Major job cuts at the Outaouais health authority

Nathan Fung · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 8:06 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

The Outaouais wellness web is cutting up to 800 much jobs. 

In a quality merchandise Thursday, the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO) said it is eliminating 127 positions, about 25 of them in management.

"Although this determination is difficult, it is indispensable to guarantee the sustainability of our services and optimize the usage of nationalist funds entrusted to us," the connection said successful French.

The unions representing health-care workers successful the region said 79 part-time positions and different 600 unfilled vacancies are besides being cut.

CISSSO CEO Marc Bilodeau said the cuts would chiefly beryllium administrative unit and not interaction service.

The determination comes arsenic Quebec tries to destruct a $1.5-billion shortage successful the nationalist health-care system. As portion of that effort, it told CISSSO in November to chopped $90 cardinal from its budget.

CISSSO besides eliminated 196 impermanent positions successful January.

'Basically a neglect mode'

Jean Pigeon, a spokesperson for health-care advocacy radical SOS Outaouais, disagreed with the idea the cuts volition not interaction service.

"These decisions that the authorities is making are wholly absurd and they're putting the CISSSO into a fundamentally a neglect mode for offering work to the population," helium told CBC.

Pigeon said Bilodeau stated determination volition beryllium nary occupation cuts respective months ago. However, helium was sympathetic toward him and alternatively laid the blasted connected the province.

"It was astir apt a precise hard time for him today, having to denote these cutbacks, but helium has nary different choice," helium said.

The cuts are also concerning for Alain Smolynecky, the president of STTSSSO-CSN, the national representing wellness and societal services workers successful the Outaouais.

While CISSSO said the cuts volition chiefly interaction administrative staff, Smolynecky told CBC that volition mean much administrative tasks volition autumn to different staff, including nurses.

"We volition person to springiness the aforesaid work with little people," helium said.

Smolyneck also worries the cuts volition unit health-care idiosyncratic to leave CISSSO and push patients toward backstage clinics.

"If we chopped work wrong the nationalist service, they volition summation radical going to the private.…We installed successful Quebec the cosmopolitan and escaped wellness systems and we person to support that."

Chronically underfunded

Pigeon said the announced cuts don't look to marque up the $90-million people for cuts.

He besides said the cuts volition worsen a concern marked by chronic underfunding compared to different regions successful Quebec by a magnitude of $200 cardinal per year.

He said the National Assembly passed a question recognizing the underfunding of the Outaouais portion successful 2019, but has done thing to remedy the occupation successful the years since.

"We're present placed successful a concern where … we don't person the wealth and the quality resources to connection the colonisation of the Outaouais a decent health-care system," helium said.