Health minister denies icing plan to centralize pediatric care in PQ rival's South Shore riding

Update: The office of the National Assembly's ethics commissioner announced Friday, March 2, that she will investigate whether Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is in a conflict of interest over his handling of the proposal to consolidate Longueuil's pediatric services at Pierre-Boucher Hospital.

Ariane Mignolet's investigation follows a request from the PQ MNA for Taillon, Diane Lamarre, to find out whether Barrette ordered that the project in her riding be delayed until after the Oct. 1, 2018 general election.

Once the investigation is complete, the results are to be presented to the Speaker, who will table the findings in National Assembly.

A plan by senior health officials on Montreal's South Shore to consolidate regional pediatric services at Pierre Boucher Hospital has been on hold for more than a year, because the hospital is in Taillon, a Parti Québécois riding, sources have told Radio-Canada's Enquête.

Health Minister Gaétan Barrette denies deferring the project, however, blaming the holdup instead on the failure of an associate deputy minister's secretary to send out a letter giving the green light to the first phase of the project.

Documents obtained by Enquête show Barrette backed the concept of creating a single service point for specialized pediatric services in Longueuil.

The idea is to encourage parents to seek care for their children on the South Shore instead of going to one of Montreal's two children's hospitals.

There are two hospitals in Longueuil with pediatric services, so health officials had to choose between Charles-Le Moyne Hospital, in the Liberal riding of Laporte, or Pierre-Boucher, which happens to be in a riding represented by PQ health critic Diane Lamarre.

In January 2017, the team piloting the project opted unanimously for Pierre-Boucher —  and the project suddenly disappeared from the radar.

"The associate deputy minister said he had to check with the minister, because Pierre-Boucher is in a PQ riding," a source told Enquête. According to two different sources, he returned from a meeting with Barrette with the verdict: "It's a good idea … but not until after the election."

Inside the ministry, this was understood to mean that Barrette wouldn't do anything to favour a PQ riding to the detriment of a Liberal one before the provincial election next October.

Fractious relationship

For the record, Barrette and Lamarre have had a testy relationship for years.

The health minister has publicly referred to the PQ MNA as "ignorant," a bullsh-t artist ("architecte du néant"), even an "epileptic."

He's accused Lamarre of being "in a permanent conflict of interest" and of having tolerated overbilling by pharmacists when she was head of Quebec's Order of Pharmacists.

For her part, Lamarre has raised the possibility of suing Barrette over his allegations.

Barrette denies delaying project

The health minister denies outright having put the project to centralize pediatric services on ice for political reasons.

"To insinuate that decisions were made based on the political stripe of a riding … I take that very personally, and I find it unacceptable," Barrette said in an interview with Enquête.

To prove it, he showed Enquête a letter dated March 16, 2017, addressed to nine senior health officials in the Montérégie region, detailing a precise timetable for proceeding with the first phase of the project.

To insinuate that decisions were made based on the political stripe of a riding … I take that very personally, and I find it unacceptable.- Health Minister Gaétan Barrette

However, sources close to the project told Enquête they had never seen the letter.

Enquête then went back to Barrette, to ask if the letter had actually been sent.

A week after providing the letter as proof that the project wasn't stalled, Barrette called back to explain that an associate deputy minister had given the letter to one of his assistants but that, by mistake, the letter had not been sent.

"We checked the computer system, to find out what happened to the letter and the signed version that had gone to his secretary," Barrette said. "We checked with the recipients, and they never received it. Apparently, she never sent it."

It appears that no one had noticed, until Enquête raised the question, a year later.

Project now on Barrette's desk

To prove that the project was not on ice, the minister then sent Enquête a series of internal emails that mention it.

All but one were sent after Nov. 2, 2017 — the date that Enquête first asked Barrette for an interview about the reorganization of pediatric health services on the South Shore.

The only email that preceded that interview request was sent to the minister in October 2017 from the head of professional services at Pierre-Boucher Hospital. It contained a copy of an earlier email dated nine months earlier, proof that the task force report had been sent to the deputy minister on Jan. 30, 2017.

Barrette told Enquête that the project is now "on his desk," and​ that he will personally take care of it.

Project 'does have merit'

Speaking to reporters at Cité de la Santé Hospital in Laval later on Thursday, the health minister reiterated that the project was never put on ice and any suggestion that it was held up for political reasons is nothing but "hearsay."

He said the project to consolidate pediatric services at Pierre-Boucher Hospital "does have merit."

"It is a very interesting proposal that we might go forward with, in time," Barrette said. "As of today, there are a number of dire situations we need to address, with the budgetary constraints that we have."