Speculation continues to swirl around the prospects of the so-called ‘transformational change’ that provincial citizens have been forewarned about, that is just around the corner.
Citizens already know that health-care is one sector, for sure, that will be subjected to this change-up, whatever it becomes, since a panel has already been struck to wander out into the wilderness of Saskatchewan to garner information from those not already hunkered down in Saskatoon and Regina, to find out how we think and act when it comes to medical attention and health-care issues.
Health regions and their governing bodies could be in for major readjustments, just over a decade from the last major overhaul that has been carried out with mixed results.
The sprawling school divisions have also received tips they could be next on the transformational agenda.
As is always the case, the health regions and school divisions outside the two major cities, have been subjected to a variety of leadership traits and governance models, even though they have been instructed to follow the provincial government’s dedicated template. They can’t help but inject personalities into the governance equations.
Some regions and divisions have been fortunate to find good management and where thereby rewarded with records of efficiency. It doesn’t gather them any brownie points or increased financial rewards. But, it is helpful for the health-care and educational communities they serve, that the jobs are being done well.
Other jurisdictions haven’t been so fortunate.
Some jurisdictions enjoy strong administrations with good financial numbers but not-so-positive personnel results. Others are great with personnel but sloppy on the cash and numbers game.
On a few occasions, a region or division will get to enjoy leadership that displays both fiscal and human resources expertise. But, again, it doesn’t much matter on the political scale because those who do the job best, are not necessarily rewarded for jobs well done. They are simply told they are meeting expectations and to carry on.
Fairly soon, they will be an handed an edict to carry on in a new world order.
We expect that new order will be to create an even larger scope of health regions and school divisions and that is something we, in this corner, can’t easily wrap around in our minds.
We fear the larger these sectors become, that the layers of administration will become nearly unbearable.
Centralization in other industries, has proven to be troublesome on many fronts and the provincial government would be foolish to believe they could do it any better than the next guy. They can’t. There are no magical gurus or financial or administrative genies in the current provincial cabinet. It does, however, contain competence, and therefore, we trust that cooler heads will prevail.
What we don’t need in Saskatchewan are any more personal fiefdoms or miniature empires being built around even larger health regions and school divisions, especially in the more outer regions (those not close to Regina or Saskatoon) where the Regina and Saskatoon boys and girls involved in government ministries, fear to tread.
We definitely don’t need huge complexes that become “too big to fail,” because if they do get clumped into huge health and education kingdoms, rest assured, there will be failures and then what would the bailout packages require?
We humbly suggest that changes can be made and efficiencies sought, without making big regions even bigger. It would serve no purpose other than imposing change for the sake of change, because we can pretty well guarantee, bigger won’t translate into better and general public oversight would pretty well disappear.
That should not be allowed to happen in a transparent democracy.
