No new taxes for Quebec health care, minister vows

Quebec is expecting a report early in the new year with recommendations on how to pay for the rapidly rising costs of health care, but the minister of health is already promising there will no new taxes to deal with the problem.

The man who chaired the commission in the '60sthat helped establish Quebec's health-care system, Claude Castonguay, has been assigned the task of finding a new funding formula.

But Minister of Health Philippe Couillard promises that, no matter what Castonguay recommends,he will not introduce any new taxes.

He said other provinces, such as Ontario, have tried and failed to keep up with rising costs by using a dedicated health-care tax.

"The citizen, of course, will not accept that," he said.

Couillard said the best solution would be to turn to private clinics to get cheaper surgeries,though he admits he doesn't know how much many surgeries cost in public hospitals.

"How can you make that kind of decision without having any numbers?" asks Michèle Boisclair, vice-president of the Quebec Federation of Nurses.

She said private clinics need to make a profit, and can't deliver the savings Couillard is seeking.

"You don't have any control on the costs when it is the private sector, because they set the price,even if Mr. Couillard says, 'I won't pay more.' He doesn't even know how much it costs today.He said [so] last week on TV," Boisclair said.

Parti Québécois health critic Bernard Drainville said savings can be found in the public system, but that will depend on unions becoming more flexible to avoidlosing jobs to the private sector.

"Maybe they weren't willing to do it in the past, but now the threat is so present …they fear for their jobs."

Drainville agrees a new tax would be unpopular, but said the government was unwise to introduce almost a billion dollars in tax cuts in its May budget, at a time when health care has a critical need for more money.