The Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Health and a well-known figure in pandemic management in Quebec, the DD Lucie Opatrny, was named President and CEO of the McGill University Health Center on Wednesday.
This decision, taken by the Council of Ministers of the Legault government, in Quebec, was announced at the end of the day, by press release.
Lucie Opartrny will officially take office on January 30, 2023. She will also become a member of the Board of Directors of the McGill University Health Center.
A shadow worker, this Harvard graduate was thrust into the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic when she appeared at a press conference alongside the Prime Minister, François Legault, and the Minister of Health. , Christian Dube.
After working at St Mary’s Hospital Center for five years, she joined the Department of Health as Assistant Deputy Minister in 2018.
If the hospitals were rather well prepared at the start of the pandemic, unlike the CHSLDs which do not come under her, “it is because the preparation made by Lucie was almost perfect”, underlined the former Minister of Health, Gaétan Barrette. , in an interview with La Presse in January 2021.
In the spring of 2020, while elected officials were saying — at least publicly — that there was little risk of COVID-19 arriving in Quebec and doctors were still comparing it to a big flu, Lucie Opatrny was already creating the clinical steering committee COVID-19, of which she held the presidency.
Cloutier at UQ
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Former minister and PQ member Alexandre Cloutier
Former PQ member and minister Alexandre Cloutier becomes president of the University of Quebec.
He previously held the position of Vice-Rector for Partnerships, International and Indigenous Affairs
from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, after serving as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Lac-Saint-Jean from 2007 to 2018.
This is not the first time that the Legault government has called on his services. In 2021, he was chosen to chair the work of the Independent Scientific and Technical Commission on the recognition of academic freedom in the university environment.
This commission had been initiated following the publication of articles in several media, including The Presson the use, among other things, of the “word beginning with the letter N” in university courses.
The Bouyonnec renewed
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, former president of the Coalition avenir Québec
Note that the former president of the Coalition avenir Québec, Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, has been reappointed Associate Secretary General in charge of the Secretariat for high-speed Internet and special connectivity projects at the Ministère du Conseil exécutif.
His last appointment to this position, in 2020, had caused a reaction since it was considered partisan by many.
What’s more, Stéphane Le Bouyonnec had embarrassed his party in 2018, when The Journal of Montreal had revealed that he was at the head of a company recognized for its loans granted at usurious rates.