Health care in Quebec excludes English-speaking communities

Bonus system for everyone except Shawville and Wakefield

Taylor Clark

The Outaouais’ demands appeared to have been partially heeded, as the Quebec government agreed to extend specific measures aimed at matching Ontario’s general wage to include medical imaging staff at Papineau and Maniwaki hospitals.

The agreement between the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux and the provincial government was first announced in late April and was to be offered only to technicians at Hull and Gatineau hospitals.

Similar to what was previously announced, the two-year stimulus consisted of a $22,000 annual lump sum for those hired to work an additional 2.5 hours per week and a 10 percent summer pay raise for staff in Gatineau, Hull, and Papineau. In addition to the 10% increase, technicians at Maniwaki Hospital would only receive $18,000 if they worked overtime per week.

Pontiac MLA and official opposition spokesman André Fortin has already criticized the province’s proposed “half-measures” and was disappointed by the exclusion of Shawville and Wakefield hospitals, saying the expansion was “a slap in the face” to the imaging technicians left behind on the side of the road.

“As a region, we have clearly asked the CAQ government not to abandon Shawville, Wakefield, Maniwaki and Papineau. Today, it seems like their response is, “Ok, we’re just going to drop Shawville and Wakefield,” Fortin wrote on social media.

The decision, which Fortin said was unjustified, was predicted to destabilize rural health care teams and will continue to weaken care in Shawville and Wakefield.

The recently launched health coalition SOS Outaouais also argued that the extension of incentives was still not enough. “The current medical imaging staffing crisis is not limited to a few hospitals, but affects our entire region,” SOS Outaouais spokesperson and Gatineau Health Foundation executive director Jean Pigeon wrote on Facebook.

With the stimulus expected to last only two years, the coalition called for lasting solutions, “not temporary measures that just delay the real problem.”

Pigeon pointed to the recent investment of $350,000 in recruitment grants to improve offerings designed to counter the tech exodus to Ontario. “This is the community. The community donated $350,000 to this and we have our government that is quite shy, I think, to give money from our taxes to come and support this initiative.”

The press release of the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux acknowledged that the agreement was a step in the right direction, but there was still a long way to go.

“(The government) needs to stop managing one crisis after another and instead address the medical imaging workforce shortage globally. We need to do real workforce planning and implement solutions to restore the situation in the long term,” wrote the president of the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux, Robert Comeau.

Photo Caption: Pontiac MP and official opposition spokesman André Fortin holds a press conference in front of Pontiac Hospital to condemn the CAQ government’s decision to extend specific incentives only to imaging technicians at Papineau and Maniwaki hospitals.

Photo credit: Courtesy