Let me not go through Simard's vision of health, let me just say that her vision was a paper vision, a vision enforced by legislation, and a vision executed autocratically by our government, our bureaucracy and our Tin Pot dictators of any political colour and business affiliation. The main paper goal of Simard's vision was to give back the responsibility for our health to our communities through the formation of health districts; instead, our health has been dictated more than ever from the ivory towers of the government and of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO). Simard's vision was put in paper because our leaders didn't have any vision, the only vision they have is not for building healthier communities but to supposedly save money and constrain our freedom to build healthier communities.

This is the paradox of our leaders, they put on paper our vision because they cannot express it with their walks, with their talks, with their hearts, and with their actions. Our leaders don't have a vision, their main objective is to save money against creating wealth, to build a Synchrotron rather than provide needed education for our children, to create additional layers of bureaucracy rather than furthering our imagination for working more creatively, to downsize people rather than assisting their families, to increase the wealth of our global corporations rather than diversify our economy. In short, our inept leaders are not working for building healthier communities, they work with the numbers provided by the research work of our bean counters, statisticians, economists, academicians and other eminent Big Brains; and in doing so they have created a world for the few and privileged, a world where people are divided, alienated and unable to express themselves.

This government is not pursuing the democratic goal to enrich our communities and create wealth. This government has the overall drive to save money at any cost because they have no imagination, their Big Brains are so full of numbers that these numbers spill all over the place, on TV, on the radio, even in the bedrooms of our politicians. I tell you something, all these numbers should be flushed out into our sewage system so that our Big Brains can start thinking again and make sense of whatever they say.

I have followed the later discussions about the regionalization or amalgamation of local governments(2) and I have read the recent article "SARM critic merits attention(3)" by Murray Mandryk. In this article, Mandryk refers to the brief submitted by Fred Sutter to the Garcea's panel on municipal renewal, and he tosses so many numbers to make your brain spin. All these numbers centre on a municipal model that combines nine Rural Municipalities (RMs) and six villages in southwest Saskatchewan. Again, the bottom line for describing this municipal model is not for creating wealth and healthier communities but for saving money.

Now we know how the Wellness model worked for health care, it worked so well that the government turned health care to a gambling casino(4). Do we really want another casino in Saskatchewan and legislate the new Municipal model of government? Yes, but only yes "IF the people directly involved decide that is what they want to do! IF local citizens feel comfortable with all forms of government moving further away from them... IF we heard the government had been lobbied by our local councillors to force amalgamation of RMs(5)" With this government there is no IF, just a bunch of statistical numbers spin-doctored by our consulting experts. This is not democracy, this is not building healthier communities, and this is not saving money either Honourable Premier Romanow!

Endnotes

Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News

1. A Saskatchewan Vision for Health, The Honourable Louise Simard, Minister of Health, Saskatchewan Health, August 1992

2. Replace local government with economic regions: report, CBC Saskatchewan,http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Mar 20 2000 8:46 PM

3. SARM critic merits attention, by Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix, March 15, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

4. Pat Atkinson: raising the finger and turning healthcare to a gambling casino, by Mario deSantis, February 3, 2000

5. Government Is Putting It's Agenda Forward, by Edwin Wallace, January 29, 2000