Quebec tables new proposals to the FIQ to break the deadlock

Sonia LeBel, President of the Treasury Board, photographed at a press conference in Montreal on 18 February 2024. (Peter McCabe / The Canadian Press.) Quebec says it submitted new proposals to the FIQ on Thursday in the hope of resolving the stalemate that persists between the parties.

Quebec says it tabled new proposals with the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) on Thursday in the hope of resolving the impasse that has persisted over the renewal of the collective agreement for more than 500 days.

"In the proposals we tabled earlier today, we suggest a different path to achieve our objective of flexibility that would allow us to provide better care for Quebecers," said the office of Sonia LeBel, the President of the Treasury Board.

The minister said that the government is reaching out to the FIQ "to conclude an agreement that respects both the needs of the public and the demands of FIQ nurses".

The issue of nurses' mobility is at the heart of the dispute that persists between the parties.

Health institution managers want to be able to move nurses from one care unit or even institution to another to meet needs wherever they arise.

Nurses see this as a way of denying their expertise and treating them as interchangeable pawns.

The collective agreement of the FIQ, which represents 80,000 nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, expired on March 31, 2023. 

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 29, 2024.