Health minister Christian Dubé has explained why he’s directing more new doctors to work outside Montreal: our general practitioners don’t work hard enough. Hey, those suburban CAQ voters need tender loving care, you know!
Updates from October, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Valérie Plante says she misses the boules in the Village and hopes a new installation will replace them next season. A new piece was meant to go up in 2020, but a test was not felt to be successful, and there was no street life that summer anyway. This came up as Plante was talking more widely about pedestrianizing commercial streets and helping commercial tenants keep their premises.
Plante has also admitted that the pink line is on indefinite hold till the REM de l’est is completed and there’s a better picture of what additional kind of transit is needed in the east to work around it. I never thought the pink line would be built as conceived, and I doubt Plante did either. It was more like a talking point about how badly the folks east of the 25 need better transit options. And there are CAQ voters on that end of the island, too.
Coderre jumped on the housing bandwagon Friday with a promise to build 50,000 new units – but only 10,000 would be social housing. So the other 40,000 would be commercial ventures, like the ones he was planning to build over wetlands in Pierrefonds before he was voted out?
ant6n
The Pink line proposal does not go East of the A25. It was meant to better connect very urban areas that have relatively poor connections/long commute. Btw, it proposed to connect areas as far West as Lachine. Oh, it also would relieve the most used portions of the metro system (Eastern branch of Orange line).
The REM 2.0 overlaps with the Pink Line, but only in the areas that aren’t very dense. The REM 2.0 also has a fair amount of overlap with the Green line. Oh and it does connect out to the tip of the island, where the mobility demand isn’t very high. … In a direct competition between Pink Line and REM 2.0, the REM will probably be cheaper but also only have about 1/3 of the ridership. Still, the REM kills the Pink Line.
Kevin
I have a theory that the Caisse realized this year that it has made a monumental error with the REM and the REM East. So big that I think REM East won’t actually be built.
And it’s why so many groups are throwing out so many ideas to get people to resume working downtown.
To start, pre-pandemic roughly 300,000 people commuted to downtown Montreal to work, which is roughly the same number of people who commute to Toronto’s downtown core to work.
I think it’s evident that most of them will never return to full-time work at the office. WFH, hybrid models, major companies ending rental leases— it saves money and is more productive for office workers to be home. I know offices that have tried to have people return and they gave up—the figures show nothing was getting done.
Now, earlier this year the Caisse tossed out the notion that only half of all REM trips would be work related—but that only makes sense if downtown is still engaging and has plenty of stuff to do.
Are the 90,000 people who live in downtown Montreal (compare to 237,000 for Toronto, or 60,000 for Vancouver) enough to keep it vibrant? Especially if the daytime population only goes up by 100,000?
I think the answer is no—and so more stores will move out, more restaurants will move, and downtown looks more like it did in the mid-90s, except soon all the REM trains will go there.
Cadichon
Adding 50 000 units in four years would help to keep up with the demand but I’m wondering if the construction industry can actually reach that point? They seem to be stretched to their limit doing 10 000 a year.
As for doing 10 000 social units in four years, considering Montréal does in average something like 750 or 800 units a year, that would imply massive new financing from Québec… How Coderre is making this happen?Kate
To be fair, Plante is also promising thousands of units. I think everyone knows this is campaign pie in the sky. With the costs of basic materials soaring, what would the figures look like for building acres of new housing all at once, social or not?
Cadichon
Well if it costs 350k$ to build an average apartment, 50 000 of these means… 17.5G$ !…
And yes Plante did come up with her 60 000 affordable units promise without a time frame which is quite a pie in the sky indeed but it must be pointed out that these would not depend on provincial dollars. On social housing Plante is not committing herself to a specific target, putting the burden instead on Quebec to finance 2000 units year which… under a CAQ government is never happening.Uatu
The CBC recently interviewed citizens in Brossard and a lot of them were happy of the prospect of the REM. What’s more interesting are people who grew up in Brossard that are now living in Montreal who are thinking of moving back because of the REM. This is what I guess the caq wants: more suburban caq voters and less montrealers to reduce the power the city has. No wonder they’re really pushing it.
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Kate
A police source claims that the Rizzuto clan are back in charge despite sustaining multiple blows over the last decade. With the Scoppa brothers down, they’re apparently able to flex their power again over the city. With photos of the key players.
Dominic
I’ve never seen any really good English coverage of the Montreal mobs. Any ideas?
dhomas
There’s a lot of reading out there about the Montreal Mafia, also available in English. For example, Mafia, Inc.: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213113/mafia-inc-by-andre-cedilot-and-andre-noel/
They later made it into a movie, though I think they changed the names.
There’s also a book called “The Sixth Family” about the Montreal Mafia that was originally published in the mid-2000s but updated in the mid-2010s. I think this one covers the period of the Calabrese Mafia (under Cotroni) and how things changed hands to the Sicilian Mafia (under Rizzuto).
From time to time, English news media will also cover the Montreal Mafia, but it seems to come first in French media.
There’s also a TV series about it called “Bad Blood”. It’s streaming on Netflix in English and French.I used to have a particular interest in this topic years ago, but haven’t looked into it for a long time.
Kate
I find the Mafia topic rarely gets comment on this blog, although if I find a story at all interesting I tend to do a post. Looking at that article my first thought is to wonder which of the five men shown is the real brains. My second is to wonder which one has the smartest wife.
DavidH
The Gazette’s coverage is hard to distinguish from satire at times: https://montrealgazette.com/news/world/mafia-bosses-worry-for-future-as-soft-millennial-mobsters-prefer-texting-to-pistol-whipping/wcm/807457b9-7dc3-4d9f-9215-ee280421086e. One more industry the millennials are killing.
Kate
And my third: which will be killed first?
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Kate
The outbound Lafontaine tunnel will be closed all weekend and there will be other traffic crises.
Here are some notes about what’s open and closed for Thanksgiving.
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Kate
Heavy hints are being dropped about Carey Price’s mental health as stories are run about Marc Bergevin weeping as he gave out the news.
Jebediah Pallendrome
Am I missing something?
A person may have a mental health issue and/or substance dependence issue. Said person has checked into a program to treat the problem, just like tens of millions of people all over the world, each and every day.
How is this different from “local man has toothache, sees dentist”?
I don’t think I’m being insensitive here but, if the whole point is that mental health issues have been stigmatized for such a long time, and this isn’t so much the case anymore, then doesn’t making a really big deal about something we’re supposed to treat as commonplace kinda undermining the whole ‘hey, this is normal and okay to talk about’ vibe that’s been going out the past few decades?
Hockey players don’t live in a cave, they have all the money and resources they need to help themselves.
DisgruntledGoat
JP, I don’t think it’s a stretch to recognize that pro athletes have a wide reach in society due to their level of fame. They have a lot of influence especially on young kids.
If CP and the attention paid to his mental health issues convince one kid to flag to their parents that they are struggling, then I think it’s a positive net effect. And it will be a lot more than one kid.
I understand the “I’m a celebrity with all the resources woe is me” argument. However if they use their celebrity to model that it’s okay to struggle with mental health I’m having a very hard time being cynical about it, and I’m very cynical.
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Kate
Montreal’s CEGEPS are running out of space.
Jebediah Pallendrome
And this is why Papa Doc Frank Lego is limiting who can go to the Anglo ones – the system works!
Ephraim
Dare the colleges limit who goes there by…. merit? I mean they have matriculations, they have percentiles and they certainly can get more and start to limit acceptance letters. CEGEPs also have DEC programs that need to be filled and nights as well. Not to mention other programs. You don’t always need a CEGEP degree for some jobs. And there are a LOT of jobs that are going unfilled in skilled high paying labour. Tried to get a plumber lately?
steph
do we really need an educated population? /s
Kate
Ephraim, going into the trades isn’t as valued as it should be. Anyone with a bit of brains is always shunted into academics, even if their real strengths don’t lie in that area.
Ephraim 21:54 on 2021-10-08 Permalink
If the government was required to list the number of people waiting for a family doctor in each zone of Quebec as well how long the longest request is.
mare 00:45 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
My doctor’s latest appointment that can be booked is at 16h00. I have been in his waiting room several times until 19h00 before he worked through all of his patients. During Covid he once called me even later for a tele-health call. He gets paid $59.70 per consult. He took over the patients of two doctors who quit and left Quebec (or the public system). He works super hard and I hope he doesn’t burn out (he’s in his fifties) or also leaves. This must feel like a stab in the back, and it’s not the first.
dhomas 07:56 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
If we’re saying things just to say things: Dubé doesn’t work hard enough. I have nothing to prove this, so just take my word for it.
Seriously, though, what a piece of shit. Fuck this guy and fuck the CAQ.
ant6n 07:58 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
hear hear
Spi 14:02 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
Although his rational isn’t entirely flawed (that people should be seen where they live and Montreal doctors should be treating less off-island residents) in practice it’s impractical and not going to do anything. Do people just switch doctors for fun? Unless you tell people you’re going to get kicked off your Montreal doctors patient list they are very unlikely to.
Wouldn’t a sensible approach be to require those doctors that open practices in adjacent to Montreal suburb (read laval) have a % of their patient list be from Montreal?
DavidH 14:12 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
My son’s former GP left the profession before she had to work too hard within the public system. She isn’t forty yet and threw away all of her schooling for a ‘regular’ job where she could see her kids more often. Making people work harder is part of the problem, not the solution.
The same is true for nurses and every other job experiencing a dearth. These new problems the are inflicting on doctors will only push them away from Quebec or from the profession altogether. As usual.
Kevin 14:26 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
The Prem system is a massive failure.
The province cannot force people to only see doctors near their home. The province cannot force doctors to refuse patients who live too far away.
If the province wants doctors to be more efficient, go after the patients who skip appointments.
Blork 15:04 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
My family doc’s office is walking distance from my job, so pre-COVID that was perfect. I’ve been with him for more than 20 years (and since before I moved off-island). No reason to change doctors when I moved to Longueuil since every single time I have ever gone to see him was during working hours, and since my job is so close to his office it would have made no sense to change.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who prefers their doctor be closer to where they spend their days than where they spend their nights and weekends.
Now, with WFH being made somewhat permanent at my job, it means more of a trek to go see him. But I’d still rather stay with a doctor I know than switch to one I don’t. My fear now is that this new plan will force him to take more patients, making it harder to see him, and that he will just say FTS and retire instead of working 60 hours a week.
jeather 22:56 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
Yeah, I don’t exactly blame people who moved out of Montreal but kept their local doctors, because it’s not like you can find a doctor in the suburbs either, but the fact is that if GP numbers are based on population, the goverment needs to force GPs to only see local patients somehow (they know your address, they could certainly do this if there were any interest politically in doing it, but there’s not, because it’s just about punishing Montreal). This would have the benefit of making CAQ voters who commute angry about the PREM plan also.
Kevin 23:40 on 2021-10-09 Permalink
Jeather,
They legally can’t. It violates the constitution. Why they keep trying after two decades of failure is proof that bureaucracies only exist to self perpetuate.
jeather 09:46 on 2021-10-10 Permalink
Kevin,
I assume it could violate the constitution to tell patients they can’t see a non-local doctor, but does it violate the constitution to do the reverse? (Do we mean Health Care Act? I read it but didn’t see anything obvious about that, though of course this is not my field at all.)
I hate the PREM system deeply, and also I think the way it is enacted is proof it’s about rewarding and punishing various voters, but even if it were done more fairly, I would not support it.
steph 12:17 on 2021-10-10 Permalink
If only montrealers would stop voting the CAQ… oh yeah, we didn’t. I think montreal should start fighting for it’s autonomy, clearly this province doesn’t have our interest at heart.