Outaouais gets exemption on private health care staffing agencies
The Outaouais has received a one-year extension to allow the regional health care network to use private staffing agencies, which the government is attempting to phase out of the system, Le Droit reported.
The Outaouais, as well as five other regions in the province, had been given until Oct. 18 to phase out the use of private staffing agencies, but now have until Oct. 31, 2027. Private agency workers have already been phased out in much of the province.
“The regions concerned face, to varying degrees, specific challenges in attracting and retaining the workforce, housing availability, mobility, and access to training,” Santé Québec wrote in a statement. “These realities require more time to deploy sustainable solutions and reduce the remaining need for independent workers.”
Le Droit reported that during the pay period ending July 11 alone, there were 10,038 hours worked by private contractors in the Outaouais region, the equivalent of 134 full-time positions.
Gatineau hires PR firm for branding assistance
The City of Gatineau has hired one of Quebec’s largest public relations firms to overhaul its branding processes after a controversial logo for the municipal police force was scrapped earlier this year, Le Droit reported.
The $28,697 contract was awarded to TACT Intelligence-Conseil who are expected to publish a report to the city in the early fall.
The city’s police department logo was unveiled in May and featured a minimalist bird graphic, which is a stock image that also features in the logo of a Florida company, Air Jet International, as well as on an Adobe blog about minimalist design.
The logo was quickly scrapped the day after it was released when the use of the stock image came to light.
“The process surrounding the development of the new police service logo led senior management to undertake a broader review of the governance, coordination, and decision-making mechanisms in place for visual identity and branding projects involving multiple municipal departments,” Gatineau assistant DG Yess Gacem wrote in a French statement.
Quebec women win EI court case
A federal court of appeal has ruled in favour of six Quebec women who are challenging certain aspects of the Employment Insurance Act after being denied benefits due to maternity leaves, CBC News reported.
Each of the women lost their jobs either before, during or shortly after their maternity leaves and had been denied EI benefits since they were already receiving maternity benefits.
The panel of appeals judges ruled that this constitutes a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They found that not allowing these benefits to stack would disproportionately impact women.
The judges ruling struck down the sections of the EI Act, giving the federal government up to a year to re-write the law to comply with the Charter.
