Regional health authority CISSSO has launched a series of “surgical blitzes” to cut down on the number of people waiting more than a year for surgery, Le Droit reports.

With the support of Santé Quebec, CISSSO is offering voluntary overtime for evenings and weekends, as well as bringing in staff from other regions to cut down on their backlog.

“The number of blitzes is not fixed. Several dates have been proposed, but they must be coordinated with our available resources,” the organization stated.

The Outaouais currently has proportionally the highest number of people waiting more than a year for surgery, with 910 (excluding cardiac surgeries) as of Jan. 10, which represents about 18 per cent of the total across the province. The three most common types of surgeries waiting more than a year are orthopedics, otolaryngology/cervicofacial surgery, and urology, accounting for three-quarters of the cases that have been pending for more than a year.

Gallant commission releases report on SAAQclic fiasco

Judge Denis Gallant delivered his 566-page report Monday on the SAAQclic scandal, where the digitization of Quebec’s auto insurance board’s services led to massive cost overruns. The report states that top SAAQ officials deliberately lied to the government for years to cover up the program’s issues, according to CBC News. The report follows hours of testimony and documents from a public inquiry into the scandal that finished last year.

A separate report by the auditor general last year found that the digital transformation is expected to cost $1.1 billion (around $500 million over budget) and was not properly tested prior to its launch. It also focused on the role of one bureaucrat in particular.

“Many key positions … were held by a single person, Karl Malenfant, which is incompatible with a healthy control environment,” the report concludes. “The program’s control plan was unable to counterbalance his strong personality, preventing many bodies within the SAAQ to fully perform their oversight and control mandates.”

Malenfant, the architect of the project, held a press conference last week ahead of the report’s release, saying he was the victim of a smear campaign.

Deadly weekend on Quebec snowmobile trails

The Sûreté du Québec and Quebec’s snowmobile federation are urging caution following a deadly weekend on Quebec’s snowmobile trails, with four deaths reported in less than 24 hours on Saturday in four separate incidents, according to La Presse.

“Currently, temperatures are rising above zero, then dropping below freezing. This cycle creates very changeable conditions on the trails,” said SQ spokesperson Sgt. Frédéric Deshaies, urging riders to adjust their speed to match the conditions.

The Quebec Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (FCMQ) declined to comment on the weekend’s accidents, pending the police investigations, but stated that “one death is too many”.

Quebec’s Ministry of Transport recorded at least 14 snowmobiling deaths in the 2024/25 season, and at least 25 the year before. There were approximately 230,000 snowmobiles registered in the province in 2024.

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