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Health-care workers’ unions in the Outaouais say Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault’s decision to resign comes as the region\u2019s health-care system is in critical condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Legault announced his decision to step down as leader of Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec on Wednesday<\/a>. He plans to remain in power until his party elects a new leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n Genevi\u00e8ve Renaud, a vice-president of labour relations with FIQ-SPSO, a union representing nurses in the Outaouais, said while she’s relieved to see Legault go, the damage has been done. <\/p>\n He\u2019s leaving the health-care system in one of the worst conditions it\u2019s ever been.- <\/p>\n Overcrowding and a lack of personnel are crippling emergency rooms in the Outaouais, where ER occupancy rates are among the highest in the province<\/a> at 200 per cent. \u00a0<\/p>\n “Nurses are extremely overwhelmed by the work that they find themselves with,” Renaud said, adding that the situation is also unsafe for patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018They need to listen to us\u2019<\/p>\n Renaud said Legault’s replacement must take the situation seriously, and suggested elected officials see what’s happening for themselves.<\/p>\n “The next person that\u2019s going to be in charge of CAQ needs to understand that health care needs to be a priority,” she said. “They need to go on the floor, they need to talk with people that are actually taking care of patients…. They need to listen to us.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Renaud said establishing safer nurse-to-patient ratios would make a notable difference, but when her union proposed that during the latest contract talks<\/a>, she said the CAQ opted for bonuses instead. <\/p>\n “They need to stop thinking about just numbers and actually understand that there’s people on the other side of this,” she said. <\/p>\n Alain Smolynecky, president of STTSSSO-CSN, a union representing health and social services workers in the Outaouais, shares those concerns.<\/p>\n Advocates worry as Quebec premier exits amid health-care sector crisis<\/p>\n Some unions in the Outaouais are calling for urgent improvements to the region’s health-care sector following Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault’s resignation. CBC’s M\u00e9lina L\u00e9vesque has the story.<\/p>\n He said the Legault government paid scant attention to the region, and said efforts to centralize the health-care system through Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> only made things worse. <\/p>\n The province introduced the Crown corporation in 2023 with the intention of making its health-care system more efficient by centralizing much of its management, but Smolynecky said it has left the Outaouais feeling left behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n They don’t care really about us because we\u2019re far from Montreal and Quebec.- Alain Smolynecky, <\/p>\n He said the government seems unaware of the specific challenges facing health care in the Outaouais, where workers often leave the province in search of better working conditions in Ontario.<\/p>\n Quebec’s controversial Bill 2, which would have linked doctors’ compensation to the number of patients under their care, prompted the departure of several physicians<\/a> from the region. That led to fears over clinic closures and a loss of access to family doctors for thousands of patients.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768648688_286_default.jpg\")
Genevi\u00e8ve Renaud is an executive with FIQ-SPSO, a union representing nurses in the Outaouais. (Jennifer Prescott)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768648688_17_default.jpg\")
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