Liberals offer money to lure nurses to public sector

Last Updated: Monday, November 17, 2008 | 3:47 PM ET

CBC News

The Quebec Liberals on Monday rolled out several measures, including hiring more nurses, to improve the province's beleaguered health-care system.

If re-elected Dec. 8, leader Jean Charest said his government would bring in financial incentives to encourage new nurses to work in the public sector.

Charest blamed the Parti Québécois for causing the chronic health professional shortage with their decision to force almost 5,000 nurses to retire in the 1990s in order to balance the province's budget.

"The number is staggering when you look back," he said. "Today, we pay a price for it."

The measures include signing bonuses which "will lead to less overtime, and will actually increase working conditions, make them better for everyone," Charest said during a campaign stop at a nursing laboratory at the University of Montreal.

The Liberal measures include:

• $3,000 bonus each year for the first three years for new nurses who take jobs in the public sector.
• $2,000 bonus each year for three years for nurse practitioners who take jobs in the public sector.
• $8,000 annual bonus for nurses with more than 35 years experience.
• Create more family medicine groups to increase access to general practitioners.
• Incentives to encourage medical students to choose family medicine instead of other specialties.

The Liberals also promise the province would pay for the first two in-vitro fertility treatments for couples trying to conceive, a policy proposal that echoes one floated last year by the Opposition party Action Démocratique du Québec.

Quebec now offers a 50 per cent tax credit for in-vitro treatments.

ADQ Leader Mario Dumont said he is outraged by the in-vitro proposal which "lacks honour and is indecent," he said Monday.

Dumont unveiled his party's position on crime Monday, saying the ADQ would provide more assistance to crime victims, and be tougher on drunk drivers and sexual predators.