COVID-19 pandemic cost Quebec’s health network $15 billion: report

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Various contracts during the pandemic, such as to secure personal protective equipment and provide vaccination and testing, amounted to $6 billion.

The Canadian Press

Caroline Plante

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube responds to the opposition during question period Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at the legislature in Quebec City.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube responds to the opposition during question period Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at the legislature in Quebec City. Photo by Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press

The Quebec health network will have spent $15 billion to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report filed Tuesday.

Public health laws forced Health Minister Christian Dubé to make the detailed report public within three months of lifting the health emergency.

A total of $18.8 billion was spent between March 2020 and March 2022, but $3.85 billion must be subtracted from the total given the drop in regular spending due to the slowdown of other activities amid the pandemic.

Over two years, the Legault government was involved in a total of 4,505 contracts to fight the pandemic. They amounted to a value of $6 billion, including $3.4 billion for personal protective equipment. Other contracts were related to the hiring of human resources, vaccination and testing.

“Several acquisitions were concluded quickly in order to secure the users and the workers of the health network,” Marjaurie Côté-Boileau, Dubé’s presse attache, told La Presse Canadienne. “We needed to have access to proper material extremely quickly. It was priority number one, and it was the right thing to do.”


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