The Wellness Centre federal funding debate covered in the pages of the Journal since February is finally over. Local politicians have made much on the role the federal government should play in funding the Wellness Centre, and much of that has completely missed the point. The request for federal money for a local health care project is not just a request for money, it’s a request to change the way this great country is governed.
The Journal fully supports the building of the Wellness Centre and recognizes the urgent need for such a facility. We commend the efforts made by local councils to fill the needs of the community. But we also recognize the need for healthy debate based recognition of the proper jurisdictional responsibilities of respective governments.
The public debate began with a provincial government announcement of $2.5 million from the taxpayers of Alberta to build the municipally owned health facility in February. In the same Journal article as the funding announcement, Minister of Infrastructure Ray Danyluk said he thinks there is a responsibility for “all forms of government” to contribute. It’s fine and prudent to ask the federal government and to explore any and all options for funding, but to demand the local MP come up with something no other MP has done anywhere else is quite the tall order.
The province is responsible for health care. Period.
The debate continued in the form of letters to the editor from Danyluk and Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw, and more recently in an article where Town of St. Paul councillor Trevor Kotowich asked for an update at a council meeting on the status of the request for federal funding. The P3 application was denied because health care is not included in the list of categories eligible for federal infrastructure funding, a confirmation most should have suspected and which the Town and County received in June.
The federal government is responsible for providing health transfer payments, which as Danyluk said in a letter published in the Journal, are less in Alberta than the rest of Canada. This needs to be changed to treat Alberta fairly and the federal government has committed to moving to a per capita system by 2013. It can be argued that it is not fast enough, but it cannot be said that St. Paul is entitled to federal dollars for a clinic that no other municipality in Canada will receive. If the federal transfers were the crux of the debate, then waiting till 2013 would also solve the problem as the province would possibly have more money to contribute at that time.
Another argument that the feds should pay because many First Nations access health care in St. Paul does not hold water because no First Nations leaders have come forward to support the proposal. Further, the feds would have to do a thorough cost analysis of what it would cost to fund every new off-reserve clinic that aboriginals use because if it funded one, it would only be right to pay up for all. The cost would be extraordinary and only further muddy the distinction between federal and provincial jurisdictions.
The insistence on federal funding support is misplaced and has caused confusion in the community on just what Ottawa’s role in health care is. If we start mixing up just who is responsible for what, the result could be much worse than scrounging around for that elusive $1.8 million. One source of possible funding has been absent from the drawing room tables, private funds. With federal funds off the table, it’s either up to the Town, County or the province to fill the gap or to the committee to find private sources to join the effort.
