François Legault deserves to be congratulated for two enormous projects which risk paying dividends in the long term: the creation of the health agency and the proposal to create an agency for mobility and infrastructure for collective transport.
In terms of improving public administration, this was the best way to go. It remains to be seen whether the results will be there…
Remaking the civil service
Those who devote their careers to providing service to the public have, throughout time, been insufficiently recognized for their important role. When someone is told that they have a “civil servant mentality,” it is not a compliment.
This is understandable, given the horrible results in key issues such as health and education. But it’s also unfair. Because the problems we are experiencing are not the fault of civil servants! They are caused by the fault of successive governments who have never had the courage to throw failing models out the window.
Whether it is the CAQ in Quebec or the Liberals in Ottawa, our governments have massively increased the size of the state – and its costs – without the public being able to see the slightest improvement in services.
Need I remind you that Quebecers are the highest taxed taxpayers in North America?
Realistic salaries?
There was a joke in the old Soviet Union, where everyone worked for the government: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
Well, okay, we’re not the old Soviet Union, but there are more people working for the government (and its tentacles) in Quebec than in our neighbors in Canada or the United States and it doesn’t stop.
If we want to attract and retain good lawyers as prosecutors and good engineers to plan our roads, we must pay them according to the market.
But be careful, any fair comparison with the private sector must also take into account the enormous advantage of the public service in terms of quality of life (work schedule and vacations) and permanence (job for life).
Montreal must be the headquarters of the agencies
The Quebec state is bloated and inefficient. To remedy this, another model is needed, like that of agencies. But beware! Dubé placed the headquarters of the Santé Québec agency in Quebec.
It’s not that I don’t like Quebec City, it’s one of the most beautiful in North America. It’s just that most of the problems to be solved are in Montreal!
If it sets up in Quebec, instead of starting off on the right foot, the agency risks being like a bankrupt company that is just starting out under another name.
The same people will cross the street and nothing will change.
The same goes for Minister Guilbault’s transportation agency.
If she preaches for her parish and places the agency in the Old Capital and not in the metropolis, it is a safe bet that her good idea will be doomed to failure for the same reason.
