André Fortin, SOS Outaouais decry $90 million expense reduction by CISSSO

André Fortin, SOS Outaouais decry $90 million expense reduction by CISSSO

Pontiac MNA André Fortin and health advocacy group SOS Outaouais are speaking out after the provincial government has announced that all local health care networks must balance balance their budgets by the end of the fiscal year. For the regional health authority CISSSO, this would mean a reduction of expenses by $90 million over the next few months, or roughly 6% of their annual budget.

CISSSO’s Director Dr. Marc Bilodeau told Radio-Canada that the reduction was a big challenge, and attributed the deficit mainly to the cost of home care and using private agencies to fill staffing gaps.

Fortin, who also serves as the opposition critic for health care, explained that the regional health networks were told at the start of the fiscal year that they were able to exceed their allocated budgets, but were recently told to balance their books before the end of the fiscal year, due to fears of Quebec’s credit rating being downgraded.

He pointed to other regional networks elsewhere in the province that have frozen hiring, or delayed infrastructure projects in order to hit these targets.

SOS Outaouais’ spokesperson Jean Pigeon said that it’s surprising that the province would be taking these actions when the CAQ minister responsible for the Outaouais, Mathieu Lacombe, has stated publicly that the region’s health care services are underfunded. According to the Observatoire du développement de l’Outaouais, this represents a shortfall of roughly $180 million per year for health and social services spending per capita compared to other parts of Quebec.