Quebec wants to stop using private agencies in the health network by 2026

By News Staff

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé tabled Bill 10 on Wednesday – given himself three years he says to abolish the use of private agencies in the health network.

“We need 125,000 employees over the next five years if we have the same rate of departure as we have right now, because we have a portion of those 30,000 people that leave the system per year,” explained Dubé.

What he’s calling “urban sectors” or bigger cities like Montreal, will have to end their agreements by next year. Mid-sized areas will have to do the same in 2025, followed by remote areas in 2026.

The government also plans to set by regulation the maximum rates that the government will pay to hire agency or independent staff.

The bill grants Quebec power, in exceptional circumstances and under certain conditions, to determine the period during which an organization may use the services of a private agency or independent labour.

Another objective, the government will now be able to impose a maximum hourly rate per job title.

​​​​​​​Dubé says that the success of this change of direction in the network will be closely linked to the collective negotiations underway between health care workers and the Treasury Board.

“It’s costing a lot. You’ve seen the cost of that, that doesn’t make sense that we pay… they pay a nurse at a certain price and sometimes they double, or they triple the price they’re charging to the system. So, that in sense, that doesn’t make sense,” he explained. “We should be paying that nurse ourselves. Now, the issue is: can we give the conditions, the work conditions to the nurse that she has in the private? The challenge is always the same. Is for a nurse that will do two, three days a week, because she wants to be part-time, she doesn’t want to work the weekend, she doesn’t want to work at night, those are certain conditions that the agency can offer, and that’s the reason we need also to adapt ourselves.”

“I’m not only after the agencies, I’m after having a good retention program. And that is part of the solution that Sonia LeBel will be helping us, because those are the conditions that will make people wanted to stay or to come back to the system.”

​​​​​​​Dubé knows this won’t be an easy task to convince nurses that have gone to private agencies, to come back into the public sector.

“I want to give them the goût de revenir, the desire to be back. It means, they need to have good conditions. They left because they didn’t like the environment, they didn’t have the choice of their schedule. This is my job, my job to be the employer of choice. And I think that, if we can do that… but it’s not going to be done like that,” he said snapping his fingers.

Quebec would also be able to impose financial and even criminal penalties to enforce these new rules – although many of the details and regulations still need to be worked out.

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