David Coon, MLA/Député

Article by : ADAM HURAS Legislature Bureau

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs says he won’t promise to scrap the extra-mural contract with Medavie if his party forms government after the next election, saying it would be a “reckless” pledge.

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs says he won’t promise to scrap the extra-mural contract with Medavie if his party forms government after the next election, saying it would be a “reckless” pledge.
Higgs says he remains critical of the deal, but with the contract now signed, it must be tested as to whether it improves the system’s performance.

Still, Higgs contends he isn’t afraid of the seven-figure price tag government would have to pay to kill the deal if it’s not working out.A clause in the 28-page agreement that hands over control of the province’s extra-mural medical program to Medavie says the province can cancel the deal without cause – meaning for any reason – and pay Medavie a penalty of up to $1 million.

“I’m not going to take a position that we have seen for generations in government promising to simply undo what the last one did without any justification,” Higgs said. “It is very reckless [to make that commitment].
“That’s why the province is in the state it’s in. If there’s justified reason to do so, believe me, I’ll deal with it, but it’s not a decision I would make flippantly without understanding what is the impact.”He added: “I would want to work with concerned groups to determine are we indeed seeing service level decline, and if so, we will deal with it appropriately.”

Higgs said he will closely monitor how the service performs while also watching whether there will be job losses after the government said the staffing complement would remain the same. He added that the $1-million price tag to kill the deal isn’t part of that consideration, also noting the contact says there’s no penalty if Medavie commits “a major breach” of the agreement.

Other groups, and the Green and NDP parties, took a less nuanced position, vowing they’d scrap the deal despite the penalty.

“Now we know what the cost is going to be,” said Cecile Cassista, the head of a seniors group that has called for the province to scrap the deal. “Opposition parties are going to have to come clean and be clear of what their intentions are before the election.

“We want this contract scrapped.”Cassista said the price tag doesn’t matter.“It’s going to cost us more money in the long run,” she said.

The deal lays out that the province will pay $2.6 million per year for Medavie’s administration costs. The contract also reveals that a maximum of $1.8 million in incentive fees can be earned each fiscal year by Medavie.
A $250,000 bonus has already been paid out, according to the deal.

A total of $1 million of the $1.8 million bonus in the contract’s first year is also guaranteed, due in October just a few days after the next provincial election.

The agreement itself is worth $74 million annually for 10 years, the price tag the government was paying to run it and an amount that covers the cost to the province of salaries and other expenses.Dr. Hubert Dupuis, president of Égalité Santé en Français, a French lobby group that has vowed to fight the contract, also contends the price to break the deal is worth it.

“It doesn’t take Einstein’s son to understand that you’re best to get out of it,” Dupuis said. “One million dollars on a (health) budget of $2.7 billion is not much.

“It’s a lot for your average joe or josephine. They don’t have $1 million to throw around, but on a health-care department budget, it’s not much, and this contract will cost taxpayers more if you continue with it.”
Égalité Santé en Français has added the Medavie deal to the constitutional challenge the group had launched in June. Dupuis said Monday the contract is “good news” in a sense for that battle as he believes it proves the group’s point that services are being taken out of the control of the province’s health authorities.