If there is one battle that Prime Minister Legault has won, it is one of communications. The same cannot be said of his war against the coronavirus.
Although he clumsily tried to relativize the losses by mentioning that apart from the CHSLDs, Quebec was doing well, the Caquist leader is aware that the time will come.
The popularity it enjoys risks waning when a rigorous assessment of crisis management is made. Thus, we understand better how quickly he reshapes his cabinet to appease the grumbling that will arise. However, there is no guarantee that the maneuver will protect him.
Confession of failure
By ejecting Danielle McCann from the Department of Health, the Prime Minister puts the blame on him for failures in crisis management. As a loyal soldier, she takes blows for her general. However, it was the entire government that did not rise up to the crisis.
Whatever the Legault, Arruda and McCann trio may have said, Quebec was not ready and was slow to organize to stem the pandemic. Major tactical errors have occurred.
The lack of protective equipment for caregivers, the transfer of patients from hospitals to CHSLDs and employees who work in more than one establishment have led to one of the worst results in the world.
The negligence of previous governments and the spring break are not enough to explain the scale of the Quebec disaster. Caregivers placed in inadequate conditions have become a vector for the spread of the disease. The Caquist government is fully responsible for this state of affairs!
It won’t get better
The cabinet reshuffle leaves us doubtful.
If McCann was not up to par with the Ministry of Health, his replacement does not bring a more impressive hunting table in his previous functions at the Conseil du trésor.
The aborted bill to accelerate the recovery of the economy, negotiations with medical specialists and state employees are an accumulation of failures for Christian Dubé. After all these setbacks, does the Prime Minister really hope that he will subdue the health monster?
The appointment of Sonia LeBel to the Conseil du trésor appears above all to be a moral guarantee to swallow the remainders of Bill 61. It is far from certain that her righteousness will resist the regulatory exceptions that the Prime Minister would like to increase.
As for negotiation in the public sector, his coming does not herald a more fruitful dialogue in the light of his first remarks and the mess created by his predecessor in the file of attendants to beneficiaries.
Nathalie Roy and Jean-François Roberge were not more brilliant than Mrs. McCann in their respective ministries and would have deserved, like her, to go for a walk elsewhere, but that would have been too great an admission of government incompetence!
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