A s health unions worry about the prospect of a wage freeze, the boss of Alberta Health Services is promising “far fewer difficult decisions” in the superboard’s $11-billion budget, which will be revealed today.
In a public board meeting scheduled in Calgary today, the service will unveil its budget and business plan that will signal its intentions for the coming year.
Today’s budget is the first since the province promised a cash infusion for the health system, writing off the service’s deficit — which had climbed to $1.3 billion — and boosting its share of the budget to $9 billion from $7.7 billion.
But even before the figures were unveiled, health workers said they don’t like indications a provincial wage freeze will be pushed as a way to keep the budget in the black.
AHS chief executive Stephen Duckett made the remarks in an interview with CBC, saying the superboard will make such a proposal when negotiations arise — a necessary move to balance the budget and ensure a five-year funding agreement with the province.
Health Sciences Association of Alberta president Elisabeth Ballermann said the union’s collective agreement doesn’t expire until March 2011, and word of a wage freeze is an ill-timed bargaining strategy.
“Quite frankly, with the morale issue and the staffing issues that have been happening in Alberta Health Services, this statement is not helpful to make people feel valued and to help with their morale,” said Ballermann, whose union represents 20,000 professional, technical, support and EMS workers in Alberta.
Alberta’s nurses vote Wednesday to ratify an agreement that will see them go two years without a raise; the proposed agreement contains a zero per cent increase in the first and second year, followed by a four per cent increase in the third.
The agreement also allows for a “productivity increase” of two per cent in the second year. The last three-year contract, gave nurses five-percent salary increases each year, making senior nurses the best paid in Canada.
Last year, AHS faced a massive deficit that ushered in a period of leaner times. Writing in his blog last week, Duckett painted a far rosier financial picture for the upcoming year.
“Every budget is an exercise in priority setting, but as I’ve said in the past, we are facing far fewer difficult decisions than contemplated just a few months ago because of the new funding agreement with the province,” Duckett wrote.
The medical board is proposing to “increase significantly investment and growth in many areas,” Duckett added.
He wasn’t available for an interview Monday.
Considering the cash boost from the province, Heather Smith of the United Nurses of Alberta said expectations are high for service expansion this year.
The province has to deal with overcapacity issues plaguing the system, Smith argued.
“It shouldn’t be a question of resources this year, is my expectation,” she said.
“Hopefully the job freeze that has been going on for the last year will be lifted and we’ll see expansion. I think that would be an important signal not just to nurses, but to other work groups, as well.”
Liberal Leader David Swann said patients are still waiting too long for surgeries and the province needs to deal with the backlogs.
“If we don’t deal with backlog, we’re going to end up with complications and more lost productivity,” Swann said. “You pay up front or you pay in the longer term.”
Flush with the new cash, it’s also time for AHS to reinvest in some key areas, including family doctors, long-term beds, home care and prevention programs, Swann argued.
He also said a “blanket” wage freeze is an unacceptable bargaining tack for Duckett to take.
Staffing remains a priority issue, contended Ballermann, pointing to the “upheaval” created in health care when the province merged its health regions into a single superboard.
The cash-strapped superboard left jobs vacant and was contemplating elimination of as many as 1,000 positions before the province stepped in with the additional funding, which included a five-year plan providing for increases.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
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