I know that writing a blog everyday would be tiresome (mostly for you), so really I should do a recap of the week. As far as this week went, it was a great one, I spent my whole week in the constituency! I'm also sure Thérèse liked it as I was there to help work through her computer issues. (I'm this close to swapping that computer to an Apple!)
STRIKE!
The snow storm on Monday kept the kids home, thankfully not the possible strike by the CUPE workers at Tri-County and CSAP . Their strike was averted by a settlement on Saturday. The health workers on the other hand were a different story. If we try to piece together the events of Monday morning, it seems that Frank Corbett was told that the Union walked away from the table and he had the Public Service Commission send out a pretty blunt press release, condemning CUPE. What apparently was going on is that they were thinking about it and within 2 hours the strike was over.
This is an excerpt from the Halifax Metro paper;
- If ratified, union members will receive a 2.9 per cent raise retroactive to April 1, 2009, along with one per cent raises this year and next year. The contract expires Oct. 31, 2011.
- Licensed practical nurses get a further six per cent raise backdated to Sept. 1, 2009. Classifications paid equal to and above lab and radiology techs also jump 2.1 per cent.
- These hikes pull CUPE in line with its Capital Health counterparts in Halifax. The union even won a clause guaranteeing wage parity if Capital Health gets new raises.
It's funny that 10 years ago it was the John Hamm Tory government that gave this union wage parity with their Halifax counterparts and it was Darrell Dexter's NDP government was trying to take it away. And I thought the NDP and the Unions were brothers and sisters? We had always felt that it would be easier to recruit and keep health professionals in the rural areas if you made sure they we paid the same, as it is with many profession, folks follow the money.
I don't on the other hand disagree with the new pattern that this negotiation sets for other unions that are ready to sit down at the table. The 1% increase in the following years make sense due to the fact that other indicators like CPI and inflation are relatively flat and that government's own revenues will be down.
WE DID NOT "COOK THE BOOKS"!
The other interesting thing that happened this week, that was barely reported, came from the Public Accounts Committee when the Deloitte folks were in to speak and take questions about the Financial Review undertaken by the NDP.
CB North MLA Cecil Clarke asked a pretty straight question, “Did the former Progressive Conservative government cook the books of the province?” Witnesses from accounting firm Deloitte & Touche promptly answered “no.”
“Many Nova Scotians have been waiting to hear the truth on the state of the province’s finances and the role the former government may have had in the deficit situation we see ourselves in today,” said Clarke. “What we heard today is that the $500 million deficit facing our province is a complete concoction of NDP spending commitments – not a result of the former government mismanaging the books.”
During the hearing, Clarke also questioned the NDP government’s handling of the advice provided by Deloitte. “What we have is a government that campaigned against a pre-payment to universities and then made a $353 million commitment to pay them, which contributed significantly to the deficit. So did the NDP government go against the advice of the Deloitte Report?” asked Clarke.
Deloitte Atlantic Practice Managing Partner, Shannon MacDonald, agreed that the advice given to the NDP government had been ignored.
What this does, is validate that the information that was presented to the new government in the first place was correct, the work was a $100,000 waste of money! It also underlines that the NDP knew of the revenue decline back in June, we told them! They still went out and promised the moon and the sky and brought in a budget with a 525 million dollars deficit. So in simple terms they own the deficit because they created it against all the information that they already had!
LIFEFLIGHT HELICOPTER
I was a little startled this morning to read in the Chronicle Herald that the LifeFlight helicopter is out of commission on a safety recall. Now, I can't discourage work that must be done on the machine, but a fixed wing aircraft as a backup just doesn't cut it! The last time I checked, airplanes can't land on the tops of Hospitals and many communities do not have airstrips, for example, Shelburne would have use Yarmouth or Liverpool.
Where is the communication from the Department who, on behalf of all Nova Scotians, depends regularly on the program to transport very ill patients to and from the provincial hospitals in HRM. What is the real backup plan? How long is the maintenance going to last? Has the company tried to source another helicopter?
There are times when seconds and minutes count when it comes to transporting seriously ill patients and the only way to ensure safe transport is with a helicopter. Lives are truly on the line in Nova Scotia and PEI (they use our service quite regularly).