YORKTON - Have you ever watched a movie and something big happens – the camera switches to a newspaper office and someone is yelling ‘Stop the presses.’
The idea is that the news is so big production has to be stopped to accommodate adding the story.
Well in an online world that may no longer be needed, but a recent announcement here in Saskatchewan certainly has the feel of being a rather huge, and near unbelievable story.
Health ministers from the federal and provincial governments have come to agreement on two new bilateral funding deals totalling $560.3 million toward Saskatchewan’s health care system.
Given the usual vitriol Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe doles out toward the federal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau it’s really makes one wonder why the feds even came to the table.
It has been a long time since the Moe government has said anything particularly nice about federal and provincial relations, but here at least the two sides found some common ground and in an area of importance – funding health care.
In a city where we await the final green light and sod turning on a long-awaited regional health care facility, any health initiative that has new dollars tied to it is of interest.
In this case the new deal includes $391 million over three years in a Working Together Agreement to improve general access to health care, and $169.3 million through an aging with dignity agreement targeting close-to-home care for seniors.
There should be some expectation at least some of that money will impact health care locally, either through directly funding initiatives in Yorkton and area, or in funding programs which local people will at least be able to access.
Specific to health care the new agreement will not be a cure-all, but it does seem to put the federal and provincial governments back at the table seeking collective responses to health sector needs, and that is a good thing.
Taking a bigger picture look at the new deal, one would hope it might be at least a small step to getting Moe and his government, and Trudeau and his government back to negotiating solutions to issues rather than simply offering up quips for media consumption.
Governments will be of different political stripes and thus policies, but, there must always be a willingness to give and take for the overall good of Canadians and that has seemed lost when Saskatchewan and Ottawa are involved.
Hopefully the health deal will start a positive change.
