Gatan Barrette may introduce special law to end medical pay dispute

Health Minister Gatan Barrette is preparing to table a special law that would impose a contract on the provinces' medical specialists.

Barrette said the Liberal government has agreed on the main points of the law.

In an appearance on CBC Radio's Daybreak Thursday morning, Barrettesaid Quebec's public purse is in such bad shape that the government needs to change the nature of its salary agreement with the province's doctors.

"It's a change. It's some sort of a breach of the agreement that we had, but what are we facing today? We've never faced in my time in terms of negotiations, we've never faced a situation as dire as we are today," he said.

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That breach is causing tensions to mountbetween the province and its medical specialists as negotiations continue over the $1.2 billion set for doctors' pay raises.

The Liberal government wants to spread the $1.2 billion in raises for general practitioners and medical specialists over nine years.

Originally the two doctors federations were asking for the raises, which are valued between $900 million and $1.2 billion, to be spread over six years.

The general practitioners federation, the FMOQ, has since revised their offer to seven years.

Barrette told CBC Daybreak on Thursday that the specialists have a lot to learn from the general practitioners willingness to negotiate. He said earlier this week that the specialists have not come to the negotiating table with meaningful concessions.

Prior to Barrette's announcement of the impending special law, the medical specialists' federation tweeted that it would be open to the nine year proposal.

However,Barrette saidthe doctors need to come up with something more concrete than tweets.

QuebecPremier Phillippe Couillardsaid he hopedan agreement could be reached before that speciallaw was tabled.

Negotiating in bad faith?

The source of the tension comes from an agreement signed in 2007 between the provinces doctors and the health minister of the time, Philippe Couillard. The agreement included a salary increase through 2015-2016.

Now, Barrette a doctor himself finds himself pitted against his former colleagues, trying to push forward an austerity budget as the Liberalsattempt to balance the books by 2016.

Diane Francoeur, the head of the specialists federation, said Barrette is negotiating in bad faith and not portraying the negotiations faithfully.

She said her federation is making concessions, and believes Barrette is acting in his own political and personal interests.

We ask the prime minister to tell Mr. Barrette to be respectful in the way he said he would do politics differently, she said.

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Dire public finances

On Daybreak on Thursday, host Mike Finnerty asked Barrette how he responded to Francoeurs accusation.

It is a common tactic, he said.

Ive used it myself in the past, to go public and to try to put the focus elsewhere than what is really at stake here, which is $1.2 billion that we have to spend. We are in dire times in terms of public finances and the issue is about spreading the amount versus services at some point.

The stakes are high and both sides are digging in, meaning the province could be in for some very difficult labour negotiations as the Liberals look to cull $3 billion from its budget.