Harry Lali Tackles Health Minister - Part 4

Debates of the Legislative Assembly (Hansard)

Estimates: Ministry of Health

Committee C

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Afternoon Sitting

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H. Lali: I think the minister just likes to hear the sound of his own voice. He's skirting issues in typical Liberal fashion. He's talking about doctors' pay. I never asked the member about doctors' pay, first of all. Secondly, typical Liberal fashion is to blame others for the problems that they have created and to try to belittle anybody who asks questions on behalf of their constituents and patients that live in Princeton and the area — is to try to belittle and blame others. That's how typically Liberal it is for the minister to be able to do that.

But I will give the minister this much, and I'll use his own words that he's put out there. Princeton is "being bled dry." And the minister…. That's his job as minister, to help solve the problems for people in communities like Princeton and others in other small towns. That's his job. The highly paid folks at the IHA — it's their jobs to find solutions, not to turn around and say to the community, "You tell us how we're going to do this. You tell us," or to the member of the opposition, to say: "You tell us how to do this."

That's what they like to do, to blame others and throw the issue back at them. How typically Liberal that is — not taking any kind of responsibility for the problems that

they have created and yet, at the same time, not providing any answers — when it is the minister's job.

And all of the folks that are hired at the IHA — it's their job. They're getting paid $300,000 or $400,000 or $500,000 or $600,000 — whatever it is. It's their job to find those solutions. Otherwise, why are we paying them? Why is the public paying them that much money if they can't find those solutions? He talks about doctor shortages. It's not just doctors not wanting to come to small communities, or health care professions. There's a reason for that. Health care workers, professionals, the folks that provide health care — doctors included and nurses — spend a lot of money, tens of thousands of dollars, to go and get themselves a university education, so they can come back to communities and practice what they've learned, what they've spent years learning at universities across this nation and across other countries as well.

When those services that they're supposed to deliver are deliberately pulled out by this Liberal government and centralized into the Kelowna’s, the Kamloops’, the Abbotsford’s and the other regional hospitals in British Columbia…. One wonders why those folks want to come to a community where they can't practice what they've learned. Instead of saying, "Well, it's a doctor shortage…." These problems are created by a deliberate Liberal policy that the minister refuses to take responsibility for and instead tries to push back onto anybody that asks questions on behalf of the communities and to push back onto the communities. That's what the minister is doing.

To be continued…