Laurie in Question Period
Regional Health Authority Budgets
Alberta Hansard November 22, 2007
Questions asked in the 26th Legislature of Alberta, 3rd Session by Ms. Laurie Blakeman, Alberta Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Centre, Shadow Cabinet Minister for Health and Wellness
Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The July 2007 contract agreement between the United Nurses of Alberta and the health regions resulted in a 7.7 per cent salary increase for nurses. The minister has refused to provide additional funding to the health regions to offset this increase. My question is to the minister of health. The regions are now forced to choose between cutting programs and services or going into deficit. What should they choose?
Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, by law they’re not able to go into deficit, so they should choose to follow the law, as any prudent board would do. But it should be mentioned that the regional health authorities, working together, negotiate the agreement, so they obviously would have known what impact the agreement would have on their budgets when they signed the agreement and so would have prudently planned for that eventuality.
Ms Blakeman: I think the minister left the health regions in a very bad position. Is the minister going to give the regions any direction on what programs he deems expendable that they can cut?
Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, if I was going to tell the regional health authorities what programs they would cut, what purpose would I have in having a regional health authority at all? I would just run it directly. They’re the ones that are on the ground in their regions, determining what the priorities are for the region, what the priorities are for the investment of the resources that they get. But I would point out that a significant amount of the $ 12 billion budget that this province spends on health care goes to direct service delivery through the regional health authorities. They have signifi-cant budgets, and they have to allocate those budgets in accordance with the needs in their region.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Ms Blakeman: Thank you. Again to the minister: why is the minister avoiding accountability by forcing the regions to make the difficult and, most likely, unpopular decisions about cutting services?
Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, the last thing on earth that I’m trying to do is avoid accountability. I expect that I will be roundly roasted by that very member when we get into debating Bill 41 and Bill 48, which set up an accountability structure which brings it right back to the government with respect to having the tools to serve account-ably to Albertans and deal with the resources we need. The fact of the matter is that we have a complex health system. We have nine health regions that deliver within the context of a provincial health policy framework. Their job is to take the resources that are allocated to them and to allocate those resources in the best interests of their region, providing the services that are needed in their region. They have large budgets, and, yes, we can always use more. But part of the role of governance, whether you’re at this level or at their level, is to allocate resources in accordance with priorities.
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