Discussions

After getting elected, the Alberta Progressive Conservative government has reneged on an agreement signed with the province’s doctors to continue negotiations regarding physician remuneration and the role of doctors in optimizing the healthcare system in Alberta. In December 2012, provincial health minister Fred Horne announced the cessation of all negotiations with doctors. He has since refused to enter binding arbitration at the recommendation of facilitators whose services he, himself, had agreed to.

We are so accustomed to hearing the healthcare system described as some kind of fiscal sinkhole, a drain on the economy caused by ever-growing, virtually uncontrollable costs, that a new “briefing” from The Conference Board of Canada is a refreshing read. The report considers the role of healthcare delivery as “an economic growth engine."