No binding arbitration for medical specialists: Quebec

The Charest government has rejected a call by the province's medical specialists to use binding arbitration in stalled contract talks.

The doctors say they have been promised pay parity with specialists in the rest of Canada, but the government says it cannot afford to meet their demands.

Health Minister Philippe Couillard said the pay-parity promise came from a Parti Qubcois government in 2002, just before an election campaign.

However, Couillard said, elaborate social programs such as pharmacare and affordable day care make it impossible for Quebec to give the medical specialists what they want.

"I'm just saying that the final outcome of what they are doing is at best mediation," Couillard said Wednesday.

Treasury Board president Monique Jrme-Forget said there is approximately $595 million on the table, and that money would pay doctors to perform more operations, but not increase the salary they get for each operation.

The extra money should go toward making sure more surgeries take place, Jrme-Forget said.

"Believe me, it's a lot of money," she said. "This is not Monopoly money."

Jrme-Forget said an agreement must be reached by the end of the legislative session this spring. Otherwise, she hinted, a contract will be imposed on the doctors.

"I guess I'll have a press conference like this one, and I'll tell you that I'm very sad," she told reporters, referring to her reaction should a contract be imposed on the specialists.

Jrme-Forget said the government will treat medical specialists the same way it treats all public employees. Last December most of them were forced to accept a legislated contract after negotiations failed.