The Parti Québécois rejects the idea of extending the detailed study of health reform, judging that the three additional days proposed will not be enough to properly identify its impacts.
“We are going to refuse this government proposal to sit for three days with the certainty that it will be adopted on the fourth day because essentially, it is a disguised gag order,” declared PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on Wednesday afternoon. .
The Legault government had proposed to sit in a parliamentary committee next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in order to continue the study of Bill 15, then to proceed with its adoption on Thursday.
Faced with this obligation to adopt the legislative piece, without regard to the number of amendments still under study, the PQ rejected the outstretched hand.
“There is no chance that in three days we will go through the 400, 500 articles” still under study, commented Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. The PQ believes that the detailed study could continue at the beginning of next year.
Quebec needs the agreement of all parties and independent deputies to move forward.
Normally, the study of Bill 15 must end with the end of the parliamentary session, this Friday, December 8.
Both the Liberal Party, which had called for an additional week, and Québec solidaire reject the idea of committing to compulsory adoption next Thursday.
The fate of parliamentary work on health reform is therefore uncertain: Quebec could continue the work, impose a gag order or cover all the amendments in a blitz by Friday.
Important reform
Bill 15 provides for the creation of a new agency, Santé Québec, which would become the sole employer of the health network.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, wants to adopt the reform before the holidays, in order to begin its implementation at the start of next year.
“Our network needs a big change, a big change. Taking three more days next week to reach an agreement, I agree with that,” commented Mr. Dubé on Wednesday morning.
Bill 15 has nearly 1,200 articles and Quebec has presented hundreds of amendments along the way in order to modify it.
Elected officials have already been sitting for 227 hours, during 43 sessions.
“This is the bill that has been debated the longest in the last 20 years,” declared the government’s parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, in the morning.
Arseneau absent
Later in the afternoon, after the PQ’s refusal, Mr. Jolin-Barrette made a jab at the PQ health critic, Joël Arseneau.
“He is there extremely rarely to do the detailed study of the bill. He’s there, rarely. So, to say that they do not want to extend the study by three days is unusual,” he said.
The PQ’s communications director replied, on the elected”.
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