There should be little surprise Saskatchewan will now operate as essentially one large health region (the north still having some autonomy based on its unique issues).
When Health Minister Dustin Duncan announced last August the review of the province’s health authorities, appointing a three-person review panel, the task was laid out; to recommend a structure with fewer health regions.
There were some expecting Regina and Saskatoon to be separated out, and the rest of the province amalgamated into two, or maybe four regions, but the reality of just more than one million residents suggested one.
The government has never really afforded regional boards any real power. The government supplies almost every dollar of revenue to the regions. They set the levels of expected programming. And they sign the contracts which lay out the wages most staff receive.
So a single controlling entity makes sense.
That it took the Wall government until now, after being first elected to power in 2011, to come to such a conclusion might be questioned, but better late than never.
Of course that does not mean there are not pitfalls which need to be avoided for this to work.
There is an expectation of less administration, and that is a reasonable result to expect.
But, it could end up adding an over-arching layer of administration in Regina, and local regional admin getting shiny new positions but remaining to run things on the regional level.
There is also the question of people still having an avenue to effectively voice concerns.
Roof issues at the Invermay Health Centre, and emergency service issues in Preeceville the last couple of years have seen Sunrise Health Regional Board members and Administration visiting those communities for face-to-face talks with clients, local government and concerned citizens.
Will that contact remain as personal and immediate under a single health entity centred farther from most rural health facilities?
But let us assume the benefits which seem obvious to exit are managed, since to fall short would seem to be only possible if mismanaged, and not because expected savings failed to exist.
What then comes next?
Dan Perrins’ education governance review is already suggesting education will head down a similar path.
Perrins, who was tasked with the review on Nov. 15, put forward four options for reform in December — two that focus on redrawing school division boundaries, and two that are based on wide-scale amalgamation.
Education Minister Don Morgan has appointed a six-person panel to consider the report, but expect major amalgamation for reasons in-line with those of health.
Now if the Wall government is serious about reducing ‘government’ in Saskatchewan, they need to next look at municipal government. There are far too many urban and rural municipalities for the population in Saskatchewan today.
And what about the number of MLAs, do we require 61?
The simple answer is no.
Fourteen MPs serve the population on the federal level, so why do we require 61 MLAs?
Local MLA Greg Ottenbreit is regularly posting to social media to stay in touch with constituents in a direct and timely fashion. To his credit he is using modern tools that afford MLAs avenues to interact with people not available even a few decades ago.
There is no doubt Ottenebreit, as an example could reliably serve residents from the Manitoba border to Foam Lake, and Preeceville to Melville (again as an example).
If fewer is better, and it should be in terms of costs, (the Wall government appears convinced of that), then Wall and company should include municipal and provincial government in its reform plans.
