(Quebec) The Legault government drops the imposition of a tax or “health contribution” on non-vaccinated people, learned The Press.
Posted at 8:39
Updated at 8:58 am
The Prime Minister is due to make the announcement at 1 p.m., at the same time as he will announce some relaxations such as the reopening of gyms and the resumption of sports for adults on February 14 as first reported by the Journal de Québec.
Quebec had in its boxes the idea of tabling a bill this session, which begins on Tuesday, in order to impose a financial contribution on those who have not been vaccinated. This tax would have been $100 to $800.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, did not want to comment on his government’s decision when he arrived at the parliamentary committee on Bill 11, which aims to increase access to front-line services by doctors in family. “We have a press briefing exactly on this noon, you will have all your answers”, he briefly indicated.
François Legault had announced his intention to tax the non-vaccinated on January 11. “We think we’ve gotten there. People who refuse to be vaccinated place a burden on staff and a significant financial burden for the majority of Quebecers,” he said. “All adults in Quebec who do not agree to pick up at least a first dose over the next few weeks will have a bill to pay because there are consequences for our health network and this is not all Quebecers to pay for that. »
The government’s objective was to encourage the refractory to roll up their sleeves and respond to popular discontent towards the unvaccinated.
The acting National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Luc Boileau, had refused to issue a recommendation on this issue, while regional directors were critical of this idea. “This is an economic measure, and I prefer not to comment on economic measures. It does not fall within the expertise of Public Health, ”explained the Dr Boileau.
The opposition parties were waiting for the government on a firm footing about this tax on the unvaccinated, raising issues of fairness and ethics. For example, Liberal leader Dominique Anglade said that the health contribution risked creating a “breach” in universal access to health care and that her party could hardly be in favor of such a measure.
The opposition parties questioned the usefulness of this tax and saw it essentially as a political operation, as Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of Québec solidaire and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon of the Parti Québécois have said.
With Fanny Levesque