Premier Ranj Pillai says he might get in trouble with his parents if he tried to privatize the health-care system, but he’s not opposed to looking at the option of public-private partnerships (also known as P3) for the building of hospital and health-care infrastructure.
“We have no interest in even talking about any sort of privatization when it comes to this. Look, I would be in big trouble if I did. My mom was a nurse for 40 years,” he told reporters in the Yukon government cabinet office on Oct. 21.
"I think my dad delivered 1,500 babies in a public system and was doing surgery until he was 83. I've grown up around a public system. That's the system that we need to have.”
Privatizing the health-care system is something that the Yukon Party and Yukon NDP have now both clearly stated their opposition against.
“I would not consider privatizing the health-care system,” Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon told reporters in the lobby of the legislature on Oct. 21.
“That's a terrible decision. And I think if the premier wants the Liberal party to pursue privatization of our health-care system, he should put that in this platform and call an election, because he's got no mandate to do that right now.”
The recent discussions in the legislature were prompted in part by a line in a Yukon government request for proposals for a long-term health system development plan.
The bid document reads: “Determine if there are target areas to explore alternative procurement approaches, such as P3 or other models.”
Pillai indicated health leaders want to be part of talking about future-proofing the health-care system through building health infrastructure and expanding the hospital and nursing stations. The spring budget speech spoke about improving and planning for health infrastructure, he said.
Pillai noted the public service dropped the line into the tender document so that “they could look at every possible option and bring that back to the minister and the team.”
The premier argued the Yukon government already has health offices and runs a public walk-in clinic out of buildings they don’t own.
“Nobody's looking to privatize the services anywhere that exist,” Pillai said.
Pillai referred to Dr. Alex Kmet, Yukon Medical Association (YMA) president, talking favourably about the Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
The Yellowknife hospital was built under a P3. Canada’s auditor general’s office has been examining whether the project provided good value for money for the N.W.T. government and residents of the territory and is expected to report back in 2024.
Pillai cited meetings with the YMA and an Aug. 13 letter, from Kmet to territorial party leaders, which mentions the Yukon should look to a rural family medicine program like the one in Yellowknife.
By phone on Oct. 22, Kmet told the News the YMA board met with the premier last December. Kmet said the medical association used the N.W.T. as a reasonable comparable jurisdiction and Stanton as a comparator to Whitehorse General Hospital to illustrate the infrastructure deficit at home.
“There's no public letter that we've released that mentioned Stanton or the model by which it was funded,” Kmet said.
"The model by which Stanton ended up being built was not something that we were using it as an example for."
In the Aug. 13 letter, Kmet begged the territorial party leaders to depoliticize the issue, although he said he’s willing to be a “political football” if that means facilitating the process toward accomplishing what’s most important: building infrastructure to get patients cared for.
Pillai was pressed in the legislature Oct. 22 about his claims regarding the YMA letter and on privatizing the health system.
Dixon told reporters Pillai’s representation of Kmet’s letter is “patently false.”
“The premier did not receive a letter that said that. And quite frankly, as far as I can tell, the premier just made that up,” Dixon said.
As far as Dixon is aware, the YMA has never said anything about the construction model of Stanton or taken a position on the P3 model.
Dixon is asking the premier to table the letter or apologize to the YMA for “putting those words in their mouth.”
Looking to other Canadian jurisdictions, Yukon NDP Leader Kate White argued the P3 model isn’t more effective and isn’t cost saving for governments and doesn’t lead to better service provision.
The private part of it is looking to turn a profit, White told the News in the lobby of the legislature on Oct. 17.
“If we look at health-care delivery across the country, specifically Alberta and Ontario, it's destroying the public system,” she said.
On Oct. 22, Vuntut Gwitchin MLA Annie Blake of the Yukon NDP put forward a motion calling on the Yukon government to publicly reject the privatization of health-care infrastructure and cancel the request for proposals that even mentions considering the P3 model.
During debate in question period, Pillai commented on Blake’s motion.
“I think what was shocking today is that we also have an obligation to look at self-government agreements, and we have an obligation to respect Chapter 22,” Pillai said.
“For the NDP today to get the Member for Vuntut Gwitchin to get up and make that comment without clearly understanding that this is also about making sure that Chapter 22 is considered in any infrastructure that the Yukon government did — I think there was a lack of thinking in that.”
When speaking with reporters following the question period, the Yukon NDP leader called Pillai's language in the House “abusive and insulting.”
“The idea that Annie Blake is tokenized, and that someone is telling her what to do and how to do it is so deeply offensive. I am still actually not quite sure how I'm going to deal with it, but I am not okay with what the premier said,” White said.
“It's racist, it's colonial, patriarchal, it's gross in every way. It is totally gross.”
White is calling for the premier to apologize to Blake.
Pillai told reporters what he meant in his remarks in the legislative assembly. Pillai said Blake’s motion excludes First Nation development corporations, despite Chapter 22, which he said lays out that “we look for economic opportunities.”
The Yukon NDP communications lead confirmed Pillai spoke with Blake earlier on Oct. 23.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
