Sand in the Shorts: Heath Care Is Not a Federal Issue

This column appeared in the April 16th, 2011 Intelligencer


  During this federal election, a lot of the discussion 'on the street' seems to be focusing on issues like education (with Michael Ignatieff proposing his 'education passport' which will mostly help the upper middle class and wealthy) and health care.

  People are frustrated with what they (rightly) see as a dysfunctional health system, hospitals that provide slow and often mediocre care, and increasing concerns that, with the ageing of Canada's population, the whole system may be approaching overload and collapse.

  So they are turning to the government for answers. Unfortunately, it's the wrong level of government.

  According to the Constitution Act, 1867, these areas are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces: education, and health.

  As such, the federal government has no role in these areas except for what is allowed it by the provinces.

  This means two things.

  First, Mr. Ignatieff is meddling in provincial affairs with his 'education passport', which has already drawn some fire from the provinces.

  Granted, most of it has come from the government of Quebec, which would complain if a drowning resident were thrown a federal life preserver instead of a provincial one.

  But there are legitimate reasons for the separation of responsibilities which make such jurisdictional adventurism troublesome.

  These centre on the matter of confusion. If there is no clear distinction of responsibility, then there is the problem of holding the appropriate authorities responsible, and different levels of government could, and likely will, end up stepping on each other, and wasting tax dollars.

  Second, those who are complaining about health care during the election are barking up the wrong jurisdictional tree.

All the federal government does is fork over tax money to the provinces, who are then responsible for how the money is spent.

  The current funding system is based on the Kelowna Accord, signed by the provinces and (then) Prime Minister Paul Martin. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already said he will maintain funding based on the accord (which gives a six per cent increase every year to the provinces, an impossible to maintain growth rate over even the medium term) even after it expires, making that issue largely irrelevant in the context of the current election.

  Rather, let's lay the blame for the current health care mess where it belongs — with the provincial Liberal (McGuinty) government.

  This is a government which, rather than focusing on front line care, instead created the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) — a make-work program for expensive bureaucrats, and probably the most egregious contributor (in terms of lack of bang for the buck) to the Sunshine List (government employees making $100,000 or more).

  When a system has become as bloated and inefficient as Ontario's health system has, the idea of adding another level of pure bureaucracy is idiocy. And that is just what the McGuinty government, including our own MPP and provincial minister, Leona Dombrowsky, did.

  So if you want to complain about defence, foreign relations, or the postal system, complain to the federal government.

  But for health care, lay the blame where it properly belongs: Dalton McGuinty and Leona Dombrowsky.