There is no shortage of COVID-19 coverage in the media these days; but I have seen very little analysis as to why Quebec is leading the country in COVID cases by a significant margin. I grew up in Quebec and have the greatest admiration for the culture and general joie-de-vivre to be found in Montreal where I spent my formative years — I am often found comparing it favourably to the nose-to-the grindstone aspects of life in Toronto. There is however a dark side.
Those of you who have never been immersed in the local politics of La Belle Provence, may not know that there is a longstanding and pervasive culture of governmental corruption there, the extent of which is not found elsewhere in the country. You may remember that some years ago in parts of Quebec concrete began to disintegrate on a number of highway overpasses to such a degree that chunks fell off and actually killed some motorists who had the misfortune to be driving underneath them at the wrong time. Why did this happen? Well the long and the short of it is that the construction sector had a very cozy relationship with the government inspectors whose job it was to oversee their often shoddy work.
If you can cast your memories back even further, you may recall some of the stories that filtered out of the Province about the absolutely stunning corruption that was associated with the construction of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. The design and construction of what Montrealers will forever call the Big Owe redefined the concept of cost overruns to a degree never seen in any other Canadian mega-project including the Darlington nuclear plant. Montrealers were still paying for that epic boondoggle through their property taxes twenty years later — and to add insult to injury, at just about the time the damn thing was about to come off local tax bills the insanely overpriced roof started to fall down.
What does this have to do with COVID incidence in Quebec? Well a culture of corruption is not limited to a single department or Ministry or level of government — I have to state again that this phenomenon is venerable and pervasive in Quebec and reformist pronouncements by various provincial governments tend to bounce off these ingrained habits. So here is the thing — I am willing to bet a lifetime supply of poutine that Quebec’s oversight of long-term care facilities was the worst to be found in any major Province. Because COVID statistics are highly skewed on the basis of how rampant the spread is in LTC homes, this would explain to a considerable degree the fact that Quebec is leading the COVID parade. Can I prove this — no. But a thorough, untainted provincial review of oversight practices in Quebec’s LTC sector is an obvious corollary of what the numbers reveal. Will such a review be conducted, and conducted scrupulously — time will tell.
Disagree with this chain of inference? Is it too tenuous? Am I being politically incorrect? Let me know with your comments.
As of this writing, nearly 80% of the almost 2400 COVID deaths in Quebec are attributable to long term care or seniors homes. Stories detailing chronic mismanagement and understaffing are beginning to emerge; notwithstanding a frustrating lack of transparency from the government. I hope we get the review your article calls for – but in Quebec, I’m not holding my breath.
I appreciate your commentary outlining the woeful inadequacies of the the Quebec government in dealing with our most vulnerable citizens. But other provinces, in fact, the country should not be absolved. At the time of this writing, 81% if deaths in Canada related to COVID were attributed to seniors and long term care facilities. It’s clear many of our seniors have been grossly mistreated. Private facilities in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have been taken over by government authorities because of sub-standard practices. Workers in these facilities are grossly underpaid, requiring them to work at several jobs, further exacerbating the spread of the virus.
I agree with the author that an “untainted review” must be conducted, but I think the scope is too narrow. This is a national crisis and one that should be linked to the disbursement of federal dollars to provincial health authorities. Glen Clark, former NDP Premier of B.C., has suggested that seniors’ care, including the homes they often live out their lives in, be brought in under the auspices of the Canada Health Act. Doing so would tie provincial funding to certain metrics, including standards at these homes such as employee salaries, room sizes and resident-to-care worker ratios. Such a transformative move would require billions and the political will to make it happen. Sadly, I agree that both may be lacking.
As a senior, I have a vested interest in the outcome. Even so, I selfishly want to be part of a society that is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable.