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Voters across Quebec will go to the polls in the provincial election on Monday. We asked candidates in the Outaouais about their priorities, specifically when it comes to spending on social services and the region's unique challenges sharing a border with Ontario.
Voters across Quebec will go to the polls in the provincial election on Monday. We asked candidates in the Outaouais about their priorities, specifically when it comes to spending on social services and the region's unique challenges sharing a border with Ontario.
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Candidates in the region have pitched several ideas for keeping the Outaouais competitive, such as funding social services, increasing salaries for health-care workers and improving infrastructure.
The CBC’s Matthew Kupfer reports. We asked the candidates about their views on the Outaouias as a region, and its challenges and opportunities on sharing the border with Ontario. CAQ candidate Mathieu Lévesque said his party has focused on bringing the Outaouais up to speed in terms of spending.
"Before 2018, the Liberal party was in power here and they've under-financed the region for years and years and years," Lévesque said at a campaign announcement promising to expand the Cégep de l'Outaouais in his riding of Chapleau. "We've increased the financing in order to be at the same level as other regions in Quebec, so that's our goal. " Mathieu Lévesque is the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate in the riding of Chapleau.
The party has pledged to maintain a premium for health-care workers to keep them in the region, to build a new health-care hub and start preliminary construction on a new hospital. , said there has been some improvement since CAQ passed a motion in the National Assembly recognizing the region's unique character and challenges.
"There's a lot more spending done in the region, most of the spending kind of gravitates around the new hospital," Gagné-Montcalm said. "This spending would kind of take effect into the services and health in a few years. It doesn't have an immediate effect right now.
"The Conservatives did not respond to CBC's request for an interview. The party has candidates in each of the region's five ridings. The Liberal Party of Quebec promised early in the campaign that health-care workers in the Outaouais would have pay parity with their counterparts in Ontario. They have also pledged to close the gap in health-care funding with other regions.
Sacha Cannon, the Liberal candidate for Hull, said he's part of a team focused putting the region ahead of party. They also see economic opportunity for the Outaouais as a hub for businesses connecting with Ottawa and Ontario.
"We need to have a better ecosystem in terms of economic development for our businesses to really do business with Ottawa, especially in times when our allies in the United States are turning their backs on us," he said. Raphaël Déry, the Parti Québécois candidate for Gatineau, said his party has had a track record of building in the Outaouais since Jean Alfred was elected to represent Papineau in 1976.
He pointed to the Gatineau Hospital as part of the party's legacy.
"What we've seen with the CAQ during the last eight years was that there were a lot of political calculations for development of our infrastructure and we want to change that pattern. " Raphaël Déry, the Parti Québécois candidate for Gatineau, participates in an interview with Radio-Canada on Sept. 24, 2026. Déry has said the party would review the location of the new Hull hospital, a position shared with the Liberals and Québec Solidaire.
He said scrapping Santé Québec will restore local decision-making and help keep health-care workers in the region. , he said a yes vote in a sovereignty referendum would not mean immediate job losses for federal workers. Mariève Forest, the Québec Solidaire candidate for Hull, said her party's platform aims to improve working conditions in the Outaouais by focusing on improving public services and infrastructure.
After a debate at Cégep de l'Outaouais's Hull campus, Forest said the region's post-secondary education sector needs to catch up with other parts of the province. Mariève Forest, Québec Solidaire's candidate in Hull, during a Radio-Canada interview on Sept. 24, 2026. She said giving people the opportunity to train and start their careers in a region helps them settle there, instead of being drawn to Ontario.
"We need to ensure that our health-care workers, education workers and daycare workers have the work conditions and pay that are at the level for the work they put in. That will lead to healthier work conditions, adequate salaries, and reduce the loss of work to Ontario," Forest said in French. The Solidaire candidate said an independent Quebec would benefit from the expertise of federal workers and that they could possibly continue working for the federal government.
Matthew Kupfer has been a reporter and producer at CBC News since 2012. He can be reached at matthew.kupfer@cbc.ca and on Twitter @matthewkupfer
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