Early Saturday morning, the Quebec government passed a special law to introduce a new system for paying doctors.
It was passed just before 4 a.m. after Premier Francois Legault called a special session to speed up consideration of the bill, which would impose fines of up to $500,000 a day. doctors who take “concerted action” to challenge government policies
In the fall, federations representing family doctors and medical specialists used pressure tactics to oppose the proposed pay system, such as refusing to train medical students.
Under the new law, part of doctors' remuneration will now be tied to performance targets linked to the number of patients, especially vulnerable ones, they care for.
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Bill 2 passed by a vote of 63 to 27, with Legault present for the vote.
It was introduced by Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé on Friday morning and is worded similarly to Bill 106, a bill introduced in May to introduce a new pay system, but this time with sections aimed at ending a labor dispute between the province and its family doctors and medical specialists.
“Once again we see the sad spectacle of a government going down the wrong path,” Liberal health critic Mark Tange said Saturday morning.
Vincent Marissal, a health critic at Québec Solidaire, meanwhile called it an attack on “fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right of association,” warning that the law was sure to go “straight to court.”
The Federation of Quebec Medical Specialists already announced on Friday that it intends to challenge the law in court. The federation representing general practitioners and family doctors also said it was considering the same.
The two federations with which the province negotiated have argued from the outset that doctors do not have the resources to achieve the goals proposed under the bill.
Speaking during the debate on the bill, Dubé said “we need to do things differently”, saying “the current situation is not sustainable”.
Opposition parties have criticized the government for citing the shutdown to push through the special bill, the eighth time the CAQ government has done so since it came to power in 2018. A cloture call is a tool that can be used to end debate on a bill and force a vote on it.
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