Quebec's new email offer to nurses, teachers and psychologists falls flat

Quebec Treasury Board president Sonia Lebel unveils the government offers to the main unions during a press conference, in Quebec City, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec's new offers on working conditions for teachers, nurses and psychologists have fallen flat. The Treasury Board even had to send them by email to the unions, who wanted to negotiate at the actual bargaining tables, not in the discussion forums where Quebec wanted to table them.

In a news briefing Wednesday morning, Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel admitted that since the unions did not show up at the discussion forums, she had to email them her new offers on certain working conditions for nurses, teachers and psychologists.

The minister estimates her offers at $700 million. They include additional classroom assistants to lighten the load for teachers and improved overall compensation for psychologists.

For nurses, the new offer includes more holidays and a substantial bonus for those who agree to work from Friday to Monday, under certain conditions.

But the reception has been frosty, given the process.

"We're receiving this like a ton of bricks," said FTQ president Magali Picard in an interview.

She said she was disappointed with the "amateurism" of the Quebec government, which did not table its offers before the actual negotiating teams, as it should have.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 22, 2023.