Members of Cabinet – The FIQ hopes for ministers who listen
Following the appointment of the members of Cabinet, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec–FIQ saw that Christian Dubé was kept on in the position of Minister of Health and Social Services.
“Since there is a need for urgent action in the health and social services network, we see it as a good thing that Minister Dubé’s mandate has been renewed rather than having a new minister who would have to learn about the issues. However, the authoritarian management of the network must stop. Dialogue, listening and trust between the minister and healthcare professionals will have to be re-established. It is with these conditions alone that the minister will be able to implement measures to finally make the network a top employer,” explained Julie Bouchard, FIQ President.
Remember that in the last election, the CAQ promised to eliminate mandatory overtime hours, reduce the use of agency staff, and revise the healthcare professional-to-patient ratios.
“These are great, large-scale initiatives, but they were also promised in the previous election and the result: more agency staff, more MOT and a devastating shortage of healthcare professionals. While Christian Dubé has shown that he is capable of developing service approaches for short-term care and simple issues (portail Clic Santé, vaccination, data on the RSSS), he has not yet demonstrated an ability to resolve major complex issues as promised,” remarked Ms. Bouchard.
“If he seriously wants to improve working conditions in the health network, then Minister Dubé will need to focus all of his influence on his Treasury Board colleague so that she grants him the means to achieve his goals. We hope that Sonia Lebel will be attentive to healthcare professionals’ needs, as well as to the population who is suffering due to a lack of staff in the network,” explained Ms. Bouchard.
The FIQ would like to highlight the parity in the new Members of Cabinet, which consists of 14 women ministers out of 30. However, it deplores the fact that most of the ministries in charge of the economy and that have the highest budgets continue to be predominantly male.
In closing, we also applaud the appointment of an Indigenous minister, Kateri Champagne Jourdain.