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Saskatoon Health Region’s decision to begin trucking Prince Albert’s share of their laundry to Calgary-based K-Bro Lynen Systems.

Mayor Jim Scarrow took a moment prior to Friday’s sod turning of the Pineview Terrace Lodge long-term care facility in Prince Albert to urge McMorris's reconsideration of North Sask Laundry

“We have lots of room here in Prince Albert to expand the regional hospital laundry services,” Scarrow said. “Lots of room, and those (29) jobs would be very important to the province and the city of Prince Albert … You’ll be hearing from us shortly.”

K-Bro Linen Systems is a for-profit Calgary-based business. North Sask Laundry is a non-profit government-funded organization in Prince Albert. 

The thing is, though, the Saskatchewan Party government opposed such "tax increases" in boom times as well, leaving one to wonder whether this government ever sees a time when low-salaried workers or the self-employed should get additional government support for their retirements. At a time of minimal wage increases, rising unemployment and growing part-time and service sector jobs found necessary by many trying to make ends meet, it does cause one to wonder whether now might be a time to set aside one's philosophical opposition to an improved CPP. In a somewhat similar vein, Doherty said he does support the Liberals' campaign promise to double infrastructure spending, but under the caveat that the Saskatchewan government be able to spend its share on P3 highways, water treatment facilities and even bypass projects and not on transit projects as the federal government would prefer.

It's common sense that Doherty should advocate Saskatchewan deciding for itself how best to spend infrastructure dollars. Furthermore, he has a point that while public transit may be more important for cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal or even Regina and Saskatoon, "transit's not the top of our list" in Saskatchewan. But what Doherty and the Sask. Party seem to really be defending is the old federal government system under Stephen Harper's Conservatives that rewarded/subsidized governments for simply using P3 models (see: Regina sewage treatment plant) - whether the concept made any practical sense or not.

Doherty denies his government is "stuck" on P3s for ideological reasons, but the lengths his government has gone to demonstrate P3s work suggests quite the opposite. In fact, Premier Brad Wall seems to be swinging the Sask. Party hard to the right, just months before the April 4 vote. Be it his government's push for liquor store privatization or his recent caution on federal Liberal plans to quickly bring thousands of Syrian refugees to Canada (after being among the first leaders last summer to call on Ottawa to do more) or his hard line oil-sector support before and during the Paris climate summit, or Doherty's pronouncements on P3s and the CPP, this is a government marking its right-wing territory. It's odd timing for any government, given that in the months before an election most governing parties go out of their way to demonstrate how inclusive they are. Making it even odder is the fact that elections across the country this year - including that national vote we had on Oct. 19 - suggest an electorate that's moving to the left.

Wall and the Sask. Party's defence of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) dictates on the CPP, Harper's view on P3s or even pandering to the right's view on Syria at a time when the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way is a curious political strategy. We'll know about four months from now whether it was the right approach - or the one that gives the NDP the opening it has needed. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.

This historic Charter Challenge case will be heard in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench from November 14 - 25th, 2011.

look at a product or service from a customer's perspective and identify waste, or aspects a customer wouldn't pay for by choice

"The old way of cost-cutting was absolutely wrong-headed," he said. "I realized for the first time why we were so mistaken in the '80s and '90s when we were cutting budgets and ending up with poor service at the end of the day."

high-level executives will run their proposed priorities before teams of lower-level managers and front-line workers, then consider their feedback before proceeding

Phase 2 will take several years and involves building up local expertise and getting more than 43,000 workers in the province's health regions, the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, the Health Quality Council and the Health Ministry thinking like a synchronized lean machine: Identify waste, test a possible fix, evaluate the outcome and repeat.

one contract for about six months of lean leadership to do the first phase of planning - hoshin kanri - and a longer-term contract to help roll out the lean system

the first contract was awarded in October to American consultants John Black and Associates, and SAHO plans to award the second longer-term contract in January

how much taxpayers are spending on these senseis is not being made public

The most important aspect, Broten said, is that the perspectives and knowledge of front-line workers carry weight in any changes.

The Children's Hospital of Saskatchewan is the first capital project in the province where the lean approach is influencing design.