health as soon as parliament resumes next week: “This is one of the missions that we have given ourselves for the parliamentary session which is about to begin: to demand results from the CAQ health matter. It will never happen if we don’t break the vicious circle of agencies. Even worse, if we embark on the construction of private hospitals as Éric Duhaime and François Legault wish to do, it will make the problem worse, ”he dropped, thus seeking on a few occasions to associate the Prime Minister with the conservative leader.
“What I ask of François Legault is to be consistent. If, on the one hand, he wants to regulate the exodus towards private agencies, he must not at the same time create another exodus towards private hospitals. It just doesn’t look good,” he said.
A law rather than a binding tender
Solidarity spokesperson for health, Vincent Marissal, admitted for his part that the call for tenders launched by Quebec just before the Holidays with a view to filling some 8 million hours per year of care services by private agencies presented changes that go in the right direction. However, he says he is convinced that the conditions of this call for tenders should rather be imposed by legislation and he says he is ready to work with the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to develop it.
The government appeal, which is suspended due to complaints filed by private agencies with the Autorité des marchés publics, requires agencies to accept any request to fill irregular hours or mandatory overtime from CISSSs and CIUSSSs with whom they will enter into service agreements. It also prohibits the hiring of workers in the public network who have not left it for at least one year.
Checks spent before they were received
Among the other priorities of the left formation, it intends to hit the nail on the head of the housing crisis, the rising cost of living and its impact on the population. For Manon Massé, the caquiste aid method completely misses the target: “It’s clear that sending a check allows you to breathe. But tell the people around you, at least (for the) people around me, it was spent long before I received it, since the pressure on the cost of living is enormous on our fellow citizens. »
She believes that tenants, among other things, need more protection, in particular through the introduction of rent control which would oblige landlords to respect the indexes issued each year by the Administrative Housing Tribunal. With this in mind, it is the landlords who should defend rent increases that go beyond these indices: “Tenants must be allowed to have some air, she argued. It’s a win-win for everyone. »
In the end, Québec solidaire intends to settle on the benches of the opposition to “systematically remind François Legault that he may have the majority of the deputies, but that he did not have the majority of the votes”. “It takes people to play the role of watchdog of the public health system. It takes people to hound François Legault on the housing crisis, it takes people to talk about inclusion in Quebec,” said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, adding that he intends to “support nurses, teachers, who will go negotiate their working conditions.
The riddle of the regions
Politically, the party may have had one more MP elected than in 2018, it made two gains in Montreal and lost its only real seat in the region, that of the former MP for Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue , Emilise Lessard-Therrien. Admittedly, Christine Labrie has succeeded in keeping what is now the only solidarity headquarters outside of Montreal and Quebec, but her riding of Sherbrooke exclusively covers the urban portion of the city of Estrie, which has a large pool of students, a clientele where Québec solidaire receives a large share of its votes.
“The connection with the rural electorate is one of the projects” that political training must solve. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois admitted that he had no solution to offer for the moment and left it to the authorities of the party, which will meet in February: “The National Council in two weeks will be an opportunity to begin these reflections- there with the party members. »