Christian Dubé steps down as Quebec health minister, leaves CAQ to sit as independent
Posted December 18, 2025 2:46 pm.
Last Updated December 18, 2025 10:56 pm.
With his signature legislation to modernize doctor compensation diluted, Christian Dubé announced on Thursday he would resign as health minister and quit the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party altogether.
In a letter published on social media, Dubé said he is not the right person to continue negotiations with family doctors over changes to a controversial doctor-payment law that he had championed.
“Under the current circumstances, this is a difficult decision I am making for the good of patients, physicians, and the health-care system,” Dubé said.
Passed on Oct. 25, Bill 2 ties part of physicians’ remuneration to performance targets and threatens steep fines for those who use pressure tactics to boycott the changes. Doctors had argued it muzzled them and could drive physicians out of Quebec.
Then earlier in December the government announced it had reached an agreement in principle with family doctors to delay and amend the contentious legislation, undoing a number of elements Dubé had strongly defended.
Dubé, who has said he won’t seek re-election in 2026, will now sit as the ninth Independent member of the National Assembly.
His departure leaves Legault’s party with 80 seats in the 125-seat legislature.
Reactions pour in
Quebec Premier François Legault said, in a post on social media, that he accepted Dubé’s resignation.
“I thank him for his years of public service in one of the most demanding roles in Quebec,” Legault said. “Our government remains fully committed to improving access to health care for the population. This has always guided our actions, and we will continue our work in this direction.”
Family doctors have until Friday to vote on the new deal. If it is accepted, it would take effect on Feb. 28 and the legislation would need to be reworked. The original law was scheduled to enter effect Jan. 1.
“I have concluded that I am no longer the right person to continue these discussions and lead the rewriting of Bill 2, as required by the agreement with the FMOQ (Quebec Federation of General Practitioners),” he wrote.
The tentative agreement would see the provincial government back down on several controversial reforms brought in by Dubé, including performance-related penalties and a colour-coded system to assess patients’ vulnerability.
Under the new deal, the province would also abandon its goal of assigning all Quebecers to a health-care provider by 2027, instead offering incentives for doctors to enrol 500,000 new patients by June 2026.
The deal would maintain changes to the method of remuneration for physicians, but it would remove the threat of heavy fines for doctors who take “concerted actions” to oppose the bill. It also includes an additional $435 million in the compensation package for family doctors.
The FMOQ said it would not comment on Dubé’s resignation “out of respect for the ongoing vote on the agreement in principle and for our members still reflecting on this matter.”
“Beyond politics, there is the human being. We wish Christian Dubé good luck for the future,” the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) wrote on X.
“We acknowledge his decision and wish to thank him for the important work he has done,” Santé Québec said.
In his letter, Dubé said the law he had adopted aimed to modernize the governance structure between the government, the family doctor federation and medical directors in the health network. The new deal, he said, “essentially maintains the status quo on governance issues.”
Dubé admitted the government had made mistakes in negotiations and accepted blame for how the law was rolled out.
“The tone adopted at the beginning of the discussions did not always foster a constructive dialogue with physicians,” Dubé said. “Together, these dynamics contributed to creating a climate of confrontation that unfortunately intensified over the months.”
The government hasn’t reached a deal with the province’s medical specialists, who are represented by a separate federation.
“For François Legault, this latest departure is further proof of the failure of his hardline, combative, and aggressive approach in recent months,” argued Guillaume Cliche-Rivard of Québec solidaire.
“The fall has been marked by a psychodrama invented from scratch by the CAQ, in which thousands of Quebecers risked being left without a doctor: this is unacceptable. Christian Dubé’s departure from the caucus represents another failure, this time a very serious one, for the premier,” he added.
“For those who still doubted that the CAQ had capitulated completely to the doctors, Mr. Dubé’s decision offers the most striking confirmation of Premier Legault’s disavowal,” said PQ health spokesperson Joël Arseneau.
“We have had many disagreements over the past five years, but I recognize his integrity in leaving because he was unable to achieve the goals he had set for himself,” added independent MNA Vincent Marissal.
“It was consistent for him to leave his position,” agreed Liberal health spokesperson Marc Tanguay.
Unions react
He took a “responsible step,” said the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS).
However, his resignation “also illustrates the limits of reforms carried out without addressing the chronic underfunding of the network,” the union wrote.
“The minister’s resignation raises serious concerns about what will happen next. (…) The healthcare system cannot afford a prolonged period of instability,” noted Julie Bouchard, president of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ).
“The FIQ draws a clear conclusion from this resignation: the climate in the network has deteriorated and the way things are done has undermined confidence, both among healthcare professionals and other stakeholders in the system,” she added.
A second resignation for Dubé
Coming from the business world, Dubé began his political career under the CAQ banner, being elected for the first time in the 2012 elections as the representative for Lévis, when the party formed the second opposition in the House.
Re-elected in April 2014, while his party was still relegated to the second opposition, he resigned just a few months later, in August, to become first vice-president of the Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec.
But when the CAQ came to power in 2018, he returned to politics and once again joined forces with Legault, who formed his first government in October 2018. Elected as the member for La Prairie, Dubé became president of the Treasury Board.
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Legault reshuffled his cabinet and Dubé became Minister of Health. Re-elected in the 2022 election, he was reappointed by Legault to his position as Minister of Health.
