McCann shifts to ­education, Dubé steps into health in Legault ­cabinet ­shuffle

Quebec Premier François Legault is shaking up his cabinet, removing Danielle McCann from her role of health minister and replacing her with Christian Dubé, the now former president of the Treasury Board.
McCann is set to take over as minister of higher education. She will be working closely with Jean-François Roberge who retains his position of education minister. Her focus is CEGEPs and universities, while Roberge continues to take care of the elementary side.
“I think education is a great priority […] our colleges and universities, we have to put our full effort to really deploy everything we can deploy in Quebec. This is the future for Quebec,” McCann said during question period at Monday afternoon’s press conference.
When asked about her role in the battle against COVID-19 and the sudden decision to strip her of health duties, McCann expressed complete faith in Premier Legault’s decision to bring in a fresh set of eyes.
“Quebecers have confidence in the government. It’s a reset, this pandemic, the last four months, have been very difficult for the population and quite a challenge, also,” she said.
The province is going through a historic moment, McCann added, the fight against the coronavirus is not done. The next step is initiating studies and providing Quebecers with a thorough analysis of what happened, what went right and what went wrong.
The surprise shift in the Ministry of Health and Social Services was also brought up to Legault. The premier assures Quebecers that removing McCann, who has a strong grasp on the current pandemic, won’t impact the province’s recovery.
According to Legault it’s a management issue. “Christian Dubé has a lot of experience in management, not necessarily in the health care system, but in management and I think it’s about time we evaluate the managers in our health care network,” he said.
Legault stated that the purpose of the shift is to bring Dubé in to assess the health system’s managerial side. There needs to be accountability, he said. There is also more work to do, which includes creating stronger performance indicators.
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