Quebec Health Minister defends bill to end COVID state of emergency, calling it a ‘necessary transition’
Posted March 17, 2022 2:47 pm.
The proposed Bill 28 aimed at ending the public health state of emergency in Quebec, is being criticized by opposition parties and unions, and had Health Minister Christian Dubé on the defensive Thursday.
It would see the government retain extraordinary powers until Dec. 31, 2022, which Dubé says is needed to be able to make snap decisions in the event of a sixth wave.
“We need the bill to ensure a transition that I would call prudent and responsible,” he said at a press conference and doesn’t understand which parts of the bill the opposition find “unreasonable.”
“We are still very much in a pandemic and the virus is circulating, we need to be able to react quickly,” he explained.
He said the government needs to be able to continue to use different vaccinators, have easy access to certain data and maintain contracts that were signed during the pandemic – should another wave happen.
MORE: Quebec tables bill to end COVID-19 state of emergency
A two-year-long state of emergency
Since March 2020, a state of health emergency has given full powers to the Legault government.
This has allowed them to bypass the often-long process of parliamentary debate.
It has also given them the power to ignore collective agreements in health and enable them to award contracts without a call for tenders.
It’s been repeatedly criticized over the past two years by the opposition parties as a form of abuse of power.
They have repeatedly demanded that the state of emergency come to an end.
Questionable transition period
Many critics are now greeting this so-called transition period with skepticism.
Opposition parties are calling it a charade, accusing the government of pretending to remove the state of emergency while retaining the same powers.
Many unions have also denounced it.
Responding to these accusations on Thursday, Dubé said, “I don’t think that’s a very good evaluation of the situation, and I’m being very polite.”
The minister also promised that opposition members will have a technical debriefing next week to understand the bill better.
Bill 28 would require a detailed review by a parliamentary committee before it is passed.
