Quebec pushes to pass major health-care reform bill before end of session

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dub has presented a "game plan" to push through a mammoth piece of legislation meant toreform the health-care system before the end of the parliamentary session in December.

Bill 15 comprises more than 1,000 articles.

Most notably, the legislationcalls for the creation of a Crown corporation called Sant Qubec, whichwouldoversee all activities related to the public health-care system, including providing services and facilitating access.

It was tabled in the National Assembly in March and at least 180 hours have been spent studying it in the provincial legislature an "enormous" amount of time for one bill, Dubtold reporters Tuesday.

With only60 hours of committee work scheduled between now and the end of the session andseveral hundred articlesyet to be debatedDub is calling on opposition parties to kick things into high gear.

"We've settled most of the major issues," he said. "We've been working on this for six months."

Dubunveiled his planfor the next three weeks, which calls for a "block-by-block" analysis of the articles that MNAs have not yet considered almost half. According to him, this schedule is realistic and will be sufficient to adopt the bill.

The minister said there are only two major sections of the bill left to be studied carefully: those concerning medical specialists and union governance.

The other sections mainly include articles designed to prevent the legislation from contradicting other laws.

"We can finish studying Bill 15 in 60 hours," Dub said. However, he refused to say whether his government would be prepared toinvoke closure next monthshould he be wrong.

To that end, opposition parties said Tuesday it would be difficult to complete the study of the rest of thelegislation in the allottedtime.

"After all, half of the most extensive bill in Quebec's history has yet to be analyzed," Liberal MNA Andr Fortin.

Qubec Solidaire MNA Guillaume Cliche-Rivardsaid it's simply "not realistic" to think hundreds of articles can be adopted in the final weeks of the parliamentary session when it took three hours Tuesday to pass just four.

The bill has alsogenerated opposition from six former Quebec premiers, who fear that the bill, if passed into law, would lead to health-care institutions losing some autonomy and undermine their abilityto raise funds.

Last month, protesters took to the streets of Montreal toraise their voices in opposition to Bill 15,saying the reform will undermine the work midwives do in the province by placing the them underthe authority of medical directors.