Health
Care Symposium in Kelowna, Western Economic Development Summit, in
Vernon – will the community benefit?
Will the community benefit from these
events, or will the events bolster the positive and mask the
problems. The
positive is, the members of our society that make up the BC and
Canadian economy, are members of a democratic governed mixed
monetary economic system. We
all agree that we are privileged, if not, then those with experience
from an autocratic system, such as the former Soviet Union, will.
Systems
that fail to secure economic production, justice and fair
distribution of wealth in the community and subsequently social
satisfaction and quality of life,
will inevitably result in political instability and failure.
Not to forget, of course, the problems rest in basic economic
socio psychology, in other words - our unlimited human ambition,
urging us in different ways, while the reality is that the resources
and time to realize our aspiration is so limited and has potential
for alternative use. Then there is the conscience offending question
of how much concern the present should show for the coming
generations, and the even more nagging problem of the disparity in
the world.
Wherever
we live on earth, social satisfaction, good health, a good ecology
and political stability, depends on economic production.
The democratic governed mixed monetary economic system, as
Canada’s, has shown to be the system that best can secure economic
production and distribute wealth in the community and subsequently
secure social satisfaction and political stability.
Broadly,
in a mixed system as Canada’s, it is private sector’s task in
pursuit of profit invest in economic production. In Business, that
combines resources into product and service the consumer wants and
can afford to buy. In that process, distribute real income
throughout the community via employment rather than via social and
corporate welfare. Government’s
first and fundamental role and accountability to society, is to
monitor the allocation and pricing mechanism, and intervene before
“diseases” escalate into adversity - that, which hence, is not
and will never be the private sectors task.
Centralized
planning and more autocratic systems are more primitive and simple,
in that the political establishment decides the allocation of
resources and what to produce, not the consumer, and supporters can
be rewarded and the opposition oppressed.
A democratic governed mixed monetary and open economic
system, as Canada’s, is an extremely complex system.
Missing bits in a chemical formula or faulty codes in a
computer program will inevitably cause problems and crashes.
In
a mixed, economic system as Canada, faulty or missing bits in the
allocation and pricing mechanism or the allocation of resources
(incl., investment liquidity) into products and services, will cause
problems and crashes that cause social dissatisfaction. If the
system works, the result should be stern opposition where the voters
will in good democratic order demand that the political and
bureaucratic establishment correct the problems in the allocation
and pricing mechanism. If
not corrected, the economy will continue to deteriorate and hence,
so will social satisfaction, and ultimately the voter will react and
change the politicians that hire and fire the bureaucrats.
That
is what happened in 2001 in BC; fundamental problems in the
allocation and pricing mechanism was hampering the investment and
the liquidity flow in the economy, causing job losses, declining
real income and eroding the tax base, and creating social
dissatisfaction. The
voters reacted, and gave the new government the mandate to correct
the problem in the allocation and pricing mechanism.
Previous
BC governments failed in their monitoring, intervening, and
accountability to society, and failed to correct the problems.
Decades of old problems in the forest sector, - the reason for the
US countervailing actions the government doesn’t talk about - in
agriculture and healthcare are unsolved and allowed to escalate into
adversity, causing irreparable harm to society, and even
blackmailing society - problems that speak for themselves.
During
good times, the system failed to stimulate investment in research
and technology, adding value, and using fewer resources. During bad
times, industry expected government assistance and bailouts - also
the reason for US countervailing actions.
Interest
groups and non-profit corporations lined up to pursue tax transfers,
and those who tried to address the problems are out of favour.
The
government simply lacked modern monitoring and intervention methods,
and failed to analyze and detect the problems in the industry,
including issues in the government’s own policies.
Three levels of government are operating in the same local
economy without coordination. Both
industry and government seems to have been unaware of the real depth
of the market, financial, organizational and ecological issues
facing the industry.
In
health care, an aging population (including doctors and nurses),
gains in science, technology, and how we prevent and cure disease,
the organizational issues, excessive consumption and ever-rising
costs are not happening ‘out of the blue’.
Known for more than ten years, but left unsolved the issues
have become acute. Will
the thinking that caused the problems also be the thinking that will
solve them?
The
same concerns apply to the Community Future CFDC intervention
program, commenced in BC during 1986, and Western Economic
Diversification intervention in 1987.
The first CFDC program was launched in Prince Rupert, BC, the
area in BC that is facing the most severe impact of government
failure to meet its monitoring and intervening accountability, and
hence, was unaware or failed to recognize the faulty bits in the
system.
Since
then, in spite of these and other numerous provincial and federal
intervention and tax transfer program, decades of old problems in
the forest sector, fishery and healthcare, remain unsolved causing
adversity. It
is unclear if the present government recognizes these issues of
government monitoring and intervening accountability to society.
Adding to the doubt, is a recent occurrence as the interior
Health Region Authority’s recent decision to allocate and transfer
a further $9.3 million taxpayer dollars and more to follow, to a US
based company for a new Information System.
The
provincial government has the accountability to society for the
Health Region Authority’s decision. The concern is for the
procurement methods, and how this and similar tax transfers affect
BC and jobs and real income in the regional economy, that create
good health, and at the very least that the transfer should meet
constitutional standards; and reduce disparities in opportunities in
BC and the Okanagan.
What
is clear, is that excessive consumption of healthcare and wrong
investment decisions in IT and other areas is at the expense of the
economic and social factors, jobs and real income that create good
health. Residential
homes, tourism, and ski hills are important.
However, BC
and the Okanagan is
also in desperate need
of long-term investment
- not branch offices - in other sectors such as forests,
and advanced manufacturing that are critical for jobs and real
income growth in BC, and involves advanced IT technology, that
can also be utilized in healthcare and other sectors.
This is the type of strategic decision-making that is
governments task and is particular crucial
for BC’s rural communities.
Ultimately,
the concern is governments monitoring and intervening accountability
to society, to correct problems in the allocation and pricing
mechanism. That includes how the roughly plus $9 billion tax and
plus forty percent of the budget consumed in the BC healthcare
system is allocated. How
to reduce excessive spending and how spending in the healthcare
system for IT and other purposes, can promote long-term investment
in BC and the regional economy, thereby improving the factors that
create good health.
BC and
Canada has a lot to bolster, we should not forget failures such as
the fast ferries, forest sector, Forest Renewal BC, Western Star and
healthcare. By masking these issues there will be less to bolster
and more disparities in opportunities and hardship.
Will
the Health Care Symposium in Kelowna, Western Economic Development,
and the Summit in Vernon bolster the positive and recognize the
problems?
June
26, 2002
OISD
Inc.
Okanagan
Institute for Strategic Development
