Quebec’s Minister responsible for seniors, Marguerite Blais, was grilled about her government’s handling of outbreaks in long-term care homes for two hours on Friday morning during a virtual National Assembly commission.
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On Tuesday, she admitted she is responsible, in part, for the human tragedy in Quebec’s long-term care homes.
But opposition MNA’s said the minister is still not doing enough. Long-term care workers are still moving between facilities.
“They are going from one establishment that has COVID-19 cases to an establishment that doesn’t. And every time that happens it has the potential to add another long-term care facility that’s infected,” said Liberal MNA, André Fortin.
“When you don’t have people to work, it’s difficult,” Blais said.
Almost 12,000 health-care workers are currently absent from the network, a situation the Parti Québécois says could have been avoided if the government had agreed to increase wages a year ago. Premier François Legault has admitted that was a mistake.
Quebec Solidaire MNA Catherine Dorion said the dire situation has caused people to lose faith in the minister’s plans to reform seniors’ care, one of the main election promises of the Legault government and Blais’ reason for getting back into politics.
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“To me she kind of betrayed that trust,” Dorion said, adding that it will be harder than ever to recruit long-term care workers now.
“Nobody will want to go there and when they talk to other nurses or people working there, everyone will say it’s a horror, you don’t want to go there,” she said.
Minister Blais did say that salaries will be going up: “That is what we will do, pay better and have a better kind of working organization for them.”
However, she wouldn’t commit to keeping the new bonuses announced Thursday after the crisis is over.
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