The least we can say is that the year 2023 is ending at a frantic pace with regard to negotiations in the public sector. I strongly hope that the new agreements will once and for all alleviate the demobilizing pitfalls inherent in the work of teachers and nurses.
On the government level, two mega-reforms will see the light of day in education and health and social services. Ministers Drainville and Dubé will have their work cut out to establish themselves as defenders of reforms whose centralization of powers risks derailing decision-making mechanisms.
Not surprisingly, artificial intelligence […] is making its presence felt at great speed, so much so that professors and lecturers are sounding the alarm and urgently calling for a moratorium in order to slow down its development, with stakeholders being confused by an explosion of cases of cheating on the part of the students.
On the international scene, the massacres of unspeakable violence generated by the war between Israel and Hamas are reverberating at high speed in Quebec in a panoply of wanton murders shamelessly perpetrated in the open, to the great dismay of the police forces.
On the economic side, inflation will continue in 2024, leaving behind more and more families who turn to food banks and young people eager to buy a property who are stifled by exorbitant interest rates.
The housing crisis is taking on alarming dimensions, amplified by the massive arrival of immigrants who are considerably accentuating the shortage of affordable housing. The government must work as quickly as possible to establish a housing policy.
Finally, the scourge generated by the growing number of homeless people must be part of Quebec’s priorities, an unacceptable, even scandalous, situation in a society that calls itself inclusive. The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, still needs to stop his procrastination and take action.