Sonia Bélanger tapped to replace Christian Dubé as Quebec health minister

Sonia Bélanger, the junior health minister and minister responsible for seniors and social services, is expected to be sworn in as soon as Friday as Quebec's new health minister, according to Radio-Canada sources.

It comes after Christian Dubé announced on Thursday afternoon that he would step down as health minister.

Bélanger, a professional nurse, became a member of the National Assembly for the first time from Prévost in the Laurentian Mountains in 2022.

Before entering politics, she served as director general of a regional health board known as CIUSSS South Central Island of Montreal and as executive director CSSS du South-West-Verdunmedical services center.

In a social media post, Dube cited difficult negotiations with unions representing doctors as the main reason for his decision to resign. He will sit as an independent MNA until the end of his current mandate.

In his post, Dube said he was leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party and made it clear that he was upset with the way the government backtracked on many of the planned health care reforms in Bill 2.

Legislation aims to revise the payment system for doctorswhich caused a negative reaction from healthcare professionals. Hundreds of doctors looked ato practice in other provinces, etc. t saidhey, I wish I had retired earlier.

Premier Francois Legault intervened after talks broke down between Quebec family doctors and Dubé, as well as Treasury Board President France-Hélène Duranceau, and an agreement in principle was reached last week.

Family doctors in Quebec The agreement received a 97 percent vote and the results were announced Friday morning.

Part deals Vincludes eliminating penalties for physicians tied to their collective performance targets. It also scraps a controversial plan to categorize patients into a color-coded system based on their level of vulnerability and removes any sections of the legislation that would have penalized doctors for failing to comply with reform rules.

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 be overseen by the new health minister.

Legault called Dubé's departure a 'hard blow'

In a social media post Friday, Legault said Dubé's departure was a “hard blow” but he accepted his resignation.

“Christian has taken responsibility for certain mistakes and that is entirely his fault,” Legault wrote.

In his message on Thursday, Dube cited the government's failure to adequately communicate the objectives and implications of Bill 2 to the public.

Legault also defended his decision to intervene in negotiations with doctors, saying the gap was becoming too wide and reaching an agreement was necessary to avoid further damage to the health care system.

“With the help of France-Élaine Duranceau, I have regained control of the negotiations with the two medical federations so that we can focus on the important changes that need to be made to improve services for citizens,” he said.

Legault thanked Dubé for all his years of dedicated service to the people of Quebec and said that “despite the circumstances of his departure, we must not lose sight of all the positive changes he implemented as health minister.”