SASKATOON – They may not have a full slate of candidates heading into the provincial election, but Saskatchewan’s Progressive Conservative Party has some big ideas. Perhaps the biggest – axe the province’s 14 health regions.
“It’s time to give up on this 22 year old experiment that’s failed,” PC Leader Rick Swenson told Global News.
Swenson said when health regions were first debated more than 20 years ago, he opposed the idea. He predicted they would turn into large bureaucratic organizations that would eat up a lot of money.
“And that’s the way they’ve evolved,” said Swenson. “Look at the salaries of the vice-presidents and CEOs in these regions, and look how long it takes to get things done,” he said.
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Swenson maintains with health care eating up 40 per cent of the provincial budget, it’s important to make sure money on health is well spent.
And he claimed accountability is lacking in the current system.
“The problem now is that you’ll get the minister of health saying that’s the responsibility of the region, that’s not my responsibility, people go to the region for answers and they say, ‘oh no that’s the department of health’ and we play this silly little game,” said Swenson. ”Accountability means every dime through the legislature, being questioned, so that our priorities are right.”
He also took aim at the Global Transportation Hub on the outskirts of Regina, saying there are serious financial questions over some of the land deals involved.
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“What in the world is the Saskatchewan government paying $103,000 for an acre of land that they turned around and sold back to highways for less than 50?” asked Swenson, “which the appraiser said was only worth 35 … that math doesn’t add up to me.”
At the same time, the PC party is only fielding 18 candidates in this election, so they have no hope of forming government. Swenson says for this election, that’s not their goal.
“Our goal is to provide a good effective opposition, and I think one thing that’s been very apparent over the last four years is that we haven’t had that,” said Swenson.
“A good opposition means you’ll have a good government.”
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