Services and health
What some public services cost, and the official emergency room and surgery indicators.
Network staff: 344,056 people as of 31 March 2025. See the Public service page.
What a service costs
Unit costs published by government bodies. The year varies by source.
Source: Ministère de l'Éducation, Total expenditure per student, Indicator, latest year published, published 25 March 2026.
Source: Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur, Final operating grant calculations for Québec universities 2025-2026, table A (total grant: $4,153,184,049) and table B (234,159.27 funded gross FTE students), published 15 July 2026.
Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information, Health expenditure data in brief, 2025, p. 2, published 27 November 2025.
Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information, Cost of a standard hospital stay, data table, table 1, Québec, published May 2026.
Source: Ministère de la Famille, Highlights, 2026-2027 budget rules for childcare centres (CPE), p. 4, published 17 July 2026.
Source: Statistics Canada, Adult correctional services, operating expenditures (35-10-0013-01), Québec, average daily cost per inmate, published 19 November 2025.
Emergency rooms and surgeries, 2024‑2025
Annual results and targets of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.
View the data
| Indicator | Result | Target | Next year's target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average time to be seen in the emergency room | 179 min | 125 min | 105 min |
| Average length of stay on a stretcher in the emergency room | 17.2 h | 16 h | 15 h |
| Surgery requests waiting for more than a year | 6,316 | 2,300 | 1,500 |
Source: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, 2024-2025 Annual Management Report of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, summary table p. 16; details p. 36 to 38, published 9 October 2025.
Emergency rooms
Every hour, the Ministère publishes how many stretchers are occupied in each emergency room, and, every financial period, how long stays have lasted since April 1. These figures show what the money spent delivers, region by region.
Source: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Emergency rooms: cumulative data and hourly situation, dataset updated 13 September 2026.
Money and waiting, region by region
Health spending per person (2023‑2024), stretcher occupancy on 27 October 2026 at 0:00:, and emergency stays from April 1 to period 5 of 2026‑2027. Click a header to sort.
| Region | Health spending per person | Stretcher occupancy | Average stay on stretcher (h) | Wait to see a doctor (h) | Stays over 24 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | $5,095 | 67% | 9 h 43 | 2 h 14 | 836 |
| Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean | $4,481 | 64% | 11 h 08 | 2 h 58 | 1,853 |
| Capitale-Nationale | $4,740 | 108% | 13 h 43 | 2 h 06 | 8,357 |
| Estrie | $4,082 | 73% | 14 h 12 | 3 h 21 | 5,336 |
| Montréal | $5,526 | 154% | 18 h 37 | 2 h 37 | 28,612 |
| Outaouais | $3,195 | 106% | 20 h 29 | 4 h 44 | 5,586 |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | $5,345 | 76% | 11 h 28 | 2 h 57 | 960 |
| Côte-Nord | $7,053 | 88% | 16 h 58 | 3 h 07 | 1,842 |
| Nord-du-Québec | $7,294 | 9% | 12 h 04 | 0 h 53 | 140 |
| Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine | $6,126 | 61% | 13 h 13 | 1 h 58 | 1,269 |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | $3,538 | 132% | 16 h 46 | 2 h 04 | 5,075 |
| Laval | $3,243 | 141% | 19 h 27 | 3 h 59 | 4,436 |
| Lanaudière | $2,704 | 101% | 17 h 58 | 3 h 29 | 6,190 |
| Laurentides | $2,958 | 149% | 21 h 04 | 3 h 53 | 9,609 |
| Montérégie | $3,011 | 131% | 19 h 19 | 4 h 18 | 16,278 |
A region with university hospitals, such as Montréal or Capitale-Nationale, also spends on patients from elsewhere. Data missing from the Ministère's file for some emergency rooms: Mauricie et Centre-du-Québec, Montréal.
Sources: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Emergency rooms: cumulative data and hourly situation, dataset updated 13 September 2026; Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Financial overview: expenditures by program and region, dataset updated 29 April 2026; Statistics Canada, GDP (36-10-0222-01), construction prices (18-10-0289-01) and population of health regions (17-10-0157-01), dataset updated 24 July 2026.
The 15 most crowded emergency rooms, 27 October 2026 at 0:00:
Patients on stretchers compared with working stretchers. A snapshot at one time: the situation changes hour by hour.
View the data
| Emergency room | Region | Stretchers | Patients on stretchers | Stretcher occupancy | Over 24 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hôpital Général du Lakeshore | Montréal | 31 | 72 | 232.0% | 40 |
| Hôpital Royal Victoria | Montréal | 33 | 75 | 227.0% | 41 |
| Hôpital Général Juif | Montréal | 53 | 99 | 187.0% | 18 |
| Hôpital de Gatineau | Outaouais | 28 | 49 | 175.0% | 17 |
| Hôpital Général de Montréal | Montréal | 31 | 54 | 174.0% | 30 |
| Hôpital du Suroît | Montérégie | 32 | 54 | 169.0% | 30 |
| Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont | Montréal | 54 | 88 | 163.0% | 32 |
| Hôpital de Mont-Laurier | Laurentides | 8 | 13 | 162.0% | 2 |
| Hôpital de Notre-Dame-Du-Lac | Bas-Saint-Laurent | 5 | 8 | 160.0% | 1 |
| Hôpital de Lasalle | Montréal | 15 | 24 | 160.0% | 9 |
| Hôpital de Saint-Jérôme | Laurentides | 47 | 75 | 160.0% | 27 |
| Hôpital Anna-Laberge | Montérégie | 32 | 50 | 156.0% | 21 |
| Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal | Montréal | 51 | 79 | 155.0% | 10 |
| Hôpital de Saint-Eustache | Laurentides | 35 | 54 | 154.0% | 14 |
| Hôpital de Thetford | Chaudière-Appalaches | 15 | 23 | 153.0% | 7 |
Source: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Emergency rooms: cumulative data and hourly situation, dataset updated 13 September 2026.
Average stay on a stretcher, April 1 to period 5
Same period each year, for the 103 emergency rooms present every year (out of 120). On the right: wait to see a doctor and stays over 24 h.
View the data
| Fiscal year | Visits | Average stay on stretcher (h) | Wait to see a doctor (h) | Stays over 24 h | Stays over 48 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 1,217,821 | 17.7 | 2.7 | 87,019 | 27,208 |
| 2023-2024 | 1,175,318 | 16.6 | 2.7 | 83,053 | 21,153 |
| 2024-2025 | 1,334,222 | 16.4 | 2.9 | 93,022 | 21,821 |
| 2025-2026 | 1,288,792 | 16.1 | 2.8 | 87,362 | 19,866 |
| 2026-2027 | 1,320,947 | 17.0 | 3.0 | 96,239 | 22,484 |
Source: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Emergency rooms: cumulative data and hourly situation, dataset updated 13 September 2026.
The Ministère only publishes the current hour's snapshot. This site keeps one snapshot a day since 26 October 2026; the day-by-day chart will appear after a week.
The number of people waiting for a family doctor is not published in any open file (only in a Santé Québec dashboard), so it is not shown here.
Surgery requests waiting for more than a year
4,034 requests in period 1 of 2026-2027, out of 137,905 requests waiting. End of each fiscal year, then the latest complete period.
More recent periods are not shown because a region is missing: period 2 of 2026-2027, period 3 of 2026-2027, period 4 of 2026-2027.
View the data
| Period | More than a year | 6 to 12 months | Less than 6 months | Total waiting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| period 13 of 2020-2021 | 18,930 | 27,902 | 101,996 | 148,828 |
| period 13 of 2021-2022 | 21,227 | 35,869 | 101,265 | 158,361 |
| period 13 of 2022-2023 | 17,512 | 31,529 | 109,466 | 158,507 |
| period 13 of 2023-2024 | 11,861 | 34,477 | 117,287 | 163,625 |
| period 13 of 2024-2025 | 6,316 | 30,197 | 114,842 | 151,355 |
| period 13 of 2025-2026 | 3,969 | 26,695 | 107,124 | 137,788 |
| period 1 of 2026-2027 | 4,034 | 25,925 | 107,946 | 137,905 |
Source: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Surgeries: waiting list overview, dataset updated 18 August 2026.
Health facility spending by region, 2023‑2024
Spending by health region: $37.2B in total, or $4,212 per capita for Québec as a whole.
View the data
| Health region | Amount | Population | Per capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | $1.0B | 202,364 | $5,095 |
| Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean | $1.3B | 282,194 | $4,481 |
| Capitale-Nationale | $3.7B | 790,062 | $4,740 |
| Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec | $2.1B | 541,655 | $3,915 |
| Estrie | $2.1B | 522,620 | $4,082 |
| Montréal | $11.6B | 2,094,820 | $5,526 |
| Outaouais | $1.3B | 417,724 | $3,195 |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | $793.3M | 148,405 | $5,345 |
| Côte-Nord | $633.6M | 89,837 | $7,053 |
| Nord-du-Québec | $98.0M | 13,441 | $7,294 |
| Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine | $563.5M | 91,981 | $6,126 |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | $1.6B | 447,152 | $3,538 |
| Laval | $1.5B | 449,682 | $3,243 |
| Lanaudière | $1.5B | 550,981 | $2,704 |
| Laurentides | $2.0B | 662,455 | $2,958 |
| Montérégie | $4.5B | 1,483,105 | $3,011 |
| Nunavik | $498.0M | 14,379 | $34,636 |
| Terres-Cries-de-la-Baie-James | $412.0M | 18,839 | $21,868 |
Sources: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Financial overview: expenditures by program and region, dataset updated 29 April 2026; Statistics Canada, GDP (36-10-0222-01), construction prices (18-10-0289-01) and population of health regions (17-10-0157-01), dataset updated 24 July 2026.