The Parti Québécois will campaign with a recovery plan for the health network valued at $7 billion focused on the proximity of care to citizens. To be certain of arriving, the team believes it can recover $6 billion in Ottawa.
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The PQ wants the return of “real local clinics” like the CLSCs. It also intends to invest massively in home care and give more resources to community organizations.
The sovereignist formation wants to put in place “simple and concrete measures to improve front-line services”, mentioned Chief Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
It’s a beefy $7 billion a year plan that includes $3.5 billion of new money. The document indicates that we must “put the money in the right place” and that we “must recover” the $6 billion “retained by Ottawa”.
“An independentist government will make sure to repatriate these sums in one way or another, because this money is ours and we need it,” said Chief Paul St-Pierre. Plamondon, to explain where he was going to get the money to fund his program. “The land of unicorns is the CAQ which says: our federalism will allow us to repatriate the 6 billion.”
Quebecers’ money
PSPP ensures that this plan does not only hold on the success of the independence of Quebec. “We are going to have a balance of power that the CAQ does not have,” he assures.
The parliamentary leader of the PQ, Joël Arseneau, adds that the money from Quebecers that has been sent to Ottawa should be able to be used for health needs.
However, in the event of refusal by the Trudeau government, the sums will be recovered elsewhere, assures the elected representative of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. The PQ will cut into the concrete and infrastructure promised by the CAQ government, such as seniors’ homes.
Despite this presentation, the party pleads that “the realization” of the plan “does not depend on these sums” from Ottawa.
Salaried doctors
To save money and better redistribute it, the PQ wants to review the remuneration of doctors and put an end to their incorporation. Doctors could even become employees under a PQ government.
“It’s clear that we have to move away from fee-for-service,” said Joël Arseneau. “We are not going to abolish fee-for-service, but we must migrate to salaried or lump sum or to a formula that is more hybrid, mixed and adapted to the needs of the day.” It also intends to abolish the use of private placement agencies.
The PQ took advantage of the unveiling of its plan to present three new candidates, including Dr. Lucien Rodrigue, emergency physician at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. “I am running for health reform and because I am a sovereigntist,” he said, saying he agreed to become a state employee. “The system has to change.”
The physiotherapist at the CISSS de l’Outaouais, Camille Pellerin-Forget, and the assistant head nurse in pediatrics at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, Sylvie Tanguay, were also introduced.