The Future of Medicare in Canada

A lot of speculation has been put into the way that Harper is going to deal with the upcoming healthcare accord. If there is one thing we know, he won’t make a repeat of Paul Martin, he won’t make each province sign a separate deal (which is what most commentators thought he would so) and he won’t make a big summit where everyone must agree to one blueprint (like what Paul Martin did). However, despite, however Harper approaches this, there is one certainty: a new approach to healthcare will be taken – and frankly must be taken.

 

If you want to know where the NDP stand, you can just look at their cheque book and the trees in their backyard that apparently grow the money of the world. Yes, they would throw money at the problem – but if the system is inefficient and broken, wouldn’t throwing more money at it waste more money in a system and get little to no results? As for the Liberals, I guess they’ll figure that out in January – I’d be surprised if they sided with the NDP and I would be surprised if they advocated private healthcare. It is safe to say that the Liberals will likely take the middle ground on this front and say that we should find efficiency and that we should be inspiring innovations in the system – which would be a smart move on their part. But now and days, the Liberal positions on things are vague and until January, I personally doubt that they will have a viable direction that can be pitched to Canadians and that can be implemented.

 

Canada’s healthcare system is facing a real dilemma. Doctors are going south of the border because the pay is better. Existing doctors are already too few for the demand. With the next wave of retirement, the system will be come costly and overburdened.

 

Many questions surface with very few answers. Where will we find the needed doctors? How are we going to fund Medicare? What strategies will we take to try to fight off its recent problems? What strategies are we going to take to fight off its future problems – which could very well put it in its grave.

 

The Conservatives have indicated that they will continue the 6% more per year expenditures but have indicated that in 5 years, they want to go in a direction of cuts. Note that if they cut out the right parts, they will get a smaller equivalent of what we currently have – which somewhat solves the question of costing. However, it depends what they intend to cut and how they intend to cut it.

 

If they trim bureaucracy and administrative fat in hospitals, that could be a very wise move, but if they start cutting services and mechanisms that were put in place to aid the poor, then you result in an expensive, public, version of the American system which has failed the poor and has crippled families who can’t afford health insurance. While one can argue that people don’t generally often need to see the doctor, but the day they do – say for an accident, if their insurance fails, or if they simply cannot afford it, then the healthcare system alone is a cause for poverty and great loss.

 

There is another route that Canada can take, but it means that every Canadian would have to open their wallets. In Nova Scotia, there was a call for a tax increase to fund an expansion to healthcare. Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians says that health care coverage should be broadened to include pharmacare, continuing care and dental care. Barlow also called the Canada Health Act to be enforced on private healthcare firms. The Council of Canadians wasn’t alone, the Canadian Health Professionals Coalition said that the state of our healthcare is due to reduced government revenue and not inflating cost in healthcare.

 

Another group is looking at prevention. For example, some diabetes patients who lose limbs due to poor circulation and gangrene can avoid the treatment of ulcers ($30,000 to $60,000 per patient), and amputation below the knee (Under $50,000 per patient) with simple tests that prevent these patients from going through the expensive diagnosis for nothing.

 

If we continue on the current track, healthcare will consume 80% of provincial budgets by 2030 and risks causing implosion on the system – in other words: it is getting to big to sustain – and the repercussions could be painful to both patients and tax payers.

 

Now, there is a lot of debate and there are a lot of ideas floating around, but I want to point your attention to something pin particular: If the federal government can fund jet planes, jails, a G8 summit, hospitality, free plane rides, photo-ops, new senators, new MPs, increased bureaucracy, and a list that would take multiple articles to write, then why can’t they afford healthcare? It is a matter of misguided priorities and waste of tax payer’s money. The economy and healthcare are trending on top of Canadians’ minds but none of what I listed helps either.

 

So the question now becomes: Why can’t the government trim that fat and transfer resources to the ailing healthcare system? Of course, putting the money into the system could only be done after the system itself is reformed and re-inspired to ensure that it offers unmatchable, quality service at the lowest possible cost to the public purse.

 

Ottawa currently spends $27 billion on healthcare and transfers $58 billion to provinces which account to 19% of provincial revenues and is only a fraction of its cost. If Healthcare were made more efficient and if it were engineered to be user-oriented and user-friendly, perhaps it would not only cost less, but it would be designed to take on the pressures of the upcoming demographic crisis.

 

If government cut the other waste, it could be split into tax cuts for the lower and middle class and future infrastructure projects that are strategically envisioned to improve society and reduce the cost of future maintenance and running costs. If government realized a list of priorities that met Canadians’ needs and spent no more than necessary, we could have better and more fine-tuned services. We could also consider online services and management tools that are available to all Canadian citizens which could reduce wait times, and cut expenses in the long run by being able to do more in less time and being able to foresee everything clearly and commit less waste.

 

Side Note: In London, Ontario, there was hospital that spent millions out of the public purse to create a new wing. This would normally mean more doctors and more beds and more equipment. Instead, the wing was dedicated to new administrative offices.

 

So now I leave the question to you: What is the best approach to healthcare reform in Canada? Do you agree with any of the debated approaches? Where do you stand? This is your country. You can comment below or join The Canadian Political Scene on Facebook and post your opinion to the wall. (Note that profanity won’t be tolerated)

Conservative Misspending on G8/G20 Summit Revealed; Brace Yourselves

You can throw efficiency, accountability, prudent management and logic out the window with the current Conservative government. Instead of doing the right thing and cutting down on their fat, they unnecessarily increased it and are continuing to increase it as we speak. But that is not all. Parts of Tony Clements’s ‘accountable’ spending in his riding is being exposed and it most certainly will get ugly.

 

Who here is fed up of watching governments scream austerity and prudent management that hurts people while they keep their luxurious conditions in tact? I am. I believe that government should incur cuts to be more efficient and to ensure that the money that we collectively pay for the services we want go directly to the services we want.

 

Here we have a Conservative government that is so obsessed with power and feels so much of a monopoly that they are continuing to distance themselves with financial and political reality.

 

While the media won’t remind you of or make a big deal of the G20 spending, rest assured that I represent the rest of us who care about how our tax money is spent.

 

Here are the expenses that we all collectively paid:

• $1,600 to remove a bed
• $500 to remove a light fixture
• $3,000 to raise the largest chandelier
• $1,450 to move furniture between rooms
• $1,650 to move a king-sized bed and headboard
• $8.2 million for food, beverage and accommodation
• $95,000 to renovate office spaces
• $33,617 for anew computer room
• $30,386 for additional wall panels
• $1,650 for bathroom amenities
• $5,662 on data and phone cabling
• $4,654 on door locks
• $7,650 for ducts and exhaust fans in leaders’ lounge
• $780 for floral refrigerator
• $1.1 million to renovate delegation accommodations
• $700,000 for creation of meeting rooms and a media center

 

It appears that we have been taken for a $2 million ride. Why would you need to pay $1,600 to remove a bed? Why do you think you are entitled to luxuries? Why do you come back to us and tell us you have no money when you could easily afford this?

 

This is what could be forked out of barely documented expenditures and if the rest of Clement’s bills look anything like this, he needs to be fired before he lands this country into bankruptcy.

 

What a waste of money. Welcome to Conservative Canada.

Canada’s Political Scene: Filled with Irony

The state of our country and the state of our government can be described flawlessly with irony.

It is ironic how the Conservatives won the 2006 election by labeling the Liberals as corrupt and then have the nerve to take air rides and waste our money on a G20 summit – which was entirely for their own use and not for the public.

It is ironic how the Conservatives claim to be accountable while refusing to answer to Canadians and actively try to restrict democracy. Not to mention Harper’s egotistical attempt to name the Government of Canada after himself – as if he is the king or dictator of this country, its people and its affairs.

It is ironic how the Liberals were pinned as “tax and spend” during the last election while the Conservatives promised more financial restraint. As we speak, the Conservatives have upped government spending by 22% while the previous decade of Liberal governments cut spending. During the Mulroney Conservative government, the GST was introduced, the Liberals did not touch it and the governing Conservatives taxed income trust and taxed EI Premiums – effectively making hiring and retirement more expensive.

It is ironic how Stephen Harper once advocated democratic reform, and reduced government size and then slapped each and every one of us with the bill for his new senators, inflated cabinet, and inflating bureaucracy – not to mention all his bills for hospitality and the bill of the G20 summit alone. Is Canada really more democratic?

It is ironic how the Conservatives claim to be “tough on crime” while they have had 4 of their senior members how nearly faced jail time for election fraud.

It is ironic how the NDP (radical left) claimed to oppose the Conservatives (radical right) but not only took pride in working with them, but also squarely focused their attacks on the Liberals (relatively centrist) in the May 2011 election which gave the Conservatives a clear road to a majority government. (As seen in the picture)

It is ironic how the NDP have promised to fix Ottawa and then slapped every Canadian in the face with the most uncivil behavior seen yet.

It is ironic how the NDP claim that they aim to do the right thing when they tried to use the late Jack Layton’s death as a fundraising opportunity – which broke Election Canada rules. Layton died and they use his death as an opportunity to try to make money for the party? That is shallow, disrespectful and distasteful. They should be ashamed of themselves.

It is ironic how the NDP claim to be good for the economy when they have repeated time and time again that they would attack the very institutions that ensure that Canada’s economy doesn’t collapse. In comparison to the rest of the world, despite Harper’s mismanagement, no Canadian  bank has failed or required bailout. If Harper wouldn’t have made reckless decisions over the past 5 years, Canada may have been the country with the proud title of being the only country to not go into recession and not one with the biggest deficit in its history.

It is ironic how the NDP claim that a grand nationalization scheme will bring jobs and money back to Canadians. The reason for which the world entered globalization was to reduce the price of every item (including food) that you buy today and essentially make life more affordable. If the pair of pants that you were wearing today were made in Canada, they would cost several hundred dollars because let’s face it, who will pay a Canadian less than minimum wage to make them to be this cheap? And let’s face it, how will Canada’s existing payrolls make things more affordable? Increase the wages and you increase the price because everything is made in Canada.

It is ironic how the NDP say they support Canadians in this aspect while failing to realize the important repercussions of their reckless manners. While globalization has arguably gotten out of control and started to favor a small few, we must recognize that each and everyone of us would fall to the hands of poverty without it. It is ironic how something so radical that is suppose to help Canadians can be such a pitfall at the same time.

The negatives of our system are the result of mismanagement. It is the day when government took away its trust from Canadians and parents, became selfish, greedy and power hungry, decided to hold people to account instead of holding itself accountable to the people that our fine system had slowly started to dissipate.

We must also acknowledge that nothing in life is perfect. But in a system where everyone had their freedoms and had the opportunity to become what they wanted to become, you must admit that in comparison to everyone else, we have it pretty good. To live in a country where ethnicity is irrelevant and to live in a country where you are part of a family and not part of a militancy is something to honor.

Right now, Canada is being governed by the extreme right at the wheel and extreme left in the front passenger seat. With both arguing about each other’s driving skills and with both fighting for control of the wheel, the car, Canada, will crash. It is by far the worst thing that could have happened to Canada. Extremes are never good for a country, or in any part in life. It is and always have been the extremes that divide and damage  as they build their goals through beliefs and ideology and not facts and reason, as they divide instead of unite.

What has this political realm come to? It is sad folks.

To each of my loyal readers, I thank you for your support as I report and comment on things by the way I see them and not the way that monopolized media has. I doubt that any of the media stations you watch or listen to, or read, will ever have the guts to say what I have previously said. Honestly, this reflects how modern-day journalists have failed to question, criticize, and uncover the day’s  events. Whether it be due to government censorship, pure laziness, or political agenda, it is appalling that the questions that I raise are not raised by media itself. But, my fellow Canadians, this is the point of blogs and this blog in particular. This blog isn’t as much a news site as a place to start discussions and interpret the day’s political news and I invite you to stay tuned! The controversy starts here.

Commons Theater, A Production fresh out of College

The NDP have added life to the House of Commons on Thursday as they exchanged an array of literature with their Conservative counterparts. After promising to make Ottawa a more civil place, senior NDP MP Pat Martin took it to himself to send F-bombs to all of his opponents and the junior elites have been suggesting books from the “For Dummies Series.”

 

If you missed the show, here’s how it went. Caution: The following remarks may remind you of your college days!

 

“Out of compassion for my fellow parliamentarians,” Natural Resources Minister (Team Conservative) Joe Oliver grumbled at the New Democrats, “I recommend the book called ‘Economics for Dummies.’ ”

 

“Mr. Speaker, since we are trading literary recommendations today, I hear there is a new publication called ‘Buying Jets for Dummies,’ ” Matthew Kellaway (Team NDP) smirked on the subject of the F-35 purchase. “Let me recommend that to the Associate Minister of National Defense (Julian Fantino from Team Conservative).”

 

“Mr. Speaker, maybe the honorable member could lend me his book,” Julian Fantino shot back. [Burn!!!]

 

“Mr. Speaker, since we are talking about books, I also have a book to recommend,” Francoise Boivin (Team NDP) said. “It is called ‘Democracy for Dummies.’ ”

 

Then John McCallum (Team Liberal) attacked Peter Van Loan (Team Conservative). “Does he want to borrow a book that I just acquired called ‘Flying Challenger Jets for Dummies?’ ”

 

So far the tally is Team Conservative: 2, Team NDP: 2, Team Liberal: 1.

 

Then came some more fireworks. As Team Conservative’s James Moore was about to bring the point for the home team, he added one clause that gave Team NDP the death grip that they wanted.

 

“Mr. Speaker, what an astonishing double standard by the NDP,” he gasped. “The President of the Treasury Board and the former minister of infrastructure appeared before a parliamentary committee and testified with regard to this matter. All the member for Peterborough is doing is saying that the CBC should be accountable before committee.”

 

This would have given Team Conservative the win, but he wasn’t finished yet!

 

“All we are saying,” he said, “is that the CBC should be elevated to the same level of accountability and responsibility as the President of the Treasury Board has already demonstrated.” [FAIL!!!]

 

From that point on, Team NDP had a field day.

 

Final Stats: Team NDP: 3, Team Conservative: 2, Team Liberal: 1.

 

All the while, the Liberals got their act to improve drinking water for Aboriginals passed and NDP Pat Martin dropped the F-bomb on Twitter! If you have young ones near you, cover their eyes!

 

 

"This is a f------ disgrace...closure again. And on the Budget! There's not a democracy in the world that would tolerate this jackboot sh—," Pat Martin (Team NDP) tweeted. Martin has no intention of apologizing either.

 

But it didn’t end there! Followers who criticized the post either got "F--- off" or "Eat my shorts."

 

"Nope. Not hacked. Just truly pissed off...you should have seen them last night laughing and joking in their smug ignorance," he explained on Twitter, referring to Conservative MPs' behavior in Commons.

 

He also refused to delete these tweets and all of the events that transpired that day prove that the NDP are uneducated and unprofessional. Welcome to Commons Theater, a Production fresh out of the College Dorm room.

 

Leader Turmel, who was like a mouse in all this, sent a statement to CTV saying:

 

"His language was not appropriate and could have been offensive to some," Turmel said in the statement. "That said, the Conservatives' actions are not appropriate in a democracy and offensive to all Canadians."

 

After taking responsibility for her party’s actions, she played the blame game… Typical politics.

 

Final Score: Team NDP: 5, Team Conservative: 2, Team Liberal: 1. What a day it was. What ever happened to fixing Ottawa?

The Call for Smaller and More Efficient Government

The Liberal rebuilding process will be an interesting one to watch. While media commentators have written them off, membership has soared. In my riding, which went from Bloc Quebecois to NDP the last time around, the Liberals had the second biggest burst of membership in the country and doubled what they had before – with more people coming in.

 

While the media have started to take sides between the NDP and Conservatives, the Liberals are in the process of rebuilding and they are getting new faces and new initiatives. One of these initiatives is smaller government. While to most, this may sound very surprising as it is the Liberals who built the bureaucratic empire that we have today, they are actually now looking at reducing its size, reforming the tax protocol to relieve people of the tax burden and work toward making our systems more efficient – at least, this is what Bob Rae and multiple insiders have been saying thus far. In January, there will be a Liberal convention and I will be taking part and I will be watching and lobbying for these things.

 

It is no secret that the Conservatives increased government spending by 22% and it is no secret that the NDP would bankrupt this country by the end of the first quarter of its mandate but it is great to hear the Liberals are taking a new direction that favors a more realistic and efficient approach to government.

 

The Conservatives recently released a redistribution plan to add 30 more MPs to the House of Commons, an endeavor that would increase the size of government further as they added enough senators to get a solid majority earlier on in their mandate. The graphic below from the Globe and Mail best describes the Conservative seat redistribution plan.

 

 

The Liberals are slamming the Conservatives’ current plan due to its cost. They estimate that this current move will add $14.8 million to $18.2 million dollars to the tax payer’s bill per year and that every election would cost $11.5 million more. In a time of fiscal restraint, the Conservatives like to use the word ‘prudent’ as they waste money left, right and center. The current seat distribution is unbalanced, but instead of adding more seats, the wise thing to do would be to either remove or rearrange existing seats to make the numbers work.

 

The Liberals would takes some seats away from certain provinces and redistribute them in other provinces that are experiencing under-representation. In a plan presented by Marc Garneau and Stephane Dion, Quebec would lose 3 seats, Manitoba and Saskatchewan would each lose 2 seats and Newfoundland and Nova Scotia would lose a seat each. The Liberals would then redistribute these seats to give Ontario 4, British Columbia 2, and Alberta 3. This formula would adhere to the rule that no province can have fewer seats than what they have in the senate.

 

The Canadian constitution states that no province can have fewer seats than they did in 1985 but the Liberals state that these rules can be changed without having to get the support of 7 provinces representing 50% of the population due to section 44 of the 1982 Constitution Act.

 

The Liberal plan would have no net change in the cost of MPs annually or in election campaigns. While this is much better than what the Conservatives were offering, I would go further and reform the electoral system to make sure that every vote counts and then look toward drastic reductions to the size of federal legislature.

 

The Conservatives cited these previous rules as their reason to add seats instead of taking them away. 

 

Meanwhile, the NDP favor the seat additions, but are complaining that 3 seats for Quebec isn’t enough. They would prefer to keep the Quebec seat distribution at 24.35% and thus give Quebec 7 more seats. Regardless, the Conservatives armed with a majority ignored the NDP call for more Quebec seats.

 

In conclusion, don’t look to the NDP or the Conservatives to be prudent financers with our money as they both support big government and have both demonstrated it on numerous occasions. It is time that government reduced its size of legislature and started to cut into its complex webs of fat that we call bureaucracy and it is time that Canada became a more efficient and flexible country fiscally and it is nice to see that the Liberals are starting to take the initiative.

Conservative Fined for Breaking Election Rules

It appears the ‘tough on crime’ Conservatives aren’t as worthy of that title as we think. In an ongoing dispute with Elections Canada, the Conservatives pleased guilty to lessen the consequences of their guilty individuals who would have faced jail time for Electoral Fraud.

 

In exchange for dropped charges against 4 of its senior officials, the Conservatives pleaded guilty and accepted a $52,000 fine for breaking election rules when it exceeded the spending limit and failing to document all of its expenses for the 2006 election campaign. As a result, more serious charges against the party and its fundraising arm have been dropped.

 

The four senior members who got the lucky break for breaking the law were:

• Senator Doug Finley, the party's former campaign director
• Senator Irving Gerstein, head of the Conservative Fund and chief fundraiser for the party
• Michael Donison, the former national party director
• Susan Kehoe, who served as the party's interim executive director.

 

The prosecutor asked for the maximum penalty of a $50,000 fine to the party and a $2,000 fine to the fund. The Conservatives have 30 days to pay.

 

The Tories declared victory and acted as if nothing happened.

 

"This is a big victory for the Conservative Party of Canada," Fred DeLorey, the party's director of communications, said in a written statement. "Every single Conservative accused of wrongdoing has been cleared today."

 

It is laughable to see a ‘tough on crime’ Tory government who can’t even follow election rules – and the worst part is, they seem to be proud of it too.

Conservative Economic Record Gets Slammed

Liberal Interim Leader Bob Rae slammed the Tory’s recent financial statement and offered up his own recipe to fixing Canada’s ailing economy.

With no surprise, the budget won’t be balanced on time and seeing how “prudent” the Conservatives are, they may even go into the next election with a deficit. Not only are the Conservatives wasting our money on its ominous crime bill and new prisons, its plan to buy 65 F-35s with an untendered contract, the previous G20 summit, their plane rides and hospitality, and all those Government of Canada ads on TV – not to mention the huge campaign for its failed “economic Action Plan,” it has significantly increased the size of government and has significantly reduced the amount of efficiency in our services. With all those new senate appointments and a plan to make the senate a costly new elected house, along with the addition of 30 new MPs and a slew of bureaucrats, the Conservatives have broken the traditional Conservative rhetoric of reducing Government size  - rhetoric that Canada really needs right about now…

"We have to come back and say to Mr. Flaherty, 'If you want to be taken seriously as a manager of the economy, you're going to have to deal with the waste in your government.' We are certainly going to be focusing more and more of our attention on how wasteful some of their spending is and how it's not productive," Rae said.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives plan to tax job creators  by raising Employment Insurance Premiums for employees and employers which will make hiring more expensive and less attractive by January 1, 2012. The media are saying that Flaherty is saving Canadians $500 million in taxes for deciding to raise it by half of what he had initially announced. Essentially, Canadians are saving millions because instead of raising EI premiums to 10 cents per 100 for employees and 14 cents per 100 for employers, Flaherty is only raising the premiums by 5 cents per 100 for employees and 7 cents for employers? Some of these journalists need to learn the facts and end their love affair with the Tories.

The Liberals under Bob Rae are demanding an outright freeze on Employment Insurance Premiums.

"This is the wrong time to be raising direct taxes on jobs," said Rae. "A premium is a tax and payroll taxes discourage hiring. The additional burden of $600 million on businesses is coming just as the economy is slowing down. We still think the Conservatives should change course even further."

Rae stated that he would look to job growth, investment in infrastructure and a simpler tax code to fix the economy, stating that cuts and austerity alone won’t fix the economy as the economy isn’t growing which is the assumption that was made when Flaherty and the Conservatives decided to pay a private firm to help them figure out how to implement austerity. He also signaled that new approaches to education, healthcare, transit , poverty, innovation and greening would be necessary for economic renewal.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives attacked back and used Rae’s past as an NDP premier in Ontario to hold him to the wall. "Rae's economic mismanagement was a complete disaster for workers and taxpayers," Ted Menzies said, adding that Rae continues to pursue policies that would "kill jobs" and raise taxes.

The Parliamentary Budget Watchdog has also taken a swing at the Tory’s economic plan saying that it is “unrealistic” in the wake of the upcoming global downturn. Flaherty based his entire budget assumptions on 2.1% growth while Page projects growth to be as sluggish as 1.5%. If this is the case, government revenue will drop $50 billion than predicted annually. Based on this, in 2014-2015, Ottawa will be in an $18.7-billion hole.

A balanced approach is what is needed to fix the economy and neither the Conservatives or NDP can come up with something that will truly work. The Conservatives will fund their inner circle and bureaucracy while starving public services and regular individuals. Meanwhile, the NDP will embark on the biggest tax and spend avenue that this country has ever seen and when they realize that raising taxes will ultimately backfire, this country will be in a deeper hole than it was with the Conservatives.

Had the NDP come to power in May, Canada would be engaged with over $76 billion in new spending with taxes to every corporation and wealthy person in the country. While these new taxes would bring in a great new revenue from the top 1%, its sustainability would be shaky as these companies and persons will leave to more tax-friendly countries in the world. When this happens, the revenue will decrease and the NDP will be left with no other option than to tax us all directly. When that doesn’t bring in the desired revenue, and people overwhelmingly reject the tax burden, Canada will find itself in a very deep and unforgiving pit.

The best way to fix the economy is to make it more sustainable and more efficient. Efficiency doesn’t have to mean cuts, it just means that we should be getting more for the value of the money that we input, which currently, we don’t. It means that old Computer systems which run software as old and vulnerable to security threats as Windows 98 would have to be updated to the newest and most productive technologies. It means making sure that services in Canada have the tools they need to get the job done and it means cutting the unnecessary fat that has been added by the Conservatives and their friends.

This will also mean reforms in our education systems and healthcare systems to make them more accessible and more tailored to modernizing needs as without them, society and the economy will crumble in the wake of a drastically changing world that puts modernized countries like Canada at the bottom of the food chain if they continue to put greed and inefficiency ahead of innovation and value.