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QUEBEC’S NEW HEALTH CARE LAW  
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Toula Drimonis
November 18, 2025
The Walrus
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_ Bill 2 has triggered strikes, resignations, and an unprecedented
wave of physicians preparing to leave _

Quebec premier François Legault, The Canadian Press

 

François Legault, leader of Quebec’s Coalition Avenir Québec
government, comes by his reputation as an authoritarian honestly. Over
the past seven years, he has repeatedly used extraordinary
parliamentary tools to consolidate power and sidestep democratic
scrutiny. The premier has invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield
two major laws from Charter challenges—effectively placing them
beyond judicial review—and has relied on closure to ram through
contentious legislation by cutting off debate. Most recently, the CAQ
used closure again to fast-track Bill 2, a move that underscores
Legault’s preference for control over consultation.

The CAQ argues its new legislation is about wresting control from a
fragmented, ineffective system to ensure equitable access for all
Quebecers. It tries to do this by completely overhauling the way
doctors are paid, tying compensation to performance metrics that
doctors call unrealistic, especially after the government’s own $1.5
billion in health care cuts led to the very shortages and delays it
now claims to want to fix. These cuts have severely compromised the
system’s efficiency and have left staff with fewer resources and
restricted access to medical care—problems well beyond doctors’
control. Even more alarming, physicians warn, the new law threatens
their constitutional right to dissent, imposing fines of up to $20,000
per day for public protest.

In 2018, one of the CAQ’s main electoral promises was that all
Quebecers would have access to a doctor. Seven years later, roughly
1.5 million Quebecers still remain without a family physician
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Premier Legault now believes he can get every Quebecer access to a
health care professional by 2026 (coincidentally a provincial election
year), even though access to a general practitioner remains difficult,
wait lists to see a specialist have almost doubled
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in the past five years, and surgery wait lists remain high, with
nearly 30 percent of operating rooms
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in the province’s public network closed in 2024 due to staffing
shortages.

Doctors say Bill 2’s oppressive requirements penalize them for the
governments’ own failings. “They tabled a bill that affects our
remuneration without even consulting us while we’re in
negotiations,” Véronique Godbout said back in June
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when I interviewed her for _Cult MTL_. A practising orthopedic surgeon
and the president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association, she calls the
government’s actions “disrespectful and denigrating.”

She’s not the only doctor who’s furious. Andrée Vincent, the lead
physician at a Montreal-based network of family doctors called Groupe
de médecine de famille (GMF), is a franco-Albertan who fell in love
with Quebec during her medical residency at McGill and decided to
stay. Now she’s considering a move back west. She says the
government is pushing through legislation built on false premises.
“The facts were wrong right from the start,” she says. “The bill
works under the assumption that there are enough doctors and enough
resources, but there aren’t. We already can’t meet the demand, and
many of us are already working way more than forty hours per week.
It’s still not enough.”

Quebec health minister Christian Dubé insists the reforms would
improve access to health care by incentivizing doctors to take on more
patients. Francine Goldberg, owner of a multi-disciplinary GMF clinic,
says the move will accomplish the opposite. “Minister Dubé does not
have a good grasp of what’s happening on the ground and on the front
lines.” Vincent rejects accusations of entitlement levelled by Dubé
and Legault. “They accuse us of being lazy and not wanting to
work,” she says. In reality, explains Goldberg, doctors feel trapped
by a system that is stripping away their professional autonomy. She
points to the specific benchmarks set by the new centralized agency,
Santé Québec—such as the number of patients treated, appointment
availability, follow-up rates, and efficiency measures—which she
says override doctors’ ability to decide how best to treat patients
and manage their workload.

The result, she says, will be predictable. They will simply walk away.
“Clinics are going to lose doctors; therefore, patients are going to
lose access to specialists, and family doctors can’t keep up with
everything. I’m going to spend days vetting angry phone calls from
sick patients who can’t access health care, and I won’t be able to
do one single thing to help them.”

The backlash has been unprecedented. Two Quebec federations
representing the province’s medical specialists and family doctors
have filed a lawsuit to challenge the legislation
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One-fifth of doctors at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Family Medicine
Group plan to quit Quebec, according to the _Montreal Gazette_
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Three chief physicians with western Quebec’s health authority in
Outaouais have already resigned
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Many doctors staged a clinical work stoppage last month, further
reducing access for patients, while students at all four medical
schools have voted to strike
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The _Montreal Gazette_ reports
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that nearly 400 doctors have already applied for licences in other
provinces, with Ontario and New Brunswick seeing a significant uptick
in applications.

The CAQ’s own ranks haven’t been spared in the public fallout.
After Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant’s daughter, a
specialist in maternal-fetal medicine, published an open letter in _Le
Devoir_
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saying she might move elsewhere in Canada if the government does not
“allow her to practise freely,” Carmant resigned, explaining
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he was “choosing his own family.” He now sits as an independent.

Days later, CAQ member of the national assembly Isabelle Poulet would
be ousted from the party caucus by Legault after she openly criticized
Bill 2
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and was looking to cross the floor and join the Quebec Liberal Party.

While internal conflict erupts within the CAQ, other provinces are
actively trying to poach Quebec doctors. Ontario premier Doug Ford
even encouraged the exodus of Quebec physicians, jokingly inviting
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those interested to call “1-800-Doug-Ford” and reach out to him on
his cellphone during a press conference. “We’ll have you working
real quick,” he said. “Come by. We’ll roll out the red carpet
for you.” The move angered Legault, who called Ford’s statement
“totally unacceptable
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A province with a rapidly aging population and a worsening doctor
shortage can ill afford to lose more physicians. The new legislation
could also deter medical students, residents, and early-career doctors
from choosing Quebec as a place to train or practise, as the
province’s reputation suffers from what critics call overreach and
control. Doctors already resent being micromanaged, especially under
such strained conditions and mounting administrative burdens that have
left many feeling stretched to the limit.

Many questions also remain about the legislation. Performance
indicators are determined at the government’s discretion and can
vary by region. There is, as yet, no transparent, standardized system
for how these targets are calculated or communicated. “Who decides
if a doctor is doing enough? Bureaucrats who’ve never treated a
patient?” says Goldberg. “The metrics are not defined. Would you
sign a contract where the clauses are not defined? That’s what
they’re doing to doctors.”

Ultimately, Goldberg says, the bill penalizes Quebecers the most.
“Highly coveted professionals can—push comes to shove—leave,”
she says. “They can leave and hang their shingles elsewhere. The
government is punishing the public.”

While Legault continues to play hardball, there are signs he might be
bending to public pressure. The CAQ has suspended two key parts of
Bill 2 that would have eliminated bonuses for doctors and invited them
back to negotiations. It’s a move Vincent isn’t certain will be
enough to pacify the medical community. “At this point, it would be
a consultation, not a negotiation,” she says. “Because the law has
already been written.”

Beneath the anger and disillusionment lies deep concern about the
future of Quebec’s health care system and what that could mean for a
public already having trouble accessing medical services. “If this
were to truly happen,” says Vincent, referring to the law, “I
wouldn’t want to get sick here in the next year.”

 

* QUebec
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* Healthcare
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* Canada
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