PQ open to abolishing Sante Quebec

Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at the legislature in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

A PQ government could abolish the Santé Québec agency, which the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) will set up on Dec. 1.

Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon suggested on Sunday that he isn’t convinced of the agency's relevance.

The new agency, headed by Geneviève Biron, will coordinate the activities of the healthcare network.

“Everything is on the table,” St-Pierre Plamondon told journalists in Victoriaville before taking part in his party's national health council.

“Let's take a look at what Santé Québec is used for and make a decision about the usefulness of this structure.”

The PQ leader fears that this agency will make tough decisions, like the $1 billion in cuts recently invoked,, while the Health Minister washes his hands of the matter.

“(The government) doesn't have an answer to give because it's Santé Québec,” he said. “If this is used as a screen for cuts without the minister having to answer for a decision that is strictly political, then I remain to be convinced. Right now, I'm not convinced.”

This national council, which lasts only one day rather than the usual two, will focus on health policy.

Among their proposals, young PQ members are calling for the withdrawal of tax benefits for doctors, in particular their right to incorporate.

The idea is likely to upset medical staff, but St-Pierre Plamondon said on Sunday that he was prepared to accept it.

The PQ members' proposal to put an end to the incorporation of doctors had already been put forward for debate by Bernard Drainville, before his career with the CAQ, when he was a candidate for the PQ leadership.

Doctors who choose to incorporate do so to save on taxes, since the tax rate on corporate income is lower than that on personal income.

In its proposal, the PQ's youth wing is asking the party's policy committee to carry out an in-depth review of the tax advantages available to doctors, giving priority to withdrawing from incorporation.

Doctors would lose out on financial benefits, which will not please the medical federations, but the PQ leader didn't seem to mind.

“We are a democratic party whose decisions are based on the public interest,” said Plamondon at a news briefing in Victoriaville on Sunday morning.

It was Philippe Couillard who, when he was Minister of Health, introduced regulations in 2007 allowing doctors to practise in partnerships, i.e. to incorporate.

According to the most recent data obtained by The Canadian Press from the Collège des médecins, which authorizes its members to incorporate, almost six out of 10 doctors (59.3 per cent) can practise within a partnership.

In total, 15,646 doctors are authorised to be incorporated, including 6,586 family doctors, 8,878 specialists and 182 doctors with another permit.

In February 2015, Radio-Canada noted, of the 22,552 doctors registered with the Collège des médecins, 10,247 were incorporated, or 45 per cent.

Among the other proposals that will be studied by health campaigners is the extension of the drug insurance scheme to make it universal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 17, 2024.