Quebec Has Helicopters for Pepe Le Pew But Not for Emergency Patients

By Matthew Vadum —— Bio and Archives April 11, 2009

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Authorities in the province of Quebec, Canada, seem to care more about the well-being of skunks and power lines than the well-being of patients with life-threatening health concerns.

In a sense Pepe Le Pew gets better healthcare from the goverment of Quebec, Canada, than Quebec residents receive. Pepe has professionals airdropping him medicine from helicopters while human Quebeckers don’t even have access to a medical helicopter system. Quebec’s natural resources ministry uses a helicopter fleet to drop bait containing rabies vaccine in an effort to keep its skunks, raccoons, and foxes healthy. Government-owned Hydro Quebec (or Hydro-Québec, as it’s spelled in la belle province), Canada’s largest electric utility, uses a helicopter fleet provided by a company called Héli-inter. After the recent tragic death of actress Natasha Richardson, who suffered a traumatic brain injury (epidural hematoma) while skiing at Mont Tremblant resort, Quebec is reportedly only now thinking about acquiring medical evacuation helicopters. Canada’s sclerotic, dysfunctional universal healthcare system stinks. Is this what we want for America?