{"id":347762,"date":"2025-11-01T10:29:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347762\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T10:29:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:29:46","slug":"quebec-cabinet-minister-lionel-carmant-resigns-over-escalating-doctors-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347762\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec cabinet minister Lionel Carmant resigns over escalating doctors crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant, right, announces his decision to resign as minister alongside Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault in Quebec City on Oct. 30, 2025.Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A long-time Quebec minister has resigned from caucus, deepening a crisis engulfing the Quebec government over a recently passed law imposing a new payment system on the province\u2019s doctors. <\/p>\n

Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant announced Thursday he would leave the governing party to sit as an independent member of the provincial legislature. He was accompanied during the news conference by Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault, a personal friend. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few weeks have been difficult and have led me to refocus my priorities,\u201d he told reporters in Quebec City. \u201cI have always believed that political engagement should be exercised with balance, clarity, and honesty towards oneself and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmant, a physician, expressed discomfort earlier this week with the new law, which ties part of doctors\u2019 remuneration to performance targets. The law, known as Bill 2, also prohibits them from using pressure tactics in protest. Physicians have been in uproar since the government rushed the bill through the legislature last week.<\/p>\n

Picard: Quebec cracks down on doctors \u2013 but will imposing a contract improve patient care?<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Carmant said his wife and daughter, both doctors, were angry. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy at home,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Then on Wednesday, Carmant\u2019s daughter published an open letter<\/a> in Quebec newspaper Le Devoir, saying she would have no choice but to move to another province if the government doesn\u2019t allow her to \u201cpractise freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laurence Carmant, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who is preparing to return to Quebec from Toronto, said the government is blaming individual doctors for a lack of productivity that is actually the result of a \u201cprofoundly broken system.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Legault said he understands that Carmant has to put his family first. \u201cToday is not the day to talk about Bill 2, but I understand that there are some very emotional reactions, and I think that\u2019s normal,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The new law links 10 per cent of physicians\u2019 pay to performance benchmarks such as appointment and surgery numbers, with the intent of encouraging physicians to take on more patients. It was forced through by the government last week after months of resistance by the province\u2019s doctors. <\/p>\n

The Decibel podcast: Why Quebec doctors are threatening to leave the province<\/a><\/p>\n

The bill also includes measures to prohibit boycotts that could affect patient care. According to the legislation, doctors could face fines of up to $20,000 a day if they take \u201cconcerted actions\u201d such as deciding in groups of three or more to refuse to teach students or to leave the province.<\/p>\n

Doctors immediately began protesting the new law. The province\u2019s federation of medical specialists filed a legal challenge of the bill in Quebec Superior Court this week. The federation\u2019s president, Dr. Vincent Oliva, on Thursday called on Legault to \u201chalt this catastrophe unfolding before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliva said the open letter penned by Carmant\u2019s daughter was \u201cpowerful,\u201d and he understands Carmant\u2019s decision. \u201cWe all saw that he was torn between his professional life and his personal life,\u201d he told reporters in Sherbrooke, Que. <\/p>\n

Carmant was first elected when the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec formed government in 2018. He was named social services minister in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Quebec Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant, right, announces his decision to resign as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":347763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,159,1458,158,1164,2141,67,132,68,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-347762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-science","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-united-states","54":"tag-unitedstates","55":"tag-us","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}