Health Minister Christian Dubé on Thursday proposed tightening — and renaming — his bill to end the state of health emergency to limit the powers he would retain until the end of the year.
The elected official proposes to keep five ministerial decrees, out of the 103 which are still in force. He has provided a list of the measures he wishes to keep until December 31, with the order numbers associated with them. The decrees listed concern population and operational measures, as well as those related to human resources, vaccination and screening, it is written without further details.
The government also wants to maintain the measures that are “necessary in the education sector” until June 30. Minister Dubé previously specified that these could concern the distance education of students or the hiring of retirees.
In the opinion of the elected official, “these decrees and orders make it possible to maintain the minimum necessary in order to continue screening and vaccination operations, to have the personnel necessary to achieve this in order to properly protect Quebecers”. In a press release, he recalled that the measures “could then be gradually eased, or eliminated”, depending on the epidemiological situation.
The amendments he tabled coincide with the start of consideration of his bill. This is an unusual way of doing things, since the groups that are called upon to give their opinion on the legislative text have produced briefs before having learned of the changes.
A badly crafted bill?
Before the media, Christian Dubé denied having proceeded in this way because his bill, which was unanimously against him when it was tabled, was badly put together. “Oh no, on the contrary,” he assured. “I have always said that the bills were perfectible. And we listened to the opposition. […] I think we listened to what people told us and we are adjusting. »
Opposition parties have criticized the minister’s methods. “The groups are ready, and we have received most of the briefs. So the groups that we are bringing back for consultation today will not have the opportunity to analyze the amendments. So what’s the point of asking people to attend consultations? “, in particular asked, in the morning, the liberal deputy André Fortin.
He criticized the government for being “messy”, “with bills that we redid almost 100%”.
His colleague from Québec solidaire Vincent Marissal added that Minister Dubé had a “rather cavalier and unusual way of doing things”. “And where I am a little irritated is that the minister keeps asking for our collaboration and he would have it, our collaboration, but he is doing it wrong. He stuffs poorly-crafted business in our throats, at least he tries, then there he does not consult us, ”he also said.
Parti Québécois MP Joël Arsenault said he had “the impression that the government, in many respects, is improvising and not working rigorously”. “It’s not the first time that the minister or the government has presented us with a certain number of intentions and projects that are a little badly put together or shoddy, that he launches trial balloons and then we correct the shooting as they go, according to the opinion of the commentators, according to public opinion, according to the polls,” he said.