Dubé tables bill to change how Quebec doctors are paid
Quebec Politics
The Legault government wants to link doctors' pay to various performance objectives in an effort to see the physicians take on a greater number of patients.
Provincial Health Minister Christian Dubé tabled Bill 106 on Thursday even as contract negotiations with Quebec's two medical federations are continuing.
The proposed legislation has been badly received by doctors, who have deemed it 'special legislation.' La Presse has reported that the government's own committee of experts on access to front-line care have also stopped short of recommending it.
Meanwhile, the official opposition thinks the prospect of the law will be used by the government to provide leverage during negotiations with the federations.
After first promising that each Quebecer would have access to a family doctor, the Coalition Avenir Québec government is now pledging to Quebecers access to a 'health-care milieu' such as a family medicine group.
About 1.5 million Quebecers do not have a family doctor or regular health-care professional, a proportion of the population the government estimates at 17 per cent.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 12:51 PM.
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Montreal Gazette
13 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Hanes: Bill 40 appeal shows the Legault government has learned nothing
By Whenever a new fracas erupts between the government of Premier François Legault and the anglophone community, Eric Girard, the minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, is dispatched to try to patch things up. Recently, he admitted that new directives issued last summer that suggested eligibility certificates for education in English could be used to access health care in English were ' not our finest moment' and that he was 'disappointed' at how the whole saga played out. Previously, Girard acknowledged that tuition hikes for out-of-province students that disproportionately harmed Quebec's English universities had ruffled feathers, and he vowed to smooth things over. When he was appointed to the portfolio in 2022 after the angst surrounding the adoption of Bill 96, Quebec's update of protections for the French language, Girard promised to allay fears and 'do better.' 'When I say we need to do better, I mean we need to improve relations,' he told The Gazette back in the early days of his tenure. But time and again, these prove to be empty promises. Because actions speak louder than words. And even though it was less than a month ago that Girard called for the latest reset, the Legault government has demonstrated the depth of its contempt for the rights of English-speaking Quebecers anew by announcing its intention to appeal the latest ruling on Bill 40 all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada (if the top court agrees to hear it, that is). The attempt to abolish English school boards and replace them with service centres was one of the first bones of contention between the anglophone community and the Legault government after it was first elected in 2018. The Quebec English School Boards Association launched a constitutional challenge of the law immediately after its passage and has since won two resounding victories. Both Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeals have agreed that Bill 40 is a violation of Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and affirmed the rights of the English-speaking minority to manage and control its own schools. Both courts have categorically said that transforming school boards into service centres like their francophone counterparts, centralizing many of their decision-making powers in the ministry of education, and axing the elected councils of commissioners run counter to those constitutional guarantees. But the Legault government is forging ahead trying to defend the discredited law. At this point, there is no principled reason to drag this out — and no pragmatic imperative, either. Quebec's English school boards obtained an injunction in 2020, keeping them intact for the duration of the legal proceedings. For five years they have continued to operate as they always have, overseen by elected representatives from the community, alongside French service centres. At this point the government's argument that it can't have two different systems for running French and English schools doesn't really hold water. In fact, there is growing concern that francophone service centres, administered by parents drawn from local school governing boards, lack transparency and accountability. And since Bill 40 was adopted five years ago, Education Minister Bernard Drainville has grabbed even more authority from service centres, like the power to appoint their directors general and overturn their decisions. The English school boards have already proven their management and control rights — twice. But the Legault government just won't let it go. Are they gluttons for punishment? Or is this merely a continuation of the pattern of antagonizing the English-speaking community? So often over two mandates in office, the premier or his ministers say one thing and do another. Legault claimed nothing would change for anglophones under Bill 96, yet there has been major upheaval. English colleges now have quotas for francophone and allophone students and new French course requirements, which has left them destabilized. English versions of government and public websites now have warnings about who is allowed to consult the content, which is an insult to intelligence. English court documents and decisions must be accompanied by French translations, which are costly and time-consuming, impeding access to justice. And these are just a few examples. The rights of anglophones are either complete afterthought or collateral damage. A year ago, when new rules on simultaneous translation of court judgments came into effect, a Quebec Court judge on the verge of presiding over an English criminal trial had to convene representatives of the prosecution service and attorney general's office to get basic information on how this was supposed to work. He was essentially told there was no plan and things were still being figured out. For his efforts, he was the subject of a complaint to the judicial council for overstepping his authority. He was later totally exonerated. His decision declaring the new regulations inoperable for English criminal trials is being appealed, however. The list of slights goes on and on. Yet concerns are frequently dismissed as the rantings of 'angryphones' acting like the world's most spoiled minority — until the government gets egg on its face over something truly ludicrous. 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Montreal Gazette
13 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
TALQ of the town: Anglo-rights group QCGN rebrands
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From banning hijabs and other religious symbols among government employees (Bill 21), to abolishing school boards (Bill 40) and tightening language laws (Bill 96), anglophones felt ignored by the CAQ, Ludvig said. That spurred the QCGN to take a harder line, aggressively denouncing CAQ government policies and defending anglophones' rights, school system and access to health and social services. The more confrontational stance sparked internal turmoil, leading some groups and board members to quit the QCGN in 2019, complaining it was too Montreal-centric. Ludvig, who became president in 2022, said before the CAQ came to power, Quebec was experiencing a period of 'linguistic peace.'. Since then, the Legault government has 'certainly made it more fragile.' She said the organization has a duty to react to CAQ policies. At the same time, it 'tries to demonstrate that we are Quebecers who belong here, and that we are a community that is not apart.' 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'We have common issues,' Ludvig said, 'but the focus seems to always be on how the community is different — that we're not part of Quebec, we're not real Quebecers — and that's not true.' 'That's where we want to go — (emphasizing) that we have a lot in common with all Quebecers. We need to focus on that rather than on differences or the divisions artificially created by politicians.' The organization is also trying to engage individual Quebecers by opening membership to the general public. About 150 individuals signed up, joining 48 organizational members, a list that includes Catholic Action Montreal, Gay and Grey Montreal, the Morrin Cultural Centre and YES Employment Services. The Department of Canadian Heritage provides the QCGN's core funding — about $1.5 million annually. The federal support stems from the government's obligations under the Official Languages Act to language minority communities. Ottawa funds francophone groups in the rest of Canada. About 1.3 million Quebecers — roughly 15 per cent of the population — speak English as their first official language, Statistics Canada says. 48 groups belong to QCGN Forty-eight organizations are members of the QCGN: Association of English Language Publishers of Quebec Atwater Library Avenues Montreal Black Community Resource Centre Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival Canadian Parents for French Catholic Action Montreal Chez Doris Coasters Association La Fondation Place Coco Contactivity Centre DESTA Black Youth Network English Parents' Committee Association of Quebec English-Speaking Catholic Council Family Resource Centre Fondation Toldos Yakov Yosef Gay and Grey Montreal Hear Entendre Québec Heritage Lower Saint Lawrence Kabir Cultural Centre LEARN Quebec Literacy Quebec Loyola High School Morrin Cultural Centre Phelps Helps Project 10 Quebec 4-H Association Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network Quebec Association of Independent Schools Quebec Board of Black Educators Quebec Community Newspaper Association Quebec Counselling Association Quebec English-language Production Council Quebec Farmers' Association Quebec Federation of Home and School AssociationS Quebec Music Educators Association Queen Elizabeth Health Complex Regional Association of West Quebecers Repercussion Theatre Saint Columba House SEIZE Seniors Action Quebec South Shore Community Partners Network The Concordian Cote des Neiges Black Community Association Townshippers Association Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre YES Employment Services
Global News
14 hours ago
- Global News
Quebec willing to listen to pipeline proposals, premier says
At a meeting of Canada's premiers in Saskatchewan, François Legault said he's willing to listen to proposals about a new pipeline through the province. He said any pipeline through the province would need to be approved by the government of Quebec. 'We need to see what's the economic impact back for Quebec, what is the impact on the environment,' he said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy This is a far cry from when Legault called Alberta's oil dirty back in 2018, saying there was no social acceptability for more of it flowing through Quebec Now, tariffs from the United States are threatening the Canadian economy, and Prime Minister Carney is talking about making Canada an energy superpower. 'If there's a project going to Quebec, we will study it,' he said. For the full story, watch the video above.
