Gaétan Barrette’s enthusiasm for Christian Dubé’s reform of the health care system does not bode well, the opposition parties believe. “Me, to see Gaétan Barrette applauding a health reform, it worries me a lot,” said the spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, at a press briefing in parliament on Tuesday morning.
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On Monday, the former Minister of Health spread his joy in La Presse to see a Minister of Health continue his work, and try to do what Prime Minister Philippe Couillard had prevented him from doing. According to him, the wave of criticism that will follow the announcement of this reform will have the appearance of “World War III”.
“I don’t know if it was in the communications plan he used: WWIII. But he claps with both hands so much that his hands are red. That’s Gaétan Barrette. I can’t wait to see the other experts join in,” quipped PQ MP Pascal Bérubé.
On the Liberal side, they seemed somewhat embarrassed by the exit of their former colleague. The interim chief, Marc Tanguay, did not want to say whether or not he had witnessed the fact that Philippe Couillard would have put a spoke in the wheels of his Minister of Health.
He confined himself to remarking that in the days of the Liberals, “the indicators were going in the right direction”. “The CAQ, in five years what we see is the rise of all the indicators in the opposite direction”, he slipped.
Nevertheless, it is for the government, and not for the PLQ, that the exit of Gaétan Barrette is perhaps the most embarrassing, suggested Mr. Tanguay.
“I don’t know if Gaétan’s comments do more harm to us, or to the reform that is coming from François Legault,” he said.
Minister Dubé’s bill, which will be tabled on Wednesday, provides for the creation of Santé Québec, which would become the single employer for the entire health network. The department would remain responsible for setting guidelines, but Health Quebec would manage operations.
The piece of legislation also provides that specialist doctors should take care of more patients, and that the possibility for staff to go and work in another region without losing seniority.