Agreement with medical specialists: the Quebec rule, a debt of $1.5 billion

Photo Simon Clark
The president of the treasury Board, Pierre Arcand, unveiled on Friday details of the agreement reached with the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ). It covers the period from 2015 to 2023.

Patrick Bellerose

Friday, February 16, 2018 11:01

UPDATE
Friday, 16 February 2018 12:00

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The medical specialists will get an increase in pay of 11.2 % over 8 years, in addition to a non-recurrent amount of $ 1.5 billion over 10 years.

The president of the treasury Board, Pierre Arcand, unveiled on Friday details of the agreement reached with the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ). It covers the period from 2015 to 2023.

The one-time amount of $ 1.5 billion, aims to address an accumulated debt for any amounts that are not allocated since 2012. With the wage increase of 11.2 % over 8 years, Québec agrees to pay$ 2 billion by 2023.

“The agreement that has been presented this (Friday) morning allows you to adjust the past,” said Pierre Arcand. The government ensures that there is no “new money”, since the amounts are from the prior agreements.

With this new agreement, Quebec will pay a total of $ 4.7 billion in compensation for its specialists in 2017-2018, and then to 5.4 billion $ in 2022-2023.

Savings

Quebec saves, however, by staggering the increases negotiated in 2014. The State will pay an amount of 480 million, respectively, for the years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, but spread the planned increases for the subsequent years over 12 years rather than 7 years.

Quebec has also achieved the withdrawal of the clause trailer – 5.25 %, or $ 1.4 billion – compared to the common front of unions of the public service. “Without this abandonment, the curve of expenditure would probably have been quite uncontrollable,” said Pierre Arcand.

The State will save a little more than $3 billion.

By adding a savings of 585 million usd with the spread expected in a previous agreement with the general practitioners, Quebec saves in total, by 2023, a total of $3.6 billion.

Gap with Ontario

The government Couillard is on the defensive since the beginning of the week because of the sums granted to specialists of Quebec, already better paid than their counterparts in Ontario, according to some studies.

Just as with the FMOQ, the canadian Institute for health information will be responsible for assessing whether a pay gap remains, with the province of Ontario.

If this is the case, a board could decide to closing the gap. However, Quebec will be able to decide the “how” it will resolve the difference.

If, however, the study reveals that the quebec physicians are better paid than their counterparts in ontario, the agreement will not be reopened to review their compensation down. “An agreement is an agreement”, argues Pierre Arcand.

More details to come…