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Sonia Bélanger, who was junior health minister and the minister responsible for seniors, caregivers and social services, was sworn in Friday afternoon as Quebec’s new health minister.
The move comes less than 24 hours after Christian Dubé announced he would be stepping down from his role as health minister Thursday afternoon.
Bélanger, a trained professional nurse, first became a Member of the National Assembly for the riding of Prévost in the Laurentians in 2022.
After a swearing-in ceremony held behind closed doors and presided over by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Bélanger made a brief statement to reporters.
“I’m truly very happy to be here this afternoon and very honoured by the trust the premier has placed in me. The challenge is enormous, and I feel capable of meeting it,” she said.
Before entering politics, Bélanger served as CEO for the regional health board known as the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and as executive director of the CSSS du Sud-Ouest-Verdun, a health service centre.
She said in addition to her new role as health minister, she will retain her other duties as minister responsible for seniors, caregivers and social services.
Bélanger also took a moment to thank her predecessor Dubé for “the tremendous work he has done over the past year.”
“I believe we can be proud of the progress we have made,” she said.
WATCH | Why Dubé is ditching the CAQ:
Quebec health minister steps down, leaves CAQ party in blow to Legault government
Citing his disappointment over concessions made to family doctors in changes to Quebec’s controversial doctor pay law, Bill 2, Christian Dubé has decided to part ways with François Legault’s government and sit as an Independent MNA until the end of his current mandate.
In a post on social media Thursday, Dubé cited difficult negotiations with unions representing doctors as a key reason for his decision to step down. He will sit as an Independent MNA until the end of his current mandate.
In the post, Dubé said he was leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party and signalled that he was upset with the way the government had backed off on many of its planned health-care reforms in Bill 2.
The legislation seeks to overhaul how doctors are remunerated, which prompted backlash from health-care professionals. Hundreds of doctors looked to practice in other provinces and others said they would retire early.
Premier François Legault stepped in after negotiations had broken off between Quebec’s family doctors and Dubé, along with Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau with an agreement in principle reached last week.
Bélanger promises to work with doctors
Quebec’s family doctors voted 97 per cent in favour of the agreement, with the results announced Friday morning.
Part of the deal includes removing penalties against doctors tied to their collective performance targets. It also eliminates a controversial plan to assign patients on a colour-coded system based on their level of vulnerability, and removes all articles in the legislation that would have penalized doctors for not following the rules of the reform.
The implementation of Bill 2 has been delayed until the end of February to give the CAQ government time to amend the legislation — a task that will now fall to the new health minister to oversee.
Bélanger said she was delighted to hear that family physicians had approved the deal with the government and said she intended to work with them.
“There is a firm commitment on both sides to make care and services accessible to the Quebec population. This will be my priority in the coming hours and days,” she said.
Dr. Marc Amyot, president of the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec, expressed a similar sentiment saying he had worked with Bélanger on past files like medical aid in dying, “so we’ll be working with her.”
Dr. Benoît Heppell, a family doctor and professor at Université de Sherbrooke, told Radio-Canada he doesn’t expect Bélanger to be making any waves with a general election just around the corner.
“I would be very surprised to see a minister embark on major changes, major debates, a grand saga or major reforms,” he said. “I think she will manage health care wisely and quietly.”
Legault calls Dubé’s departure a ‘tough blow’
In a post on social media Friday, Legault said Dubé’s departure was a “tough blow,” but that he accepted his resignation.
“Christian took responsibility for certain mistakes, and that’s entirely to his credit,” Legault wrote.
In his post on Thursday, Dubé had referred to the government’s failure to adequately communicate Bill 2’s objectives and impacts.
Legault also defended his decision to intervene in negotiations with doctors, saying the divide was growing too wide and reaching an agreement was necessary to avoid further damaging the health-care system.
“With the help of France-Élaine Duranceau, I took back control of the negotiations with the two medical federations so that we could focus on the important changes that needed to be made to improve services for citizens,” he said.
Legault thanked Dubé for all the years of dedicated service to Quebecers and said that “despite the circumstances of his departure, we mustn’t overlook all the positive changes he implemented as minister of health.”