Christian Dubé steps down as Quebec’s health minister

MONTREAL — With his signature legislation to modernize doctor compensation diluted, Christian Dubé (pictured) announced last week that he would resign as health minister and quit the Coalition Avenir Québec party altogether.

In a letter published on social media, Dubé said he is not the right person to continue negotiations with family doctors over changes to a controversial doctor-payment law that he had championed.

“Under the current circumstances, this is a difficult decision I am making for the good of patients, physicians, and the healthcare system,” Dubé said, according to a report by The Canadian Press.

Passed on Oct. 25, Bill 2 ties part of physicians’ remuneration to performance targets and threatens steep fines for those who use pressure tactics to boycott the changes. Doctors had argued it muzzled them and could drive physicians out of Quebec.

Then earlier in December the government announced it had reached an agreement in principle with family doctors to delay and amend the contentious legislation, undoing a number of elements Dubé had strongly defended.

Dubé, who has said he won’t seek re-election in 2026, will now sit as an Independent.

“I have concluded that I am no longer the right person to continue these discussions and lead the rewriting of Bill 2, as required by the agreement with the FMOQ (Quebec Federation of General Practitioners),” he wrote.

The tentative agreement would see the provincial government back down on several controversial reforms brought in by Dubé, including performance-related penalties and a colour-coded system to assess patients’ vulnerability.

Under the new deal, the province would also abandon its goal of assigning all Quebecers to a healthcare provider by 2027, instead offering incentives for doctors to enrol 500,000 new patients by June 2026.

The deal would maintain changes to the method of remuneration for physicians, but it would remove the threat of heavy fines for doctors who take “concerted actions” to oppose the bill. It also includes an additional $435 million in the compensation package for family doctors.

In his letter, Dubé said the law he had adopted aimed to modernize the governance structure between the government, the family doctor federation and medical directors in the health network. The new deal, he said, “essentially maintains the status quo on governance issues.”

Dubé admitted the government had made mistakes in negotiations and accepted blame for how the law was rolled out.

“The tone adopted at the beginning of the discussions did not always foster a constructive dialogue with physicians,” Dubé said. “Together, these dynamics contributed to creating a climate of confrontation that unfortunately intensified over the months.”

The government hasn’t reached a deal with the province’s medical specialists, who are represented by a separate federation.

First elected in 2012, Dubé had served as minister of health since June 2020, taking over during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the CAQ was re-elected with 90 seats in 2022, Dubé retained the health portfolio.

“I respect his decision and have accepted his resignation,” Legault said. “I thank him for his years of public service in one of the most demanding roles in Quebec.”

His departure leaves Legault’s party with 80 seats in the 125-seat legislature.