By Mario deSantis, March 5, 2000

Thursday night I checked the news releases of the Saskatchewan government and I found to my dismay the news that the Minister of Health has all at once approved 11 (eleven) budgets for the year April 1/1999 to March 31/2000(1). I don't know what happened to the budgets of the other twenty-one districts, but think how this same government who expects its citizens to comply with the rule of law is breaking the law it makes.

The Provincial Auditor has reported consistently throughout the years that the districts are not complying fully with section 35(2) of The Health District Act(2). This section of the act includes the requirements that districts report relevant financial information to the Minister, such as annual operating plans, three year strategic plans, and ongoing operational reports to compare actual versus budgeted figures.

Now, how in the world can those eleven districts provide operating performance measures to the Minister if this same Minister approves the budgets in the same month when the fiscal year end? And what happened to the other twenty-one districts? Did they have their budgets approved or their 1999-2000 budgets are going to be approved in the fiscal year 2000-2001?

Pat Atkinson has driven health care to a gambling casino(3), and now she adds a touch of her magic by asking the districts to retroactively report their operational performance for the previous fiscal year. Pat Atkinson has no vision for health care(4), she has certainly no strategic plans for the districts; I thought she was able to manage numbers, but no, she cannot add numbers either(5), so she has been promoted to the level of a magician as she and our other magician, Premier Roy Romanow(6), take the role of the Canadian saviours of Medicare and begin preaching the gospel that health care is underfunded(7). The voice of our socialist Medicare Saviours has been heard by CUPE members and demonstrations to save Medicare are going to take place across Canada(8).

Endnotes

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

1. Government News Release, Health - 86, March 3, 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/archive.html

2. Report of the Provincial Auditor, 1999 Fall Report, Volume 2, pages 50-51, http://www.auditor.sk.ca

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

4. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 2. What happened to the Saskatchewan Vision for Health?, by Mario deSantis, October 22, 1998

5. The closure of the Plains Health Centre: The $50 million overrun and the gimmick of saving money in health care, by Mario deSantis, December 19, 1999

6. Premier Romanow's Latest Magics: Shuffling Numbers & Mysterious Bank Account, by Mario deSantis, May 15, 1999

7. Atkinson pressing for "urgent" health meeting, CBC Saskatchewan. An excerpt: "...Pat Atkinson says the future of medicare is at stake. She says that federal spending on health is now so low, the system is becoming unsustainable..." http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Mar 3 2000 8:42 AM EST

8. Rally for health care. The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the health care system is in critical condition. CBC Saskatchewan http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Mar 3 2000 6:25 PM EST