Earlier this week, GRS Montreal, the only clinic in Quebec that offers gender-affirming surgeries, announced that wait times have ballooned for Quebec residents seeking care. Those increases, the clinic says, are directly tied to cuts in healthcare funding from the provincial government.

In Quebec, gender-affirming surgeries are not funded through Quebec’s regular provincial public healthcare plan. Instead, they’re funded through a separate program that is administered by the Ministere de la Santé et des Services sociaux (or the MSSS) and Santé Québec. 

Since 2009, a private hospital that includes the GRS clinic has had an agreement with the MSSS, which gives the clinic funding to perform surgeries, but does not integrate the clinic into the wider public system. This agreement grants GRS Montreal a de facto monopoly over gender-affirming surgeries in the province. Activists have criticized this agreement, advocating for gender-affirming procedures to be included in the province’s public health plan.
 

While the agreement does allow gender-affirming surgeries to be publicly funded, as many other crucial procedures are in Canada, it also means that when governments reduce funding for trans healthcare, constituents who need that care suffer.  

Here, Script’s managing editor Ziya Jones breaks down how wait times have changed with the recent budget cuts—and what this means for trans and non-binary Quebeckers seeking care.