PROVINCIAL CONTRACT TALKS
Government's new offer: "another slap in the face"

“An extra 1.3% over 5 years – pathetic. It’s just a big fuss about nothing.” Front commun representatives were disappointed, though not terribly surprised, when they learned the contents of the offer tabled by the Treasury Board on October 29. The offer is seen as an affront. Once again, the government has shown that it simply doesn’t understand the problems experienced in public services or the urgency of saving a ship that is about to sink. It is also utterly disconnected from workers’ anger as they continue, despite their exhaustion, to carry the weight of fragile public services on their shoulders. “This offer is another slap in the face,” thundered Front commun representatives, speaking with one voice. “The workers we represent are done with turning the other cheek.”

For more information, see the joint press release.

HEALTH CARE REFORM (PLAN SANTÉ)
Dubé reform: A consensus? Really?

193. That’s the number of organizations (unions, community organizations, and associations of all kinds) who signed an open letter on October 25 denouncing the total lack of consensus on the Dubé reform and the creation of the Santé Québec agency. While Minister Dubé has been suggesting that his reform is widely supported and claims to have conducted extensive talks with all stakeholders, the letter, which was signed by the APTS, paints a very different picture. “This is offensive for all those who work hard every day to support the public system, and whose opinions are being blatantly ignored by Minister Dubé,” reads the open letter. “Many organizations have never had the opportunity to tell the minister or his representatives what they think, [while those who] actually did meet and participate [in the consultations indicate] that their many concerns have not been taken into account.”

“Bill 15 is wide-ranging and drastically alters the management of the health and social services system, from accountability to collective bargaining to the autonomy of community organizations,” says the letter. “It hastens centralization while reducing accountability, including that of the minister himself. It's a mammoth bill with nearly 1,200 articles – and that’s not even counting the many amendments already tabled by the minister and those still to come. Minister Dubé intends to centralize the network as never before in the hands of a few ‘top guns.’ With health and prevention objectives in mind, we want to avoid the foreseeable pitfalls of this reform and, especially, to defend the right to health care for all.”

For more information, read the open letter (in French) on our website.

ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
Québec creates a Commissioner for Children's Well-Being and Rights

The APTS welcomes Bill 37, which creates a commissioner to defend the rights and well-being of an often neglected segment of the population: young people. “This announcement, which is an answer to something we had asked for, is good news,” said APTS president Robert Comeau. “Firstly, because the interests of children will be at the heart of the Commissioner's mission, and secondly, because it was highly important to our members, who have acquired an exceptional degree of expertise in the field of youth protection, that the person in question be independent.” The APTS will contribute to further work carried out by MNAs to help ensure that children grow up knowing that someone is listening to them and has their best interests at heart.

For more information, read the article in La Presse about the creation of the Commissioner for Children’s Welfare and Rights.

Home support services: a project to reduce employees' administrative burden

Sonia Bélanger, the minister responsible for seniors, announced a project on October 23 to reduce the burden of administrative tasks assigned to some of the employees who provide home support services. The new measures welcomed by the APTS include the end of systematic yearly evaluations, a less cumbersome OCCI (computerized clinical treatment pathway tool), and the end of abusive timing of care. It took one more pilot project carried out in six institutions to get the minister to acknowledge what the APTS has been saying for years: “We’ve been overmanaging professional practices,” she admits, and is finally willing to rely on employees’ professional autonomy. Let’s hope the measures are extended to other missions and that the right conditions will be in place to make sure these “good practices” start to bear fruit.

For more information, see our press release and the article in La Presse on the minister’s announcement.

Organization of social services and public policies: we can do (much) better

On October 25, Émilie Charbonneau, APTS 2^nd vice-president and a social worker by training, presented our union's contribution to the public hearings of the Estates General on Social Work. Are social services currently organized in a way that makes it easier to practice social work, or is their organization actually an obstacle? Do social services currently provide an appropriate response to Quebecers’ needs? Are they sufficiently accessible, and do governments give them the right priority? These are the questions she addressed in her presentation.

Charbonneau began by pointing to the hospital-centric vision that has prevailed in the system for far too long, expressing concern that the Dubé reform will only make matters worse. “With the Santé Québec agency, everything would revolve around medical or administrative management structures that have little or nothing to do with social services,” she explained. She stressed the need not only to review the Santé Québec structure, but also to improve the conditions of work and practice of people working in the psychosocial field in order to restore meaning to their work. To reach this goal, she recommended, among other things, giving them greater professional autonomy, ensuring increased inter-professional collaboration, and reducing cumbersome administrative tasks.

For more information, watch her presentation (1:46:10) and learn about the thematic input of the APTS (in French).