We would all like the health network to be simpler to manage so that Quebecers can finally receive quality care in a timely manner. But it certainly did not deserve to be transformed by a gag bill. Especially since the oppositions participated in good faith in the parliamentary work and made it possible to correct several errors and inaccuracies in the text originally tabled.
Let’s have no illusions, though. The key players in the network doubt that the version that was adopted was sufficiently improved by the work carried out in the parliamentary committee in the face of a majority government showing stubbornness on several problematic elements.
According to Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, Bill 15 was the legislative text “the longest studied in 20 years”. There is no reason to be proud of this or to claim any democratic virtue. And for good reason: the initial text had so many inaccuracies, errors and blind spots that it was more like a draft than a bill prepared seriously after careful consultation with network stakeholders and experts in the field.
It is enough to note that it required more than 1000 pages of modifications and that, despite this, it is still criticized by most of the (non-politicized) actors in the network. And that each visit to the parliamentary committee has made it possible to detect flaws again and again.
The scenario of the bill turns out to be pathognomonic of the disease which affects the management of our network, and which is transposed to several of the ministry’s orders to establishments – orders which sign a significant disconnection of ministry managers with the field . Demonstrating to managers that the order sent is not realistic, that it will not produce the expected gains and that it risks doing more harm than good takes up the energy of people in the field and distracts them from their primary tasks .
The proposed reshuffle risks destabilizing the network at a time when it is extremely fragile. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, wanted, he said, “to shake the columns of the temple”. Is he even aware that he is probably shaking the columns of the temple of Numérobis,Asterix and Cleopatraand that it risks collapsing?
Everyone agreed that the status quo was not acceptable. Minister Dubé, guided by his media advisors, has repeated and hammered it mechanically since the tabling of his bill. As if this justified the adoption of a messy text, which repeats the errors (now observed and proven) made in other countries and other provinces and which certainly proves even less acceptable to the population than the status quo. The health network and its personnel deserved a much more serious and informed overhaul of the legislation than that imposed by the gag order.
Quebec may lack beds, doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Currently, there seems to be a severe lack of experienced, wise and informed politicians and managers capable of truly reviewing the structure and governance of our network without destabilizing it even further.
The future of Quebecers and their caregivers certainly deserved better than a messy bill adopted under gag order.