In my last blog about the Alberta budget, I mentioned that
both Health and Education services should be restructured. Events of the past
week have made it more imperative for the government to do so. There is why:
Although Albertans are reasonably pleased with their doctors,
they feel that access to services remain a major problem. According to a Health
Quality Council of Alberta survey showed that the medical system and little
coordination among health care providers are still a problem.
The continued , dispute between the Minister Fred Horne and
the Alberta Medical Association shows that a complete restructuring of the
health services need to be undertaken, There are several issues to be
considered and a focus on doctors’ salaries is not the starting point.
In Alberta we must
understand that doctors are quasi contractors, who get a fee from the province
for their services. As contractors, doctors must maintain their offices, pay
staff and overheads. While the size and amenities of these offices may depend
on the doctors’ choice, the costs are still theirs to pay.
The current dispute resides in the fact that the government
in its proposal has frozen the total budget for the doctors’ compensation at
$3.4 billion for this year. In addition the Minister has introduced another wrinkle
as he requested another $275 million in reductions to pay for 300 new doctors.
With a shortage of doctors and a mediocre service delivery
Albertans are faced with more waits for treatment. One aspect of this continued
dispute, if not settled amicably and to the satisfaction of both sides, is that
doctors may start to leave the province for greener pastures. Depending on how
you look at it, Obamacare will have an impact on the supply of doctors in
Canada. Under scenario one, if the new law is implemented the United States
will need more doctors. If Alberta becomes too onerous to practice, our
physicians may decide to leave and thus cause more problems down the road. The
second scenario is that Obamacare causes American doctors to close their practice.
As a result, Canada may become their choice of destination. This may be a good
thing for our system. However if Alberta is seen as a place where it is difficult
for doctors to operate, we may miss on an opportunity to attract doctors.
Going after doctors, in my opinion is not the right way to balance
the health care budget. There are other places such as administration, change
in the delivery system, and union contracts that could be look at before we alienate
doctors. However, how we do this may be part of a larger discussion in another
blog.
As a cross-over, Mount Royal University has decided to close
its program for the accreditation of foreign nurses. Once again it seems that
the education system does not have its priorities right. We continue to educate
some people in subjects that may not be required by the market place and yet we
cut programs that may provide solutions to an increasing labour shortage in
certain industries, The above example , is but one of the reasons why the Institute
opposed the establishment of Mount Royal College into a University.
Then we have a farce in the making. The Minister of Advanced
Education has put forward a proposal for teachers’ wages, but the behavior of
some school boards is so bizarre that it should make taxpayers cringe. While
some school boards have accepted the proposal, others have not. At the same
time The Calgary School Board has allocated over $1 million for pay raise for
non-unionized administrative officials, while thousands of teachers are being
asked to take a salary freeze.
This is the type of decision that shows a complete lack of
leadership and causes animosity during contract negotiations. These exempt
officials make six figure salaries, and the timing of the decision is
absolutely baffling, given the economic times.
Education is supposed to be about children. The costs are
rising but the allocation of budgets is being mismanaged. The majority of
funding should go to the classroom, not necessarily to teachers, in the form of
class room hour’s re-allocation or administrative staff. Instead we should
focus on delivery in the classroom and new schools. The whole system needs to
be looked at. Why not change the size of classes, pay teachers according to
class size, and restructure the delivery system to make school more year round
and introduce vouchers for education.
As for the costs of education we need a complete revamp of
the funding mechanism. In the first place we must change the way we collect
taxes for education. Property taxes have no correlation with education and the
means of collection is not only archaic and penalizes many seniors, because of
the market value assessment. Many fixed income seniors may pay a higher
property tax because of the value of their property, but the increase is not a
realized but a paper gain, while at the same time they may no longer have
children in the education system..
Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, must be praised
for having the courage to look at changing the education structure in Alberta.
There are too much duplication while the needs of industries and workforce are
not being met. Furthermore too much of the funding allocation goes towards
administration rather than education.
The current situation within these two services demand that
Albertans and in effect the government of Alberta seriously consider changing
how we deliver these services and more specifically how we fund them.
Marcel Latouche
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