By blinking first on vaccine deadline, Quebec may have given unvaccinated health workers upper hand
CBC
Thousands of unvaccinated health-care workers have been given an extra 30 days to get vaccine doses that have been available to them for months.
Wednesday's compromise on a vaccination mandate is raising concerns the Quebec government has all but squandered its leverage when it comes to pushing holdouts in the health-care system to get their shots.
"Weak, weak, weak," said Nathan Friedland, an emergency room nurse at the Lakeshore General Hospital in Montreal's West Island.
"The way I see it, you have a bunch of health-care professionals acting unprofessionally and they've tested the resolve of a politician and they got their answer."
The punishment remains the same — health-care workers who are not adequately vaccinated risk are to be suspended without pay — but the deadline is no longer Friday. It's Nov. 15.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said the province's health system has been pushed to the brink for more than a year and a half, and it can't afford to lose between 14,000 and 22,000 workers.
This, after weeks of insisting the province would be able to take a hard line and suspend staff without pay — and that health-care facilities would be able to manage without rolling back services.