What they said

vs. What really happened

Broken Promises on Record

Billion Dollar Baillie

  • What they said...

    Jamie Baillie has called for a reduction (or elimination) of district health authorities.

    In a January 14 Chronicle Herald story, Baillie criticizes the NDP for defending the “administration superstructure” while ignoring the fact that it was a Conservative government that created the superstructure.

    Baillie quotes numbers from Alberta to defend his proposal to eliminate DHAs.

    Baillie writes, “Alberta, a province of five million people, went from eight to only one [health authority]. It saved $1 billion in administrative costs, that was reinvested into front-line care.”
    Jamie Baillie DHA Editorial in Herald

    What really happened...

    We know Conservatives created what Baillie refers to as the “administration superstructure.” Mr. Baillie should know that, too.

    He should also be honest about the amount of money saved in Alberta. His claims that Alberta saved $1 billion are baseless.

    The total administrative costs prior to consolidating all health boards into one were $346.9 million.

    The year after consolidation the total administrative costs were $390.1 million - $43.2 million higher than the previous year. Using Baillie’s logic, we can conclude amalgamation resulted in $43.2 million being cut from front-line care in year one.

    In the second year after amalgamation, the total administrative costs totaled $307 million; a savings of $39 million.

    These savings will prove short lived because in May 2011 the Alberta government announced they were recreating the previous health authority “administration superstructure” under a new name.



    The Alberta government announced the creation of five regional health zones; each zone would have: a zone medical director for each zone,a senior VP for each zone and a VP for each area and facility within each zone.

    Baillie’s claims that Alberta reduced the number of DHAs to one and that this reduction saved a billion dollars in administration costs are factually wrong and misleading. Billion Dollar Baillie was off the mark by $961 million.




That's what we call... A Broken Promise

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