QS calls on all parties to campaign for the SABSA clinic

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “I hope that several of us will ask that SABSA have access to funding from the Ministry of Health that is sustainable and meets the needs,” argues Étienne Grandmont, who intends to challenge the region’s deputies.

Isabelle Porter in Quebec

4:50 p.m.

• Quebec

Quebec Solidaire MP Étienne Grandmont wants to create a non-partisan movement and rally all elected officials in the Quebec region to the cause of the SABSA clinic.

“It goes beyond partisanship,” he said. “It is absolutely necessary for the entire political class and even the municipal sector to mobilize. »

The deputy for Taschereau reacted to the revelations of Devoir to the effect that after ten years of existence, the clinic still does not have access to the government's nursing clinic funding program.

The clinic, which mainly serves vulnerable populations, is located in the Saint-Roch district in the heart of the riding represented by Mr. Grandmont. But the latter points out that it is also frequented by patients from “CAQ districts”.

To (re)read

• SABSA nursing clinic still precarious after ten years
• A day at SABSA, the network’s lifeboat
• Editorial | The eternal battle of the SABSA nursing clinic

“I hope that several of us will ask that SABSA have access to funding from the Ministry of Health that is sustainable and meets the needs”, argues the elected official, who intends to challenge one by one the deputies of the region.

“People need to realize what it would cost us not to have SABSA. »

The CAQ rejects a motion from the other parties

The Quebec region is represented in Parliament by a majority of deputies from the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), including ministers Geneviève Guilbault (Louis-Hébert), Jonathan Julien (Charlesbourg) and Éric Caire (La Peltrie).

It also counts among its deputies the PQ Pascal Paradis (Jean-Talon), who pressed, in vain, the government to decide on the SABSA file on Tuesday.

With the support of the Liberals, QS and independent MP Marie-Claude Nichols, Mr. Paradis tabled a motion requesting that SABSA receive “sufficient and adequate funding starting this year”, by making it eligible for the already existing program. The motion was, however, rejected by the government.

The Ministry of Health has already indicated that another financial framework would apply to the clinic and that it is currently being drafted.