Published at 5:00 a.m.
1. Grosse fusion
From 1is December, all health establishments will be integrated into Santé Québec, except four which serve northern and indigenous communities. The latter will remain independent, but will collaborate with Santé Québec. The thirty establishments overseen by the agency will continue to be headed by a CEO, but he will report to Santé Québec, responsible for network operations. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) will determine the orientations. Will the CIUSSS and CISSS change their name? Not in the “short term”, replies the agency. When the bill was presented, the example was cited of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie which would become Santé Québec–Estrie.
2. One employer
Santé Québec becomes the sole employer of just over 330,000 network employees. But workers won’t see the agency’s name on their next pay stub. That of their establishment will remain “for the moment”, it is indicated. The 1,300 workers in “dual employment” no longer have to choose between their two positions by 1is December. Santé Québec is extending their transition period by one year. Who says single employer says “network seniority”. The exact date of its entry into force remains to be determined. The merger of union accreditations must take place beforehand, according to the unions consulted.
3. Improve access to care
Santé Québec’s priority is to improve access to primary care and surgical interventions. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, is asking him to reach within “a few months” the target of 2,500 patients waiting for an operation for more than a year – a target initially set for December 31. To achieve this, the agency deploys a team of surgical experts to implement “best practices” in hospitals. Santé Québec is also drafting a regulation so that patients can be reimbursed for an operation privately after a waiting period considered unreasonable by the public.
More than 160,000 Quebecers waiting for surgery
Nearly 11,000 have been waiting for more than a year.
Source: Ministry of Health and Social Services
4. Save 1.5 billion
The Santé Québec management team begins its mandate with a major challenge: eliminating 1.5 billion in expenses. This is the projected deficit of health facilities for 2024-2025. “We cannot continue to always spend”, argued to The Press Geneviève Biron, in October. On Friday, Christian Dubé acknowledged half-heartedly that this will have an impact on services, but that it will have to be “minimized”. The state corporation wants to force establishments to return to balanced budgets. An order that weighs heavily in the context of this vast structural change. CISSS and CIUSSS began to follow this slimming regime: job postings were suspended, infrastructure projects revised, in particular.
5. Transferred civil servants
Some 900 civil servants from the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) will migrate to the state-owned company “in line with the activities which will now be under its responsibility”. These positions will not be replaced at the MSSS, it is confirmed. A first wave of mutations took place in June and the second was expected to occur in September. However, this will take place in January instead. Around 600 employees are already “loaned” to Santé Québec. An employee can accept or refuse a transfer and retains a unique (one-time) right of return valid for life.
Current agency staff
- 90 employees, including 70 managers
- 600 employees loaned by the Ministry of Health and Social Services
Source: Santé Québec
6. A common administrative system
Hundreds of administrative systems exist in the public health network, each establishment having its own. According to Santé Québec, no merger is planned as of 1is December. But a project is underway: the finance, procurement and human resources information system (SIFARH), which will notably make it possible to create employee schedules. Its deployment, first planned for May 2026, was postponed two years later. Its cost? About $430 million, or $228 million more than expected.
Santé Québec has 200 suppliers as of 1is December. Thousands more could be added.
Source: Santé Québec
7. The “brand”
Santé Québec calls on the marketing agency LG2 for the “development of the strategic foundations of [sa] brand,” indicates a notice of direct contract (worth $103,000) published in November in the Quebec government’s electronic call for tenders system. Santé Québec explains that LG2 “supports it in its reflection on its positioning in relation to communications and its identity as a new state corporation”. “No specific awareness campaign is planned at this time,” says the agency. There is no question of changing, in the short term, the network’s posters and stationery, we add.
8. A national complaints commissioner
Santé Québec plans to create a national commissioner for complaints and quality of services, who will be appointed by the Council of Ministers and report to the National Assembly annually. Christian Dubé wants him to be appointed “as quickly as possible”. A national users committee will also be set up. It will be able to make recommendations to Santé Québec to “improve access to services, their quality and the living conditions of users”. As for the boards of directors of the establishments, they will become establishment boards of directors. Their members will be appointed by Santé Québec.
