Election campaigns are about parties making promises and trying to set themselves apart in the eyes of the elector. But in the 2018 Quebec general election, there are more than a handful of issues on which Quebec’s four main political parties agree.
Here are some of the things all the parties are promising to address if elected Oct. 1 — provided, of course, they keep their promises!
More family doctors
All parties say more Quebecers should have access to a family doctor. Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the Parti Québécois (PQ) and Québec Solidaire promise that all Quebecers will have access to a family doctor or a nurse practitioner.
The CAQ goes one step further and says, if elected, Quebecers should be able to see their primary health-care provider within 36 hours.
In 2014, the Liberals promised to make sure that 85 per cent of Quebecers had a family doctor, a target they fell short of reaching. However, that hasn’t stopped them from promising that 90 per cent of Quebecers will have a family doctor if they are re-elected to a second term.
“With the amount of money we have, with the number of doctors we have in Quebec, there is no reason that I accept that we would not reach that target and even get higher in the future,” said Liberal leader Philippe Couillard.
Doctors’ salaries
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Pay raises for Quebec’s doctors, negotiated earlier this year by the outgoing Liberal government, drew large criticism, even from some doctors themselves. Unsurprisingly, opposition parties promise to review doctors’ salaries if elected.
READ MORE: Quebec signs $2B deal with medical specialists
The CAQ proposes to reopen the agreement with doctors in order to renegotiate salaries; they also propose to get rid of payment by the act and instead pay doctors per patient.
“Then they would have the incentive to delegate acts to nurses, do some over the phone and avoid sending more than half of the patients in emergency rooms in hospitals,” CAQ leader François Legault explained.
Like the CAQ, the PQ promises to renegotiate doctors’ salaries but only after first freezing their salaries. They also promise to give more autonomy to the 200,000 other health professionals that work in the system, including nurse practitioners.
Québec Solidaire pledges to reduce doctors’ salaries and also make doctors employees of the state rather than self-employed.
While the Liberals defend their deals with doctors, they have been threatening to penalize physicians — with salary cuts of up to 30 per cent — if they don’t keep up their end of the bargain to make sure that 85 per cent of Quebecers have a family doctor by the end of 2018. This is a threat Couillard has made before.
“The 85 per cent is not my number. My number at the beginning was close to 100 per cent, but they (the doctors’ federation) came to us and said, ‘We can do that,’” said outgoing Health Minister Gaetan Barrette in May.
Better home care
All four of the main political parties have promised to increase investment in home care. So far, the PQ has promised to increase spending by at least $100 million a year for five years. The Liberals and the CAQ promise an annual increase of $200 million.
READ MORE: Quebecers open to more private health services: poll
Labour shortage
Political parties are proposing to address Quebec’s labour shortage, although they have different approaches. The Liberals have promised to turn to immigration, in large part, to fill increasing job vacancies. They also hope to keep older workers in the workforce longer by allowing them to postpone collecting their pensions until the age of 75 and enhancing those pensions by 8.4% annually. For example, a pensioner who would earn $1,000 per month at 65 could earn $1,840 per month at 75 under their plan.
The PQ is also turning to immigration to address labour shortages, which are most acute in the regions. It aims to have 25 per cent of new immigrants move directly to Quebec’s regions upon arrival.
The CAQ, in contrast, promises to decrease immigration while creating more high-paying jobs, a plan that has been largely criticized by its opponents.
High-speed internet
The parties are also promising to make high-speed internet available across the province. While the PQ generally promises to make this a priority in its first mandate, the Liberals are pledging to make high-speed internet services available to 100 per cent of Quebecers by 2020, a promise that comes with a price tag of $500 million. The CAQ says it will deliver the same thing for $400 million over four years.
Québec Solidaire wants to nationalize internet distribution and promises this will reduce costs to consumers.
Supply management
Canada is still in negotiations for a new deal on NAFTA, which has become a big election issue. The four main political parties have vowed to defend supply management in Quebec’s dairy and poultry industries if these sectors are found to be on the chopping block when a new deal is unveiled.
READ MORE: Quebec political parties show united front in favour of supply management
Liberal leader Couillard has been particularly vocal on this issue, adding that many of his neighbours in his own riding of Roberval are dairy farmers.
“I won’t let them down,” he has said on the campaign trail.
Less traffic
The CAQ says, if elected, it will “act on all fronts” to tackle congestion in Montreal. The party is committing $10 billion in the Québec Infrastructure Program for a plan to better public transit, improve roads and decrease traffic by 2030.
The CAQ also supports the Liberals’ REM project and the extension of the Montreal metro blue line. It also plans to create a tramway system in east Montreal.
The PQ has presented an alternative plan to the REM, which it calls the “Grand Déblocage” and promises to decrease traffic by 10 per cent. The plan consists of 200 kilometres of tramway lanes on the island of Montreal as well as rapid bus services in Laval, the north and south shores and Châteauguay.
Québec Solidaire has also presented its own plan: the “Grand Montréal Express,” which consists of 21 projects on the island of Montreal as well as the north and south shores, including more than 38 new metro stations and the construction of the pink line, originally proposed by Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. According to its platform, Quebec Solidaire says it also aims to make public transportation free in 10 years.
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