6 - North Shore News — Wednes‘jay. April 5, 2000 Essential REMIER. Ujjal Dosanjh deserves credit for recalling the legislature to end the school strike that left 350,000 students without classes last week. But the move begs the question ef why any disruption to our education system was allowed to take place at all. The back-to-work legisiation passed on Sunday followed failed attempts by Industrial Inquiry Commissioners Vince Ready and Irene Holden to resolve the issues-involved in the dis- pute between 44 °B.C. school boards and the. Canadian Union of Public - Employees (CUPE). The commission- ‘ets -were appointed on March 28 and given an April 1 deadline to find a solu- tion to the impasse. But, with hundreds of unresolved issues involved, the time- -.dine. proved far too. short. The NDP ent knew well in advance of VIEW POINT: issue tions. Yet the industrial inquiry com- missioners were only appointed after the strike began. And the main govern- ment negotiator in the dispute left on vacation a week before CUPE’s strike deadline. So there appeared to be little real effort on the government’s part to avoid what resulted in another inter- ruption in the education of the province’s children. B.C. students already attend far too few days of school during a given year. Summer, spring, Christmas and Easter breaks coupled with teacher pro- fessional days leave B.C. children with less than 195 school days per year. To allow dysfunctional labour rela- tions in this province to further disrupt that education is unacceptable. Education is an essential service. It’s time the provincial government official- ly recognized that reality. A Wickens’ TNS Copenine pat BY Fees a. JF artes cm nev { ANT RE ASSETS OF THE COUNTRY. Evy CANADIAN 9%, 300 DOLLARS. a the strike the stagnant state of negotia- Those dollars” would not, ofc course, be real money but simply vouchers cash-. able with the government by any publicly ane funded health care provider. | ° The latter could also include privatel operated facilities regulated to provide, as a minimum, the same service as the pub licly operated ones at the same cost'or >. less, thus introducing the efficiency!" ” boasting element of competition... If the patient wished to buy any extra’ services offered by a private facility, that: .; would be his or her business... « Other problems remain, of ci the 24-hour physician service required | t relieve hospital emergency departments, and expanded home care and long term mailbox [aiinigesin aws draw refugees £, With the * pproach. of the “Fujian Tourist Season” cou- pied with the silence of Canada’s immigration minister — after all she. vowed to halt the influx of phony refugees — your readers. may find the: words of a top communist Chinese official of interest. While he spoke to the ‘Australians’ com; Jaint, it will be id, that Canada got a not very honourable mention. quote from the prestigious newspaper. The Australian (Feb..4,°2000)|— in what: must be. the: most humiliating : the: federal governments of both Australia an tion. _ Vital therapies to TODAY, medicare on life sup- _ port is the first concern of most Canadians. Yet as baffling as its symptoms may seem, the funda- mientals for a last- ing cure are rela- tively simple. Meanwhile, Health Minister Allan Rock's _ meeting last week with his provincial counter- parts offered the patient provinces spending one-third or more of their budgets on health care — that th lineups for urgent treatment fengthen weekly. What's wrong is the complete absence from medicare of the normal market forces that. have brought unparalleled prosperity to North America -— buyer pay- ing seller directly and competition forcing the latter to charge no more ‘than the ic will bear. Neither doctors, patients, hospitals nor earoverccscovescces Aen neesensenconaccscnscons and yon true position on illegal immigra ; for’ Chines ficial has’ bined Australia’s lax - Guo’ Xigin; one ‘of, China’ stop border officials, said anada and Australia offer settlements to some immigrants taking the Fisk to try to enter. the hich lured. more into ber-of illegal i iramigrant Mou snake-head gangs consisted of forcign- é d-abroad, and it was uy those, countries to clamp down on t “Mo 0 ways: ar i ly treated in their home towns,” - Chind Daily. “Thea in: cople and have never ree P 5 he told the applications of some lum ai merely pretexts for staying there.” omfortable. Mr. Guo Xigin has ; th countries, a service by pointing out what many the ordinary people, know to be true. ély, the old saying applies to our politicians: . “There is none so lind as he who wil not see, nor so 0 deaf ; "no hope of early recov- ‘ ery. The provinces demanded an immedi- ate extra $4.2 billion from Ottawa. Rock indicated “some” extra funds, but only if the provinces first figured how to fix the system. A further May meeting and, later ‘in the year, a first ministers’ conference are planned. "Fhe list of medicare’s problems is daunting. Fee-for-service payment of doc- _ tors, rewarding those who cram the maxi- . , Mum number of patients’-visits, however ~ brief, into each day and thus encourage widespread over-use of the system (“It’s all free, isn’t it?”). Overcrowded emergency departments . because doctors’ offices are closed — evenings and weekends. Insufficient vse of nurse practitioners for simpler medical procedures. Inadequate home Care sup- port. Add galloping multi- rnillion-dollar technology (often over-used simply because it’s there), an aging populaticin, acute-care beds Sa Bon with Jong-term- care patients and a bloated bureaucracy - which regards savin: an oxymoron. S to the the smug il wonder — despite North Shore bows, tourided in 1989 28 ani . independent suburban newspaper and under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the’ avait | 5 Excise Tax Act, is publishes each Wednesday, -” Friday and Sunday ty HCN Publicdticns Company and distributed to every dcor on the .- Barbers Emo Distribution Manager - $9-1337 (12 Demogasners.co ". would split taxpayers’ dollars 4s.” medicare’ 's vast bureaucracy have the slightest incentive to introduce such bot- tom-line efficiencies. The answer is NOT — as some read- ers may doubtless be assuming by now — “American- usee: pay medicine. The answer is to channel funding to doctors "and other providers VIA the patients themselves, with incentives for thein to spend it responsibly, The mechanics are straightforward Every Canadian would be given an annual medicare savings account, the actual amount based on age and 1 medical ~ history. If overspent, the patient would be on the hook for up to perhaps the _ Next $200 to $300. After that, medicare would kick in again to take over all. fur- ther expenses, thus ensuring nobody could ever be. wiped out financially by urgent major surgery or Prolonged dis- ease. _ underspent, government and patient” tive for the latter to closely monitor the” use of his c or her health care “dollars.” But any year when the account was i care. - But patient accountability and regula ed competition are the two vital therapies needed for publicly funded health care recovery: Without thein; the pi i both for. medicare and i ever le of¥ waiting sufferers. - April 6, to North Van’s Rev. Ray . More the same Friday, » April 7, former Ambleside Inn’s ‘gracious hostess - Martha Brueckel And many. happy ” pals 9; to West Vi ¢ surplus — a strong incen=" ‘ee LETTERS TG THE EDITOR ‘Litters must Include your name,