The CAQ government appears to have uttered its last words on the question of bonuses for Pontiac’s imaging techs. It is sticking to its ill-conceived plan to offer them smaller bonuses to continue to work here than are being offered to their counterparts in other Outaouais hospitals.
Not only is this plan failing to provide an incentive for them to stay here, it penalizes them for doing so. If they want the same bonuses as are offered elsewhere, they’ll need to work elsewhere, which apparently is what most of them plan to do.
So, the Pontiac hospital’s efforts to recruit and retain staff are now not only in competition with Ontario hospitals, where salaries are much higher, but with other hospitals in the Outaouais, as well.
Perverse. Punitive. Discriminatory. Choose your adjective.
As if to add insult to injury, news that the CAQ government is doubling down on this deeply-flawed decision came within a few days of the health minister’s secret reconnaissance mission to the Shawville hospital last week.
We only found out because our MNA posted photos on social media of their tour of the facility. And points to André, by the way, who no doubt played a big role in getting him here.
Still, here we have the government’s point man on what is one of Pontiac’s most consequential political issues sneaking into town and out again without letting anyone know he was here.
At the very least, he ought to have made himself available to the local media. When you are an elected official with responsibility for a hot political issue, that’s what you do. In a democracy, you owe it to the citizens to explain yourself.
Anything less is unaccountable, disrespectful, cowardly. Choose your adjective.
So, where to now?
Techs are bound to leave. The hospital will be short-handed in the imaging department, which is critical to so many of the services the hospital provides. The well-being of Pontiac residents is being put at risk. All kinds of care will require travel to other hospitals.
But we’ll give the last word on this to the health minister. In the absence of him wanting to speak for himself, we can only guess he would want to say, “Bonne chance, Pontiac!”
Charles Dickson
