Conservative Party of Quebec | A platform with ADQ sauce

Advisor and candidate for the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ) in 2003, Éric Duhaime took up some of the party’s key promises at the time in his electoral platform.

Tommy Chouinard
The Press

The Conservative leader is committed to giving much more room to the private sector in health and to reforming the funding of schools and daycare centers as Mario Dumont’s ADQ proposed 20 years ago.

The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) wants to “allow all citizens to voluntarily subscribe to private supplementary insurance covering medical and surgical procedures”, can we read in its electoral platform, the full unveiling of which will take place on Sunday, in Drummondville.

A person subscribing to such insurance could turn to the private sector to receive care and avoid the waiting list of the public network.

“Any citizen may, at their option, take advantage of the coverage offered by their private insurance plan, including for care already covered by the RAMQ”, the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. “For any care not covered by such private plans, or even for citizens who do not want or cannot take advantage of a private plan, the Quebec State will continue to offer the coverage that already exists”, specifies the PCQ.

To “facilitate the emergence of this private insurance market”, a tax credit would be offered to reduce the premium bill.

The PCQ also wants the RAMQ to “reimburse medical care provided in the private sector after waiting times in the public sector deemed unreasonable”.

More private health

A Conservative government would allow doctors to practice in both the public and private sectors, launch a pilot project for an entirely private hospital, entrust the management of certain hospitals to “experienced private institutions” and encourage “local and foreign investors to building new health infrastructures”.

The PCQ maintains that it preserves the “right to universal access to medically required care” and that its proposal would reduce public waiting lists.

Opening the door to private health more widely was at the heart of the ADQ’s program. To swallow this party in 2011, the CAQ had agreed to commit to setting up a pilot project establishing mixed medical practice if it were elected – this pilot project never saw the light of day. The PCQ – founded in 2009 – has since sought to occupy the space on the right on the political spectrum freed up by the disappearance of the ADQ.

Éric Duhaime’s party promises the creation of another insurance plan, this time for “long-term care for anyone over 65”, including home care. This insurance would be “State or private”, indicates the party without giving details.

The PCQ wants more doctors and pledges to “increase the number of medical admissions from 300 to 500 per year”. This year, 969 new students are admitted to medicine.

A “drift” during the pandemic

The PCQ judges that Quebec experienced a “liberticidal and authoritarian drift” during the pandemic. He wants to “protect civil rights” by including in the Public Health Act “the primacy of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms over any other legislative provision”. However, this primacy of the Charter already exists. And so far, lawsuits arguing that the health measures violate the Charter have failed in court.

For the PCQ, it would take the agreement of 80% of all the deputies of the National Assembly to extend the state of health emergency, and this, every 30 days. The current law allows the government to renew it by decree, which François Legault did.

In matters of family and education, the PCQ is proposing a major overhaul of the funding of day care centers and schools. He would set up childcare vouchers and education vouchers as proposed by the ADQ in 2003 – the training had abandoned these ideas later.

The PCQ promises to “pay, by the end of a first mandate, a voucher of $200 taxable per week and per eligible child to cover daycare costs. Parents will then be able to choose for their child the mode of care that suits them best: CPE, private daycare or family daycare”. This voucher would replace public funding of daycare services. And when the voucher is fully implemented, “the daily rate will be deregulated and daycares will be able to set the price charged for their services.”

The PCQ is imprecise on its reform, however very important, of the financing of the school network. He is content to say that he wants to “establish a system of education vouchers allowing all parents to choose the best school for their children, whether it is private or public”. “Funding for the school will go through the parents,” he says.