A cross party task force set up to tackle the spiralling costs of Quebec’s provincial healthcare system has recommended an increase in sales tax, introduction of user fees, and greater privatisation.

The much anticipated report from chairman, Claude Castonguay, a former Liberal health minister in 1970 when Quebec joined Canada’s federal health system, proposes among other recommendations a $C25 (£12; €17; $25) fee for each visit to a doctor and an increase of up to one percentage point in the province’s sales tax. The report has encountered considerable resistance.

Quebec’s healthcare costs …