Quebec tables bill to end COVID-19 state of emergency
Posted March 16, 2022 12:39 pm.
Last Updated March 16, 2022 6:41 pm.
The Quebec government moved to end the pandemic state of emergency in the province, with a bill tabled by Health Minister Christian Dubé on Wednesday morning.
“What we have learned in the last five waves is we need to be ready,” Dubé said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
In place since March 2020, the state of emergency, renewed every 10 days, has granted the Legault government exceptional powers amid COVID-19, including circumventing collective agreements in the health network and awarding contracts without a call for tenders.
The bill states that measures adopted by government decree that are in place at the end of the state of health emergency will remain in force until Dec. 31, but the government can relax or repeal them by decree.
Dubé said he’s happy to begin the process to finally lift the health emergency, as the province recently dropped almost all COVID health restrictions, including the vaccine passport, besides the mask mandates.
Je viens de déposer le projet de loi visant à mettre fin à l’état d’urgence sanitaire. Très heureux d’entamer cette démarche qui va nous permettre d’enfin lever l’urgence sanitaire. https://t.co/lcV3qoDpxW
— Christian Dubé (@cdube_sante) March 16, 2022
“In the mind of Quebecers those measures are over, it’s finished,” Dubé said. “It’s only with the opposition that we need to say, ‘those are the five or six facilities that we need to keep to be agile in August.’”
Opposition parties have been demanding an end to the state of emergency for months, calling it an abuse of power by the government.
“I think they will understand that this is just practical,” Dubé said. “This is an operational issue.”
But some say the new bill only means business as usual, since the government will still retain some exceptional powers.
“What Mr. Legault and Mr. Dubé are both saying right now is that from now on until December 31st, they can do whatever they want,” says Éric Gingras, president of Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ). “It’s not the end of the state of emergency, it’s a public relation operation in order to tell all the population that he’s done something, but basically, nothing’s going to change tomorrow.”
For nurse Naveed Hussain, the lifting of the state of emergency is welcome news.
“We need to live in a democracy where we can have debates and have discussions on how we govern our society,” Hussain says. “And for the past two years, that hasn’t been the case.”
Unions representing healthcare workers and teachers like the CSQ say it’s important to develop long term solutions alongside the stakeholders and avoid more decrees.
“Sit down with all the unions, everybody around the table that has been suffering for the past two years, the population all over Quebec, and find the transitional measures,” says Gingras.
But as restrictions continue to be lifted, some are reminding that the pandemic isn’t over.
“We still have hospitalizations, we still have patients who are dying and then we also have strains that are appearing elsewhere in the world, especially in China right now,” says Hussain. “So we’re all in a wait and see mode.”
The government is vigilant for a possible uptick in cases, but believes Quebec is in a good position.
“When you add the seasonality, the vaccination and contamination that we had, and when they compare those countries with comparable figures, they say that we’re OK,” Dubé said. “But they also say there is a risk that could be in August or September, so that’s the reason we want to be ready for that.”
