Lives & Legacy

30 of 250 MDs secured so far BRENDA O’FARRELLThe 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative The new Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital will open its doors in the summer of 2028 with less than half of its needed staff hired, according to a spokesperson with Santé Québec Montérégie-Ouest. And so far, only 30 doctors of the 250 required have been contracted. “On the medical side, 12 per cent of the required physicians have already been hired,” said Anick Drouin, a ministerial and media relations officer with the regional health authority, in response to questions from The 1019 Report. Although an opening date for the hospital has been set for the summer of 2028, the regional health authority did not provide a date when full staffing is expected to be reached. “The recruitment goal is to have 40 per cent of positions filled by the end of the first year of operation,” Drouin said, referring to all job categories, which include medical and non-medical positions. The level of staffing is a serious concern for municipal leaders and business officials in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area, and is just part of a wider manpower crisis looming for the region. Describing the situation as “very unhelpful” and “disappointing,” the president of the region’s business development agency said the hiring challenge the hospital is facing is just part of the manpower crunch brewing in the region. “We are expecting a major manpower crisis when the hospital opens,” said Danie Deschênes, president of Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges and mayor of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot. In February, DEV along with several business owners, publicly called on Santé-Québec to share its hiring plan for the hospital, with Deschênes urging health officials: “Show us your strategy for the hospital.” On Saturday, Deschênes told The 1019 Report  Santé-Québec has so far not shared its plan. “What they tell us is that the hiring is going as planned,” Deschênes said in an interview. The Vaudreuil hospital is the first new hospital to be built in Quebec in approximately 30 years that adds beds to the health network, a system that has faced chronic understaffing for years. Just last week, provincial health officials announced the temporary closure of the maternity ward at Hôpital Saint-Eustache due to a shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists. In July, the president of the Quebec Association of Specialists in Emergency Medicine of Quebec issued a warning, as several Montreal-area hospitals experienced serious emergency ward overcapacity levels, highlighting the cause being a combination of higher volumes of patients due to the heat wave and staffing shortages. The new Vaudreuil hospital, which will have 404 beds, 11 surgical suits, an emergency room and a maternity unit, will employ 3,500 people. Of that number, only about 20 per cent — 761 have been opened to applications, Drouin said. And only some of them have been filled in the last two years. “As of June 2024, 761 positions had been posted (almost exclusively clinical roles for 24/7 sectors); 519 were filled, while 242 remained vacant following the posting period,” she stated in an email. “Currently, 842 positions are posted internally,” Drouin said, adding: “Unfilled positions will be posted externally and supported by a recruitment campaign.” Santé-Québec has 16 open employment offers posted online at the moment aiming to fill a wide range of positions linked to the new hospital, including the director of emergency services, pharmacists, nurses, pharmacy technicians and physiotherapists. None of the job postings require English language skills. Online portals are also open to receive inquiries from doctors. As the opening of the hospital gets closer, Deschênes said hiring for non-medical staff threatens to drain workers from area businesses, which are already facing a manpower shortage. That is why DEV is doubling down on its demand that the provincial and federal government give Vaudreuil-Soulanges a special status that would allow it to increase the hiring of foreign workers. Last Februray, DEV made the call for what it called a “territorial exemption” that would exempt employers in the region from changes to immigration policies to ensure against the loss of temporary foreign workers. Faced with mounting opposition to the announced end to its Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), which allowed workers to be fast-tracked to obtaining residency status, the provincial government temporarily re-instated the program for two years beginning this past July. Deschênes says this region requires a better solution, and said the hospital’s need of thousands of workers, many for non-medical jobs, “will empty our business.” You are unauthorized to view this page.

Residents of the Town of Vaudreuil sur le Lac have blocked the proposed purchase of a wooded area, as 207 signatures were collected on a register Monday, Mayor Mario Tremblay confirmed yesterday.

As the use of electric scooters has seen a dramatic increase in popularity this summer in St. Lazare — generating much public discussion about safety — and while the town’s municipal council could not agree on whether to formally request its public security committee to explore how municipal officials could regulate the use of these personal motorized devices in July, the Sûreté du Québec last week began flagging down kids as they whizzed along bicycle paths and on streets ignoring stops signs, speed limits or found riding the devices without a helmet.

This was the scene on Main Road last Saturday afternoon at the site of the Hudson-Oka ferry, as motorists looking to cross the Lake of Two Mountains were met with a barrier, as the service— which had finally opened a few days earlier —  had been halted again for the weekend. The once popular ferry service has been closed all summer, opening on Aug. 5, albeit with only one ferryboat in service during limited hours. It was closed again last Friday, with the owner posting on social media that his ferry captain was ill. Late last week, the owner issued a public call to hire a ferryboat captain. The service reopened Monday. The confusion and lack of communication from the ferry owner, Philippe Daigneault, has left ferry users frustrated, with many lashing out on social media. Daigneault could not be reached for comment. You are unauthorized to view this page.

Hughes, the now former CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, Montreal’s largest emergency shelter, replaces Marie-Claude Nichols.

After rejecting a recommendation from Transport Quebec to restrict right-hand turns on red lights at an intersection on Cité des Jeunes Blvd. in St. Lazare last month, the town’s municipal council last week reversed course and voted in favour of banning the manoeuvre, citing the need to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

Vaudreuil MNA Marie-Claude Nichols will not be seeking re-election in this fall’s provincial vote.

A group of homeowners in Vaudreuil sur le Lac is hoping to convince at least 121 residents of the small town to sign a register later this month to block the municipal council’s plans to buy a wooded area. But the residents are not opposed to the purchase — they simply  object to the price, a figure they claim is much higher than the market value based on the town’s own assessment commissioned last year.

The owner of the Hudson-Oka ferry announced yesterday that service on the lake crossing will be reinstated today — although only one ferry will be in operation.