BC Chamber of Commerce Breakfast with Minister of Health Services, Kevin Falcon

On the morning of the BC Chamber of Commerce monthly breakfast meeting with a Cabinet Minister at the Club, I slid into my standard businessman apparel of navy blue blazer and grey slacks and flipped on my stingy-brim fedora. The guest of honour for November was the Honourable Kevin Falcon, Minister of Health Services, formerly Minister of Transportation, a big time Gateway project booster and opponent to giving aid to businesses that suffered losses during the construction of the Canada Line.

I jumped on the Skytrain and rode to the Burrard Station. On my walk from the Burrard Station to the Terminal City Club I bumped into a friend who was also going to the breakfast meeting, along with many others from the paramedics union. However, they weren't going to be joining me for eggs and bacon.  They were going to be outside the  protesting the contract settlement that Falcon had recently imposed on the paramedics.

When we reached the Club there was already a crowd of protestors milling around outside in the rain. I turned my back on my friend and slipped inside the warm and comfortable confines of the Terminal City Club.

And all I had to do was walk in, past the reception desk, up to the Ceperley-Walker Rooms, put my name on one of those sticky nametags convention-goers are all familiar with and I was inside “the room.” So completely civilized.

“Help yourself to coffee” said Denise Douglas, Director of Corporate Memberships. And I did. Along with a couple other people. As we were pouring coffees we introduced ourselves to each other. Knowing ahead of time what would happen; I had gone to Budget Printing on the weekend and had a set of cheap business cards made up. My email address has “Left Coast” in it and one individual looked at that, raised his eyebrow and said, “You’re not with the people outside, ARE you?” while pointing to the word “Left”. I quickly chuckled and uttered, “No, of course not” and hoped that my voice had sounded natural. It must have because at that point the momentary tension in the room dissipated.

One conversation I joined centered on how the unions were so hung up on this idea that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The people in my small circle sort of chortled at that idea. It was pointed out that so many public sector union contracts would need to be negotiated in the months following the Olympics and the concern was voiced, wondering if the unions would be reasonable this time around, would they be able to face the “economic reality” and would the government have money for signing bonuses this time around. The general consensus in our small group was that there would be no money for bonuses and the unions were unlikely to be reasonable. I didn’t see how there was any benefit in arguing the point.

Gradually the room filled with people and they formed their small cliques and talked in hushed tones, sipped coffee, and good coffee I might add, and occasionally opened their small circles to allow a new member in.

At one point I saw one of the men that I had been introduced to earlier and looking for a new group to join, I walked up to him and joined his group. Without realizing it, I had joined the group of Karl Gustafson from the Lang Michener Law Office, another individual who I believe was Peter Bentley of Canfor, and Bruce Hurst, partner with Reid Hurst Nagy Inc, Certified General Accountants. From what I gathered, these were the men who had essentially paid for our breakfast. At this point I thought it better to not present my business card with the “Left Coast” written on it. I’m actually not even sure these men noticed me standing there while they were talking.

Shortly after 7:30 someone got up to the microphone, which he fumbled with and could not get functioning, and then called everyone’s attention. He said that unlike their typically punctual breakfast meetings, this meeting was going to start a little late because the minister was not yet in the building.

Close to 8am the Honourable Kevin Falcon arrived. The giant of a man, John Winter, President and CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce welcomed Falcon, and then had Craig Knight of VANOC say a few words. Knight pointed out that at each place setting was a paper outlining how a business could sponsor a student work term at VANOC…for a mere $7500. Knight then showed a short video clip that made you feel all warm and fuzzy about the Olympics, then said thanks, and stepped down from the microphone, which was now working.

Kevin Falcon was introduced as someone who is not afraid of controversy and making tough decisions, “as we saw out front this morning”, at which point everyone chuckled. And the Canada Line was mentioned, the Golden Ears Bridge was mentioned, and the Gateway project. And then Falcon approached the podium and just started talking to us. 

Falcon talked about the fact that the health services budget was increasing by 20% over the next three years and that if we did not change the way we do business then the health budget could increase to 85% of the provincial budget. A collective gasp was heard and the requisite shaking of heads happened.

And then Falcon said that it is important to look at our health system from an outside point of view. He reminded us that we have an excellent system and that the Liberals have created multitudes of new doctor and nurse training positions, unlike the NDP of the 1990s.

He talked about the continuum of care that is required for seniors in BC. How there can be supportive housing, home visits, assisted living and so many other options besides just placing seniors in care homes. He talked of the thousands of new options and spaces that the Liberals have created for seniors.

Then the big hit: the health system spends $50 million a day. In the past the Health Authorities would spend their budgets and when that money was gone they would come back to the government and ask for more money. But that's no longer allowed, he said. The Health Authorities are given their budgets and they are expected to stay inside that budget framework.

He admitted that the Health Authorities have had to make some cuts to programs that were “nice things, but not necessarily health related.” He did not provide examples of any of the “nice things” that have been cut.

He spoke of the increasing importance of the family doctor. And how it is significantly cheaper to keep people out of the emergency wards and going to their doctor instead.

He spoke of innovation in the health services, innovation that is more than just adding money. Adding value like the Health Line 811 so that people can access health information without having to go to see a doctor or an ER, Health Authorities all combining their payroll systems and so on to find efficiencies that can save them money.

He mentioned the joint procurement of medical supplies; how all the Health Authorities buying together and how now the Health Authorities are combining their purchasing forces with Alberta’s so that it is North America’s largest buying block.

Then he delivered the sock-punch to pubic health.  He wants to see the health system move away from block funding and toward a fee for service type of model, he said. Reward the health care providers, hospitals etc for the work they do rather than receiving their budgeted monies, spending it and then essentially shutting down services until the next infusion of money is provided.

This might be part of the rationale behind him looking at the $70 billion that Americans spend on what he called medical tourism; American citizens going abroad to buy health care. A very lucrative market that BC might be looking into breaking into?

An amusing mention was that he said that the “idle BC operating rooms” could be utilized by bringing patients from Saskatchewan to BC to have hip and knee replacements done. He said, yes he would do this if it will generate revenue so that more BC patients can be better served, more quickly.

But then the clincher was, we need to prevent the health problems from happening in the first place rather than trying to deal with the fall out. The fact that we can reduce by 80% our chances of getting serious illness simply by making four simple choices: maintain a healthy weight, do not smoke, exercise daily and make healthy diet choices. He challenged the business people to get people out of their desks and sedentary lifestyles and to encourage people in their work forces to make better health choices.

During the question and answer period that followed Falcon’s speech one of the questions asked about what it takes to make change happen. Falcon simply said that he chooses to look at the change, decide if it is a good change or not, and then to go ahead, and “Just do it. Forget about the protestors and do it.” And then he pointed to the door where we all knew the paramedics were outside in the rain. At the end, Kevin Falcon was thanked for coming and in appreciation a donation would be made to the charity of his choice.

At the end of the presentation came the last  part of the event: the business card draw for a prize. The prize was a pine beetle wood box with a First Nations design carved on the front of it. This gift was donated by VANOC with two bottles of Jackson Triggs wine. The card they pulled out?

Why none other than mine, The Left Coaster’s.

 I walked out of the Terminal City Club thinking about  the conversation about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

I thought about how the government gave themselves a 29% to 54% pay increase. How the deputy ministers had all received significant pay increases.  I thought about how the minimum wage in BC is the lowest in Canada at $8 an hour. A minimum wage that has remained unchanged since the Liberals came to power in 2001. I considered that more than one out of every five children in BC lives in poverty.

And I wondered, will these factors impact the health of British Columbians?