{"id":618409,"date":"2026-09-08T17:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618409\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T17:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:18:19","slug":"fact-check-abolishing-sante-quebec-will-be-easier-said-than-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618409\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact check: Abolishing Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec will be easier said than done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s pledge to dismantle Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> if the PQ takes power on Oct. 5 is based on two claims: that the health system has turned into a \u201cbureaucratic monster\u201d since the state corporation was founded nearly two years ago, and that it would be relatively easy to \u201crefocus\u201d on medical care after it\u2019s abolished.<\/p>\n

Neither of those assertions stands up to scrutiny, however, a Gazette fact-check has found.<\/p>\n

Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec took over from the provincial Health Ministry on Dec. 1, 2024. Under the reform spearheaded by former health minister Christian Dub\u00e9<\/a>, the ministry remained in charge of setting priorities for the system, while Genevi\u00e8ve Biron was appointed CEO of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec with the mandate to run day-to-day operations more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Although nearly everyone agrees that access to health care remains problematic across Quebec<\/a>, the front-running PQ makes the specific claim that bureaucracy in the system jumped by 70 per cent since Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec was formed. That claim is misleading.<\/p>\n

The number of employees at Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec headquarters now stands at close to 1,300, according to the PQ. The claim of a 70 per cent increase in health bureaucracy is based on the PQ calculating that the Health Ministry had 1,232 employees in March 2024, a month before the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government announced it would create Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec and eight months before the state corporation became operational.<\/p>\n

\"0822Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, announces his party\u2019s proposal to abolish Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec and redirect spending toward direct patient care, in Montreal on Friday, August 21, 2026. Evan Buhler \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

By January of this year, the ministry employed 950 bureaucrats and Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec had 1,176 employees \u2014 for a combined tally of 2,126, the PQ observed in its presentation. Subtracting the Health Ministry figure of 1,232 in March 2024 from the combined total of 2,126, one arrives at the sum of 894 additional employees, or an increase of 72.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

In fact, however, the size of the Health Ministry bureaucracy decreased as many of its employees were transferred to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec. A government spokesperson noted the ministry employed 1,752 regular and occasional bureaucrats on Nov. 30, 2024 \u2014 the day before Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec came into being \u2014 and that total dropped to 954 by March 31 this year.<\/p>\n

Thus, if one were to add 954 Health Ministry employees with the latest Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec figure of 1,288, the sum is 2,242 \u2014 an overall increase of 490 employees or 27.9 per cent from Nov. 30, 2024. That\u2019s still a relatively significant hike, but not the 70 per cent the PQ claims.<\/p>\n

Are the savings real?<\/p>\n

The PQ has also estimated that getting rid of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec will lead to at least $40 million in annual savings as a result of having to pay the salaries of fewer bureaucrats, and those savings could reach as high as $100 million. This claim is unverifiable.<\/p>\n

The PQ has not explained how it arrived at the figure of at least $40 million in savings in a health and social services budget of $68.7 billion. The Institut de la statistique du Qu\u00e9bec has calculated that the average salary, plus benefits, of a public sector worker was $79,924 in 2025. If one were to multiply that sum by the additional number of health bureaucrats of 490, one arrives at a payroll of more than $39 million.<\/p>\n

At first glance, this would appear to back the PQ\u2019s claim that scrapping Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec would lead to savings of $40 million a year. However, the government would likely have to pay substantial severance to laid-off health bureaucrats, said longtime patient-rights activist Paul Brunet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sum of $40 million is nothing compared to the cost of having to rebuild the structure with the (Health Ministry), transferring jobs, and the indemnities that are going to be paid to the people who are not going back to the ministry,\u201d explained Brunet, of the Conseil pour la protection des malades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no savings there. (St-Pierre) Plamondon needs to do a better job in terms of the savings he claims he\u2019s going to make, because $40 million is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damien Contandriopoulos, professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria and an expert on health policy in Quebec, agreed with Brunet\u2019s view.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy thing to do,\u201d Contandriopoulos said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you can push a button to go back to the way things were before. I don\u2019t want to quote a number of how much it\u2019s going to cost, but it\u2019s definitely going to be a very significant amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only Canadian precedent for such an undertaking is found in Alberta. In 2023, the provincial government announced it would dismantle Alberta Health Services \u2014 a centralizing agency like Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec \u2014 and instead create four distinct entities for acute care, primary care, continuing care and mental health.<\/p>\n

The Alberta experience<\/p>\n

The Alberta government budgeted $85 million for the breakup in a health system that is a little over half the size of Quebec\u2019s, with the restructuring scheduled to take two years. Yet in each of the three years since Alberta\u2019s announcement, health administration costs have kept rising, suggesting that restructuring did not lead to savings.<\/p>\n

A Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec source, who agreed to be interviewed on condition that their name not be published so they could speak candidly about the issue, said taking apart the state corporation would prove devilishly complex, not least because it deals with eight large unions representing 347,000 employees in the health network.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to undo Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec will take another four or five years,\u201d the source said. \u201cWe won\u2019t be able to see any significant changes under a new government. That\u2019s the problem. We are always starting from zero every time we have a new government and a new reform. We never give a reform enough time to show the fruits of its labour.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its defence, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec boasts that it has managed to slash the number of Quebecers waiting at least a year for surgery from a high of 22,197 on Sept. 10, 2022, to 3,822 by the end of July. But most of that decrease took place before Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec was formed. Still, the state corporation has continued to reduce the year-long waits for surgery, although wait times for heart and cancer surgeries have barely budged in the past four years.<\/p>\n

Should the PQ, which has placed consistently first in public-opinion surveys<\/a>, actually follow through on its promise to eliminate Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, it will do so in the midst of two massive pilot projects involving electronic health records, known in French as the Dossier sant\u00e9 num\u00e9rique. Those projects have been beset by glitches<\/a>, and whoever oversees them \u2014 whether it\u2019s the Health Ministry alone or Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec \u2014 will face major challenges in the coming years.<\/p>\n

The Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec source said the state corporation needs more time to prove itself \u2014 a view shared by Brunet, who is nonetheless critical of its record to date.<\/p>\n

For Contandriopoulos, the idea of replacing one health-care structure with another smacks of cynical politics. He also bemoans the obsession with structural reforms by not only the CAQ but previous PQ and Liberal governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois is keeping up with the traditions set by the Liberals and the CAQ of selling administrative reforms as if they were the only solution, as if the root problem of the system is that we\u2019ve got bad administrative structures, so by fixing the structure, we\u2019re going to solve all the problems,\u201d Contandriopoulos added. \u201cThat simply hasn\u2019t been proven to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Quebec\u2019s other main political parties stand on the future of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec<\/p>\n

Quebec Liberal Party<\/p>\n

It\u2019s against abolishing Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec. \u201cInstead, we propose decentralizing decision-making, reducing bureaucracy and making Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec truly accountable for results,\u201d a Liberal party spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec<\/p>\n

The CAQ created Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, so it\u2019s no surprise that it wants the state corporation to stick to its mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 18 months old, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec is still very young, but we\u2019re already seeing results and expecting even more,\u201d Sonia B\u00e9langer, who took over from Dub\u00e9 as health minister last year, posted on X the day of the PQ\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

C\u2019est fini les r\u00e9formes. On en a assez fait. C\u2019\u00e9tait n\u00e9cessaire, mais l\u00e0, on est ailleurs.<\/p>\n

Est-ce que PSPP pense aux travailleurs de la sant\u00e9? \u00c0 la population? Parce que moi, oui. Ce que les gens veulent, c\u2019est pouvoir bien faire leur travail, avoir acc\u00e8s aux bons services et\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sonia B\u00e9langer (@SBelangerCAQ) August 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec solidaire<\/p>\n

Although the left-of-centre Qu\u00e9bec solidaire does not want to kill Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, it does want to decentralize some of its powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Qu\u00e9bec solidaire government would decentralize some of the powers of centralizing megastructures, such as Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, to ensure greater decision-making autonomy for the regions,\u201d spokesperson Guillaume David declared in a statement to The Gazette.<\/p>\n

Conservative Party of Quebec<\/p>\n

The right-of-centre Conservatives have not yet taken an official position on the future of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec. Officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s electoral platform includes a single reference to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec. \u201cIn health care, half a million Quebecers are waiting for a family doctor and nearly 900,000 for a consultation with a specialist. And what has the CAQ done? It created Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, a new layer of bureaucracy. As if the system didn\u2019t have enough of that already.\u201d<\/p>\n

aderfel@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

x.com\/Aaron_Derfel<\/a><\/p>\n

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