{"id":252965,"date":"2025-10-26T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252965\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:08:09","slug":"western-quebec-physicians-eye-up-ottawa-as-province-forces-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252965\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Quebec physicians eye up Ottawa as province forces new deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is again anger and talk of leaving Quebec among some doctors in the Outaouais after the province passed legislation early Saturday to change their pay and halt what it sees as pressure tactics.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Legault’s government tabled Bill 2<\/a> Friday morning and passed it less than 24 hours later. <\/p>\n

It comes on the heels of anger over Bill 106, which was previously tabled in May. That bill would link physician pay to performance indicators<\/a> to get them to take on heavier patient loads and get more people a family doctor.<\/p>\n

Bill 106 was introduced after the province tabled its fourth offer amid stalled negotiations and pressure tactics by doctors and medical specialists, who have been without a contract since 2023.<\/p>\n

Physicians against Bill 106 say that would incentivize a dangerous focus on quantity of care rather than quality. Last week, Quebec family doctors stopped teaching their medical students in protest, following the lead of medical specialists. <\/p>\n

Now Bill 2 introduces significant penalties for those who take part in “concerted actions” such as withholding training.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Christian Dub\u00e9 said the government had no choice but to ”draw a line” to make sure Quebecers receive care. Two medical federations said they would file legal challenges.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bad way to get the patients to have a service that they need. The result will be a decrease of services, especially here in the Outaouais,” said Marcel Guilbault of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration des m\u00e9decins sp\u00e9cialistes du Qu\u00e9bec, which is one group threatening a challenge.<\/p>\n

“Doctors will probably find a way to go to Ottawa because Ottawa is searching for 270 doctors<\/a>. It’s a lot of doctors.”<\/p>\n

The lure of Ontario<\/p>\n

Guilbault said he knows of at least one physician who has already made the move to Ottawa, while a recent survey heard 33 Outaouais physicians plan to head across the river and another 100 or so are considering it.<\/p>\n

The idea some family doctors in the Outaouais are considering retirement or this move would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for a region already in need of family physicians, he said.<\/p>\n

“We should be focused on retaining these doctors, training more, attracting some of the Ontario doctors back to Quebec instead of demobilizing them, sending them towards retirement or towards Ontario,” said Liberal Pontiac MNA Andr\u00e9 Fortin.<\/p>\n

\"AQuebec Liberal MNA Andr\u00e9 Fortin during question period on Nov. 19, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have doctors who have written to us in the last few days, saying ‘I am taking a position at [the] Montfort Hospital, I’m taking a position at one of the Ottawa hospitals,'” Fortin said.<\/p>\n

“That’s something that’s going to lead to patients not having their doctors anymore in the region and it’s completely, 100% government driven.”<\/p>\n

‘So many patients will now be orphans’<\/p>\n

Dr. M\u00e9lanie Lacasse, who studied in Ottawa and has spent her entire career in Gatineau, said she is still pondering the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a disaster and I\u2019m really afraid for myself, as a physician, but also for my patients and for all the patients of the region because [the premier] destroying the health care system,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said older physicians in the region will likely retire if they don\u2019t like the new law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have so many patients that will now be orphans,” she said.<\/p>\n

If the Legault government forces physicians to see more patients without needed staff and equipment, she said they\u2019ll become exhausted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is again anger and talk of leaving Quebec among some doctors in the Outaouais after the province…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-252965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}