Education Minister Bernard Drainville will have to address four main issues: staff shortages, teacher-student ratios, access to network data and school obsolescence. Recently, the Minister admitted that the government would not be able to meet its goal of opening 2,600 4-year-old preschool classes by 2025-2026 as planned. Instead, that target will be pushed back to the 2029-2030 school year. The government underestimated the costs of building classrooms and the lack of available manpower.

Health Minister Christian Dubé has his work cut out for him, with the staff shortage, the health plan and the question of private agencies, the decompartmentalization of professional orders and the flexibility of collective agreements. The government has already introduced bills on health data and the use of private employment agencies. These bills would link health system data to patients and prohibit any health and social services organization from using independent labor except as prescribed by the government.

With one month to go before public sector collective agreements expire, Premier François Legault is calling for more “flexibility” in collective agreements to “change the way” the health-care network works, assuring that it is in no way a matter of “reducing the benefits” of nurses. The Premier is inviting the unions to participate in the discussion forums orchestrated by Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel, but the unions see them as a way for the government to buy time and get lost in the bigger picture. LeBel says she has submitted $700 million in proposals to the unions, including the deployment of education aides and additional pay and leave for nurses. She also says she is looking at a pay review for psychologists.