The government of Quebec sees the imminent end of the use of the exceptional powers that the declaration of a state of health emergency has given it for more than 18 months, Prime Minister François Legault said on Tuesday.
In his opening speech delivered to the National Assembly, he set for the first time a horizon for the decree which, every ten days, must be renewed to enable it to take decisions outside the framework provided for.
“We will end this health emergency after the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11,” he said. We are never safe from surprises with the pandemic but, if all goes well, this vaccination should be completed at the beginning of 2022. “
The first decree declaring a health emergency was adopted when Quebec was put “on hiatus”, in March 2020. The state of emergency allows the government to close schools, to conclude contracts without appeals. offers as well as to order “any other measure necessary to protect the health of the population”.
In recent months, the government has been the target of repeated demands from opposition parties, lawyers and protesters that the use of these powers by decree of the Council of Ministers is excessive.
The Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade, believes that the government is using a pretext to maintain the state of emergency. “It’s a way to save time because the only way he justifies it now is immunizing children,” she said. This is the only reason. “
Québec solidaire believes that a transitional law would have made it possible to end the state of emergency. “It was done elsewhere in the world and we could have done it in Quebec,” recalled the parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon continues to fear corruption risks because the contracting process can be bypassed.
Decentralization
By outlining a way out towards the end of the state of health emergency in his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Legault underlined all the challenges that the health network still faces.
Mr. Legault believes that the solution lies in decentralizing management to the regions of Quebec. The responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Social Services would be limited to setting performance objectives and monitoring results.
It’s a way to save time because the only way he justifies it now is immunizing children.
“The people who are best placed to choose the best means to achieve these goals are the people who are on the ground, the people who are close to the action,” said the Prime Minister.
Struggling with a labor shortage, the health network will have to stop depending on the contribution of private personnel placement agencies. “We are currently working on a troubleshooting mechanism within the public network,” he said. We should no longer depend on private agencies. “
The problems of patient care by family doctors have not been resolved, underlined the Prime Minister, who wishes to change their method of remuneration.
“I’m starting to get impatient and so are Quebeckers,” he said. I always thought it was better to get along with the doctors. But if necessary, we will not hesitate to impose a conclusion. “
The president of the Federation of general practitioners of Quebec, Louis Godin, said that discussions continue on a new remuneration by which doctors would be paid according to the number of patients they follow. “A discriminatory and coercive approach that would target one group of doctors more than another is not the solution,” he said in an interview.
In addition, Mr. Legault announced that the government will mandate the commissioner of health and well-being to look at ways of doing things in home care.
“I am convinced that aging at home is what the vast majority of Quebecers want,” explained the Prime Minister, while recalling the billions of dollars earmarked for the construction of seniors’ homes.