PQ leader Pauline Marois and Liberal leader Philippe Couillard were both in Laval Monday trying to win adherents to their health care plans.
Liberal leader Philippe Couillard is promising to inject $310 million into health care for seniors over the next five years, largely by reducing red tape in the health network.
Couillard, campaigning in Laval, said that his Liberals would invest $825 million over five years to improve health care for the elderly.
Part of the money would be generating by rearranging funding within the Department of Health and Social Services.
Under the proposal, institutions that provide the care would receive payment after providing proof of treatment.
Couillard also promised to streamline the health care bureaucracy to allow savings of $60 million per year, or $300 over five years, by trimming 10 percent off health care spending.
Couillard said that his plan contrasts significantly from the Parti Quebecois plan, which he said only promises to create new levels of bureaucracy.
The Liberals would also give $5 million per year over five years to health and social service centres to fund caregivers.
Couillard also promised to offer loans to help pay property and school taxes. Only homeowners aged 60 or over, with household incomes under $70,000 per year, would be eligible.
Those aged over 60 and earning less than $40,000 a year would be eligible for a tax credit of 20 percent, or up to $200 for the cost of physical, cultural or artistic activities.
Couillard was also asked about his recent comments concerning the constitution.
He appeared to back off his previous stance that his party’s position was similar to that of the CAQ, which has rarely addressed the issue.
“From what I know, Mr. Legault has no position on the Quebec question. He’s sitting on the fence looking at both sides,” said Couillard Monday in Laval.
Couillard has said little about the constitution after announcing a plan to lobby other Quebec premiers on his constitutional stance.
Marois pushes health care plan, nixes marijuana
Pauline Marois also spent parts of Monday campaigning in the all-important 450 area, as the ring around Montreal has been dubbed due to its telephone area code.
The PQ leader – flanked by candidates Réjean Hébert, Véronique Hivon Diane Lamarre, Gyslaine Desrosiers and Gilles Aubé - promised a family doctor for every Quebecer by 2016.
Marois said that she was not promising miracles but would reduce waiting lists and improve access to health care.
“We’re going in the right direction and eventually we’ll get every person access to a family doctor and get them appointments in a reasonable time, with help from computerized records,” she said.
Outgoing health minister Réjean Hébert, the incumbent for St. Francois Laval, said that the government is shooting for a province-wide total of 300 family medicine groups. It has already created 18 and only needs to create 44 more to get to that goal.
“Since coming to power, 323,000 more Quebecers have access to a family doctor,” said Hébert.
The PQ plans to increase health care spending by only three percent next year, an ambitious goal considering that the cost has risen by 5.6 percent on average over the last decade.
The PQ leader also paid a visit to the head of the Quebec Farmers’ Union (UPA) earlier Monday in which she affirmed her commitment to food self-sufficiency for Quebec.
A journalist asked UPA chief Marcel Groleau whether he’d like to see more cannabis grown in Quebec. "We are open to any new production." said Groleau. “I won't judge whether or not we should legalize marijuana but if we decided to legalize it, it would be a crop that Quebec farmers would be able to produce. It is already being grown on the land.”
Marois rejected the idea of legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana. “It is not in the program,” she said.
-With files from The Canadian Press
