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Recent polling suggests the majority of people living in this province support P3s, but, as demonstrated by the SFL's petition, there is still opposition. While still relatively new here - none of the P3-funded projects are completed yet - the controversy is not unique to Saskatchewan. Ontario and British Columbia have used P3s for much longer than Saskatchewan. The debate remains polarized across the country. "It really depends on how the deals are structured," he said. "There is no such thing as sort of 'the P3 model'. In fact, there's any number of different approaches and because of that it varies in terms of impact on both the construction side of the equation and then the operation and maintenance."

Instead of an ideological battle, which has largely dominated any discussion of P3s in Saskatchewan, Siemiatycki said each project should be evaluated by itself to decide whether or not a P3 model is the best option. "It's really not a cut-and-dry issue," he said. "It really depends on the experience in the jurisdiction and what specific deals are coming down the pipe." Where P3s have a longer history, Siemitaycki said public debate over P3s is already starting to change. "I think the debate is now shifting to under what conditions should we use them, and what specific model should be used," he said. dfraser@postmedia.com twitter.com/dcfraser

Bryan Schlosser, Regina Leader-Post / The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour delivered a petition at the Legislative Building on Monday. The petition calls for an end to privatization in Saskatchewan and criticizes the government's use of public-private partnership funding models.

Hospital management says it will monitor the implementation of the cost reduction measures carefully and could even reverse some of them if that is deemed necessary. The petition, which had already garnered some 50 signatures as of midday Tuesday, says BGH faces "major direct care cuts" to areas such as the intensive care unit, operating room, complex care, palliative care, emergency, the stress test clinic, day surgery, diagnostic imaging, medical/surgical, and the switchboard. It adds the provincial government has "cut hospital funding in real dollar terms for the last eight years."

The petition calls on the legislature to stop the planned cuts and to "improve overall hospital funding in Ontario with a plan to increase funding at least to the average of other provinces." Local supporters plan to hold a rally in downtown Brockville in coming weeks to circulate the petition on a Saturday morning at the Brockville Farmers'Market, said Mary Jane Froats, the Ontario Nurses' Association's (ONA) bargaining unit president at BGH. Hospital management earlier this month announced its latest cost-cutting measures: A reduction of more than 26 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, including 9.1 FTE registered nurses, 7.9 FTE registered practical nurses, 6.4 FTE personal support workers and 3.2 FTE support service jobs.

Anne Clark, ONA's regional vice-president for Eastern Ontario, said the cuts will hurt patient care by creating "severe understaffing." "In my professional nursing opinion, hospitals should never cut at the bedside, should never cut jobs that provide direct care to patients," said Clark. She added the cuts in nursing will result in more than 16,000 person-hours of nursing care gone from BGH, a workload that will be shifted onto remaining nurses. "We are seeing health-care decisions being driven by dollars and not our patients' needs," added Clark. Louis Rodrigues, first vice-president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, cited tragic stories from patients' families left on a patient care hotline created by CUPE.

"We will not sit by while our acute care hospital system is slowly dismantled and privatized," said Rodrigues. Another speaker, Council of Canadians member Jim Riesberry, placed the ultimate blame for the current "austerity" in the hospital system at the feet of the federal government, blaming both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Liberal predecessor, Paul Martin, for starving provinces of health care cash. BGH vice-president and chief nursing officer Cathy Cassidy-Gifford rejected one claim made by Rodrigues, who said successive cuts at BGH had led to bed closures. She said the reductions being implemented between now and the end of the year are based on consultations with similar-sized Ontario hospitals in a "benchmark" group. There is also a steering committee in place meant to monitor patient care once those cuts are implemented, said Cassidy- Gifford. "If you see there needs to be changes, there will be revisions based on the situation, ensuring that our patients are first and that our staff are able to work in a safe condition as well," she said.

Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark, who was away at the Progressive Conservative summer caucus meeting, said in a Twitter message he will gladly present the petition to the legislature. Clark last week sent a letter to Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins, saying the minister's failure to act by reviewing hospital funding has led to the most recent BGH cuts. In a statement emailed to The Recorder and Times, a spokesperson for the health minister referred staffing questions to BGH management. "Our government's investments have helped to ensure that there is a stable nursing workforce now and for the future. More than 24,000 more nurses are working in Ontario since our government took office, including more than 3,500 new nurses added in 2013," the statement read. Between 2005 and 2012, the province has added 657 nurses in the region covered by the South East Local Health Integration Network, it added.

Curits Coates, right, representing the Ontario Health Coalition, speaks at a protest over Brockville General Hospital cuts with Jim Riesberry of the Council of Canadians on Tuesday.

The flurry stems from a profile on the lack of assistance given a 70 year old injured man at the doorstep of the Montague hospital Good Friday because of administrative protocols.

Over 20,000 people have also signed an online petition at change.org.

double health insurance costs for federal retirees, including military and RCMP veterans. Changes could also make some federal retirees ineligible for health insurance coverage in their retirements.

Wayne Brown, the president of the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions, which falls under the Canadian Union of Public Employees umbrella, said the members of the locals representing the two nursing homes don't plan on going away without assurances their issues will be dealt with. "We're getting more and more pressure on him and I know he has to tow the party line but he also has to step up to the plate for those folks who are his constituents," Brown said.

"So we're certainly not done yet - it all hinges on that RFP that is coming out and my feeling is that they are certainly revisiting that RFP, so maybe they're looking at something ... hopefully they will blink on this one because there are ways for them to save face." During a town hall meeting organized by government officials in Miramichi last Thursday, Rogers and Fraser stopped short of guaranteeing the union concerns would be addressed in full.

Fraser said he would like to engage in deeper dialogue with officials from the Senior Citizens Home about how they could partner up to help ensure that programming like Meals on Wheels and adult daycare are enhanced in the transition to the new place. In terms of the labour concerns, Fraser said the government team is "well aware" of them and said high-level discussions have taken place to discuss how to mitigate some of them and potentially work some of them into the RFP.

But on the P3 model, he said the government has to make strategic changes to the way it has traditionally done things in order to trim expenditures and free up efficiencies. The government has made a commitment to building any new nursing homes moving forward using a P3 model and it just so happens that the Miramichi facility is first in line for this new way of doing things. That setup, he stressed, allows the government to dictate the standards of care without adding to its financial burden and it is clear the province doesn't have any current plan to back away from that strategy.

Fraser said people have to "get past the fact that we're going to an RFP" for the new nursing home. "The province is in a fiscal situation that is at the brink - the interest payment on our debt alone is in excess of $650 million a year ... that's not the debt, that's the interest payment," Fraser said.

"Think of the good things we could do if we could get that under control, and this home would not be possible any other way without going through the RFP process to ensure the best economic return on our dollar and for the best care, safety and comfort of our seniors." There are presently three private nursing homes in New Brunswick and all of them are operated by Shannex. Fraser said the main reason the province is committing to this project is to alleviate some of the strain being put on the delivery of front-line health services at the Miramichi Regional Hospital, where many seniors are forced to reside until a new nursing home bed opens up. He said the community "needs to come together" on this.

But both ministers said they were actively listening to what the workers were saying and would attempt to work some of those issues into the request for proposals which will ultimately lead to the proponent that will build and maintain the home. Speaking last Friday, Fraser said once again he understands how staff would be nervous about the situation given that a new entity will be coming in to run the new building.

"Are we going to guarantee everything? Probably not, but are we going to do our best to address as many of the issues as we can? Absolutely we are," he said. "Because at the end of the day we want our residents to be cared for by people they know in an environment they love, and I'm confident that's going to happen." As for the CUPE membership, Brown said they aren't willing to compromise on the issues they've outlined and he hopes the government understands why.

Dr. Monika Dutt will be speaking at this year's Progress Summit. This sold-out event is taking place in Ottawa from March 26-28 and will feature a variety of speakers from progressive movements across Canada.

On March 16, the CMAJ released a new study that provides ground-breaking evidence that Canadian governments could include prescription drugs in Medicare at no additional cost. This paper, a collaborative effort of researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, reports that a national pharmacare plan could potentially result in $7.3 billion in savings and a 32% reduction in total spending on medicines. Dr. Danielle Martin, one of the study's authors, spoke with the media this week to discuss how pharmacare could improve health outcomes in Canada as well.

To do so he’s launched a petition and is organizing a rally aimed at bringing attention to the health-care crisis in western Newfoundland.

Closing clinics, doctors leaving and no replacements and long waits in emergency rooms are things he feels need to be addressed.

“The fact that 10 hours has become the expected normal is very concerning to me,” he said of the average emergency room wait.

The petition he launched on March 24 on change.org under the heading “Western Newfoundland Needs Doctors” has just over 800 signatures. He’s also printed off copies — which others can also do — and placed them at his workplace.

He’d like to get a couple thousand signatures before the end of the month, for the rally he’s planning. The rally is set for April 30 at Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital at 1 p.m.