The sudden resignation of Christian Dubé as Quebec's Health Minister on Wednesday caps a five-year tenure defined by an unprecedented public health crisis, sweeping but unfinished reforms, and a healthcare network that statistics show is in worse shape than when he started.
A Tenure Defined by Crisis and Ambitious Reform
Appointed on June 22, 2020, Dubé stepped into the role during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He faced pressures from an aging population and skyrocketing costs that challenged all his predecessors. From the outset, he aimed to radically transform what he saw as a monolithic bureaucracy into a more efficient network, leveraging his background as a former pulp-and-paper executive with Cascades.
His signature reforms included the creation of Santé Québec, a new state corporation intended to manage healthcare delivery, and a sweeping overhaul of how doctors are paid. He set aggressive performance targets for reducing wait times for procedures like cancer surgery and addressing emergency room overcrowding. However, Premier François Legault later intervened in negotiations with physicians, resulting in the abandonment of the very targets Dubé had championed and which were embedded in Bill 2, passed by the National Assembly in October.
A Deteriorating System: The Numbers Tell the Story
Despite his reform efforts, a stark review of ministry data reveals a system that deteriorated significantly under his watch. On June 20, 2020, just before he took office, over 512,000 Quebecers were waiting for a specialist consultation. By November 15 of this year, that number had ballooned to more than 903,000, with 65% facing delays beyond what is medically acceptable.
The situation for critical surgeries is equally grim. The waitlist for cancer operations grew from 2,656 patients in June 2020 to 4,041 by mid-November 2024. Cardiac surgeons report an increase in patients dying suddenly while awaiting heart surgery, with those waiting beyond tolerable delays rising from 47% to over 66%. Furthermore, the list for a family doctor expanded from over 566,000 to more than 608,000 people.
This decline occurred even as health spending surged by 44%, from $45.4 billion in 2019-2020 to $65.5 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Resignation and Unfinished Business
In a candid social media post announcing his departure to sit as an independent, Dubé expressed clear disappointment. He stated that the agreement reached on doctor pay "substantially maintains the status quo," undermining key elements of Bill 2 meant to modernize system governance.
He becomes the second high-profile minister to leave the CAQ government over the doctor pay law, following former Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant, who resigned on October 30. Dubé leaves behind an unfinished legacy: Santé Québec is already mired in controversy over high executive turnover, and his prized legislative reform has been significantly diluted.
Silver Linings in a Clouded Legacy
Amid the bleak statistics, Dubé did achieve some notable successes. He made the system far more transparent by launching a detailed public online dashboard tracking wait times and other performance indicators—data that often proved embarrassing for the government.
He also made significant progress on one specific metric: reducing the number of patients waiting more than a year for surgery. That figure was slashed from a peak of over 22,000 in September 2022 to under 5,500 by November 2024.
Personally, he was widely acknowledged for his politeness in a political arena known for bombast. The Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) offered gracious words upon his departure, wishing him "the best of luck going forward."
Ultimately, Christian Dubé's mission to revolutionize Quebec healthcare remains far from accomplished. His successor, with less than ten months before the next provincial election, inherits a system facing dire challenges, leaving Dubé's complex legacy as one of ambitious vision overshadowed by a reality of systemic breakdown.
