Quebec PQ Leader Vows to Abolish Santé Québec, Save $40M Annually

Quebec’s latest health-care fight is about the machinery behind the system. Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says a PQ government would abolish Santé Québec if elected, arguing the agency has become an expensive layer of administration that should be cut back in favour of direct patient care.

St-Pierre Plamondon presented the pledge at a Montreal news conference, targeting the organization created by the CAQ government to oversee the day-to-day management of Quebec’s health network.

PQ targets Santé Québec

The PQ’s case is straightforward: scrap Santé Québec, reduce administrative spending and move the money closer to patients.

As the PQ pushes for these changes, the ongoing debate around healthcare funding in Quebec is further complicated by recent protests from doctors opposing new remuneration rules, highlighting the tensions within the system.

The party says abolishing the agency would save at least $40 million in administrative spending, with potential savings approaching $100 million. St-Pierre Plamondon says that money would be used to improve direct patient care and reduce surgical wait lists.

“We are indeed facing a bureaucratic monster,” St-Pierre Plamondon said, according to the source reporting. He argued Santé Québec must be held accountable for staffing growth he described as out of control.

That language sets up a sharp contrast with the CAQ government’s original rationale for Santé Québec: a centralized body meant to manage the health network’s day-to-day operations.

Staffing figures fuel the attack

The PQ is leaning heavily on staffing numbers to make its argument.

According to figures cited by the party, the combined headcount of the Health Ministry and Santé Québec is 2,126, which the PQ says represents about 900 more civil servants over two years. St-Pierre Plamondon has used those numbers to argue that Quebec is paying for a larger bureaucracy to manage the same health network.

There is an important piece of context: when Santé Québec was created, 894 Health Ministry positions were transferred to the agency in January 2025. That transfer is now part of the wider argument over whether the new structure reduced duplication or simply moved and expanded administrative work.

For the PQ, the answer is clear. St-Pierre Plamondon argues the combined bureaucracy has grown too large and that savings can be found by cutting overlapping administration.

Not every function would disappear

The Montreal Gazette reported that St-Pierre Plamondon said a PQ government would not eliminate all Santé Québec functions. According to the Gazette, he said more decision-making would be shifted to regional and local levels.

That distinction matters politically. The PQ is not only promising to abolish an agency; it is also trying to frame the move as a decentralization of power inside the health system.

“It’s not about reforming, but reducing the size of the number of people deciding the same thing,” St-Pierre Plamondon said, according to the source reporting.

The party’s message is designed to connect administrative structure to patient frustration: fewer dollars and fewer decisions tied up in bureaucracy, more money directed toward care and surgeries.

Bélanger rejects the proposal

Quebec Health Minister Sonia Bélanger rejected the PQ plan as an unrealistic oversimplification.

“To make people believe that we can simply abolish Santé Québec, recover a few savings, and fix access to care with that, it’s so simplistic that it’s almost dishonest,” she said in a published statement cited in the source reporting.

Bélanger defended Santé Québec as a reform that consolidated roughly 30 structures under a single employer. In her view, dismantling the agency would mean reopening structural questions the government says it has already settled.

“I want to be very clear: Santé Québec is here to stay,” Bélanger said, according to the source reporting.

Her defence turns the PQ’s argument on its head: where St-Pierre Plamondon sees administrative bloat, Bélanger sees consolidation. Where the PQ sees savings, she sees disruption.

A fight over control

The dispute is now less about whether Quebec’s health system needs improvement and more about who should control the levers.

The PQ says Santé Québec has become too big, too centralized and too costly. Bélanger says abolishing it would be a simplistic answer to a complex access problem.

For Quebecers, the competing diagnoses are stark: one side says the administrative structure is part of the problem; the other says tearing it down would make the system less stable when patients need results.

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