Announcements of job cuts in the health network have multiplied in recent weeks as Quebec tries to eliminate a $1.5 billion deficit in the public health-care system.
According to the most recent data from the Health Ministry, the number of employees in the network dropped to 348,353 in mid-December 2024 — a decrease of 1,045 people over the previous month.
And the cuts aren’t done.
Radio-Canada is reporting that in Laval, Que., the CISSS regional health board will meet in the coming days with about 150 employees whose positions will be eliminated. Many of them are patient attendants and auxiliary nurses.
The anticipated shortfall in Laval will remain around $55 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, according to Radio-Canada.
In Chaudière-Appalaches, located south of Quebec City, more than 130 positions could be affected, the unions said.
“After all the measures previously implemented … we must apply new budget balancing measures by eliminating permanent positions,” said a spokesperson for the regional health board, the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches.
Last week, the CISSS de l’Outaouais confirmed it eliminated 196 positions.
No fewer than 40 management positions in Abitibi-Témiscamingue are also expected to be cut.
In a media scrum on Wednesday, Health Minister Christian Dubé reiterated his trust in Santé Québec, the province’s newest Crown corporation tasked with slashing the $1.5 billion health-care system deficit by the end of March.
“It is a difficult mission but it is not impossible,” he said. “It’s not for nothing that we found good managers to carry out these missions.”
Dubé emphasized that there would be no impact on the services.
Starting Dec. 1, Santé Québec will manage all health-care establishments in the province. The newly-created Crown corporation is a crucial part of the Legault government’s solutions to reform the health-care system.
Santé Québec spokesperson Yann Langlais Plante explained that although some daytime positions would be eliminated, others would be created to have more employees working in the evening, at night and on weekends.
“If, for example, we transfer someone from daytime shifts to evening shifts, we have to eliminate the daytime position and open a new evening or night position,” Langlais Plante said.
Some medical professionals like Dr. Joseph Dahine, who works at the intensive care unit of the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval, argue that the mission is not only impossible, it’s a failure.
“There’s already an impact on patients and services because the way those cuts are being engineered is through the easy solutions,” Dahine told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak on Thursday. “If you cut the person giving the services, in effect, what you’re doing is decreasing the services.”
In December, Santé Québec set a target of reducing hours worked by 3.65 per cent.
Other cost-cutting efforts made in the health network since last fall include reducing the use of private health agencies, cutting overtime and eliminating vacant positions.
Denis Cloutier, president of the Syndicat des professionnelles en soins de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal which is affiliated with the province’s largest nurses’ union, noted that beyond eliminating jobs to save money, employers are increasingly not replacing absences — a practice he says is widespread throughout the health network.
“This is particularly unfortunate, because at this point, after the negotiations, we should be deploying funds to reduce wait lists for surgery,” Cloutier said.
Réjean Leclerc, president of the Fédération et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), said it is impossible to implement $1.5 billion in austerity measures without directly reducing services.
“By eliminating hundreds of positions, the CAQ and Santé Québec risk putting users in danger,” he said.
