The provincial government under Premier Brad Wall is continuing down its path towards a single health authority in Saskatchewan, a move that was misguided from the outset, and which will not produce the cost savings that was supposedly the rationale for initiating it in the first place.
   Word came down this week that severance packages are being offered to the CEOs of all 12 health regions, including CEO Marga Cugnet of the Sun Country Health Region, and the many vice-presidents throughout the province.
   Reports said this was part of the province’s move to deal with a deficit estimated to be as high as $1 billion this year. Paying off the highly-paid health region officials will cost money and is not going to help the province’s bottom line. The argument could be made that the province is looking long-term, but in reality, to maintain a cumbersome single health region with all of the health facilities and personnel under one board is not going to save any appreciable amount of money.
   Indeed, one of the greatest fears for those living outside of the major urban centres of Regina and Saskatoon is that these centres will get the bulk of the money and the attention, and outlying rural areas will not be looked after properly. How can one single board looking at such a diverse number of regions possibly know what is truly needed at the Weyburn Special Care Home, or the Newhope Pioneer Lodge in Stoughton, or the Pangman Care Centre, or whether the Radville or Bengough areas are getting the proper level of ambulance service or doctor recruitment?
   It seems to be ridiculous that the governments in this province seem unable to grasp the concept that bigger does not mean better. If it was better, why is it that every time a school or health board is made bigger, a few years later it’s made bigger yet again, as if the newer size was not adequate or providing the proper leadership or service to the area’s residents? The assumption is just automatically made that to make regions bigger will somehow save money somewhere.
   When a government is looking at a $1 billion deficit, scraping nickels and dimes will only hurt local services and people, and it will not touch the deficit at all. There are other more drastic actions that need to be looked at, and long-term plans to pay off that deficit. It cannot be dealt with in one year or even four or five years, particularly in a province that relies so heavily on its natural resources. Health care is not an area where services and people can be cut back on, it’s a vital service for our residents.
