Politics (As Usual)

[bigg jay]

 

 

Firing nurses lol

 

Filmon's biggest problem was we had an NDP government before him.  He came into office with a deficit, dwindling transfer payments and a bleak situation.  Balanced the budget, made it law (which the NDP undid) and governed pretty well.  What I like most is, when you look at one of the biggest issues during his time, the Jets' situation, you had people on one side thinking he didnt do enough and people on the other side thinking he had done too much.  Perfect example of not being able to please everyone.

 

As for privatizing MTS, the MTS of the 90's is a lot different than the MTS of today.  It would have taken a massive public investment for MTS to keep up with changing technologies.  Sure, maybe everyone would still have a landline phone for $10/month.  But thats all you'd have.

Lets look at the MTS privatization. Has anyone gotten better service since it was privatized? Filmon lied- in the election before he privatatized MTS, he personally promised he would not privatize it, and then he did it. He said that Manitoba could not afford to have a crown corporation help keep up with all the pending technology, but and here is where it gets interesting, the legislation to sell MTS specifically prevented SaskTel from buying MTS, and they were very interested.

Same old stories-lying Tories

 

Yes, everyone gets better service.  MTS had lousy customer service for awhile and they knew that.  They have improved in that area significantly.  Its certainly no worse than any "call center" service I've experienced with other comparable businesses including SHAW.  If you're referring to the Phone Center stores, they would have gone away regardless and if they didnt, thats a perfect example of why the government couldnt be trusted to effectively run the operation.

 

Im really not sure there is a great argument against the privatization of MTS at this point.  I was pretty young during the bulk of the Filmon years and actually grew up very anti-PC (my parents were NDP'ers) but the older I got, the more I couldnt deny his effectiveness as a leader.  As a young person in the 90's, Winnipeg sucked big time.  Everyone I knew was dying to get out.  Losing the Jets was another nail in the coffin.  Filmon was the leader we needed at the time we got him.  NDP had come in and screwed things up, economy was bad, transfer payments down.  PC's governed during bad times, steered us through it and when things turned around, here came the NDP with alot of wonderful ways to spend the money the PC's worked hard to generate.  And now history repeats itself except the Selinger government has had pretty good times and loads of money...they are just incompetent.  And along will come a PC party to fix things.

 

 

You pretty well ignored everything Tracker wrote, except the 1st part about service. 

 

My biggest beef with the MTS thing was the fact he had just campaigned on not privatizing it.  It's not a whole lot different than Selinger raising the PST after saying he wouldn't.  Both were needed and the right thing to do (IMO) but lying about it before hand is sure to piss people off.  Filmon deserved the critisism and so does Selinger.

 

Another thing that stinks about it, besides the SaskTel thing, is that Filmon became a director with MTS less than 5 years after privatization, so he not only lied about it, he gained quite a bit financially from it.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

 

 

Firing nurses lol

 

Filmon's biggest problem was we had an NDP government before him.  He came into office with a deficit, dwindling transfer payments and a bleak situation.  Balanced the budget, made it law (which the NDP undid) and governed pretty well.  What I like most is, when you look at one of the biggest issues during his time, the Jets' situation, you had people on one side thinking he didnt do enough and people on the other side thinking he had done too much.  Perfect example of not being able to please everyone.

 

As for privatizing MTS, the MTS of the 90's is a lot different than the MTS of today.  It would have taken a massive public investment for MTS to keep up with changing technologies.  Sure, maybe everyone would still have a landline phone for $10/month.  But thats all you'd have.

Lets look at the MTS privatization. Has anyone gotten better service since it was privatized? Filmon lied- in the election before he privatatized MTS, he personally promised he would not privatize it, and then he did it. He said that Manitoba could not afford to have a crown corporation help keep up with all the pending technology, but and here is where it gets interesting, the legislation to sell MTS specifically prevented SaskTel from buying MTS, and they were very interested.

Same old stories-lying Tories

 

Yes, everyone gets better service.  MTS had lousy customer service for awhile and they knew that.  They have improved in that area significantly.  Its certainly no worse than any "call center" service I've experienced with other comparable businesses including SHAW.  If you're referring to the Phone Center stores, they would have gone away regardless and if they didnt, thats a perfect example of why the government couldnt be trusted to effectively run the operation.

 

Im really not sure there is a great argument against the privatization of MTS at this point.  I was pretty young during the bulk of the Filmon years and actually grew up very anti-PC (my parents were NDP'ers) but the older I got, the more I couldnt deny his effectiveness as a leader.  As a young person in the 90's, Winnipeg sucked big time.  Everyone I knew was dying to get out.  Losing the Jets was another nail in the coffin.  Filmon was the leader we needed at the time we got him.  NDP had come in and screwed things up, economy was bad, transfer payments down.  PC's governed during bad times, steered us through it and when things turned around, here came the NDP with alot of wonderful ways to spend the money the PC's worked hard to generate.  And now history repeats itself except the Selinger government has had pretty good times and loads of money...they are just incompetent.  And along will come a PC party to fix things.

 

 

You pretty well ignored everything Tracker wrote, except the 1st part about service. 

 

My biggest beef with the MTS thing was the fact he had just campaigned on not privatizing it.  It's not a whole lot different than Selinger raising the PST after saying he wouldn't.  Both were needed and the right thing to do (IMO) but lying about it before hand is sure to piss people off.  Filmon deserved the critisism and so does Selinger.

 

Another thing that stinks about it, besides the SaskTel thing, is that Filmon became a director with MTS less than 5 years after privatization, so he not only lied about it, he gained quite a bit financially from it.

 

I didnt ignore it.  I didnt have a counter argument.  Like I said, I was pretty young so I really can't remember details like SaskTel wanting to buy it.  MTS is a pretty good company now though and I am not sure they'd be there had they continued to be a crown corp (in fact, Im sure they wouldnt).

[Jaxon]

By far the worst premier in Manitoba in my lifetime was Howard Pawley.   Selinger is bad, but he doesn't quite get to the Pawley standard.

 

Overall, I believe that Filmon was the best.  Yes, there were some blemishes, but he had the heavy lifting to do after the Pawley disaster.  Filmon cleaned up the financial mess and took us to a surplus position, and did so without massive tax increases.   He reduced the size of the bureaucracy and put us onto a sustainable path, including the building of a reserve fund.  I don't think that he had much choice but to privatize MTS.   Those old enough may recall the millions and millions that the MTX subsidiary of MTS lost on a deal in Saudi Arabia.   MTS is a much better organization now than it was as a crown corp, and the taxpayers haven't had to cover for any MTX type of schemes.

 

Unfortunately, most of the good work that Filmon did has been destroyed.  We now have one of the highest ratios of government workers to population size, and this is unsustainable.  The reserve fund is long gone.  Our taxes have increased to some of the highest levels in the country, and yet we are entirely reliant on transfer payments from Alberta and Saskatchewan.  We spend the most on education (which isn't a bad thing) per capita, but have the worst results (which is a horrible situation).  

 

Manitoba desperately needs a leader with the fortitude to make hard, tough choices to clean up the mess.  Margaret Thatcher -- Ralph Klein --  Angela Merkle   type of person.   I don't know that we have one, but it sure as heck isn't Selinger.

 

In general, I prefer a smaller government with lower taxes, but IMHO, a good government isn't solely based on high taxes vs low taxes, it is based on value for our money.   Currently under the NDP, we get poor results for big dollars, and way too much influence from the big Unions.

[The Unknown Poster]

When you read details of the leadership convention you see that the Premier was directly chosen by the Firefighters union.  And he had pledged support to two candidates.  Its all dirty politics.

 

I was at a meeting of the union that I am apart of once as we were in a CBA negotiation.  I was floored when, at the end of the meeting the leadership implored us to work hard to get the NDP re-elected and they desperately needed our help to keep the PC's out of power.  I'd love to know how much of MY union dues go to the NDP.  I really can't stand my union.  Our leadership is awful.  Incredibly paranoid.  I had an issue at work at was flat out told my management wanted to get rid of me.  I said well I dont think thats the case.  Union made it way worse.  I was actually quite upset with both sides when we had a meeting as they get entrenched and argue like school children.

[kelownabomberfan]

Richard Brandson wanted to poke her...

Is there anyone out there that he doesn't want to poke?

[kelownabomberfan]

When you read details of the leadership convention you see that the Premier was directly chosen by the Firefighters union.  And he had pledged support to two candidates.  Its all dirty politics.

 

I was at a meeting of the union that I am apart of once as we were in a CBA negotiation.  I was floored when, at the end of the meeting the leadership implored us to work hard to get the NDP re-elected and they desperately needed our help to keep the PC's out of power.  I'd love to know how much of MY union dues go to the NDP.  I really can't stand my union.  Our leadership is awful.  Incredibly paranoid.  I had an issue at work at was flat out told my management wanted to get rid of me.  I said well I dont think thats the case.  Union made it way worse.  I was actually quite upset with both sides when we had a meeting as they get entrenched and argue like school children.

The unions in BC circulated blatant propaganda pumping the BC NDP here last election. I just couldn't believe they were blowing member dues on radio ads, print media and even TV ads, all to try and convince the electorate to put in a government that would just bend over on behalf of taxpayers and give the unions everything they want. Like how dumb did they think we voters were? I am not saying I favour an anti-union government either, but it should be illegal for unions to spend member dues on crap like this. It just basically says "we want the NDP in power as they give us everything we want, and who cares about the taxpayers". That's just not right.

I heard a story from the Pawley era that the unions were so entrenched during Pawley's government that they even had representatives in the offices of cabinet ministers at the Legislature, and nothing could be authorized as a proposal without the union's consent. That really made me angry. Talk about having a lot of power without being elected! I don't know if that story is true, but it wouldn't surprise me, given how truly awful that NDP government was. Just the worst.

[The Unknown Poster]

If I recall there was talk a couple of years ago about making it public where dues were being spent and members being able to opt out.  I pay dues to the union to represent me at my place of work.  I know the unions argument is that it benefits me to have an NDP government but that's really an idealogical debate.  If they have money to spend on advertising campaigns for political parties then clearly they are charging too much for dues and we should get a refund.

 

Union still think it's 1912.  There is an ad where they brag about all the things Unions introduced.  Great.  Now we have them.  Collective bargaining is great but every CBA I've been a part of, you can pretty much know exactly what the agreement will look like before the fighting and mud slinging and threats start.  The best union I ever belonged to was when I was 19 and worked security.  I was paid minimum wage and worked alone.  So once you factor in dues, I made less than minimum wage.  Effective union.

[kelownabomberfan]

If I recall there was talk a couple of years ago about making it public where dues were being spent and members being able to opt out.  .

This is what they are doing in Wisconsin, allowing union members to opt out of paying dues in jobs where being in a union used to be mandatory. The unions of course freaked out and have been fighting like crazy to get Walker out as governor, but to no avail. Something had to give.

[rebusrankin]

Filmon had to deal with Pawley's mess and declining transfer payments. Don't forget Chretien took over 20 billion out of the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 94/95. Huge reason, Manitoba and all provinces made cuts back then.

[Mark H.]

I know my union spends my union dues supporting the NDP and telling all of us we need to keep those big, bad Tories out of power.

 

Filmon had to deal with Pawley's mess and declining transfer payments. Don't forget Chretien took over 20 billion out of the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 94/95. Huge reason, Manitoba and all provinces made cuts back then.

 

You're either exaggerating or uninformed.  Did you know teachers in big bad union-unfriendly Alberta can take five personal leave day per year?

[Mark H.]

Manitoba's reliance on transfer payments has been mentioned several times.  Transfer payments as a percentage of total government revenue are sitting at about 25%.  They used to be 40%.

[rebusrankin]

eDIT

[GCn20]

The thing with the unions and NDP is that they are one and the same. Unions have been running our province for the better part of the last 30 years. Anyone who thinks otherwise only needs to look at the shameful leadership convention we just witnessed. ONE union cut a deal and decided who our premier should be. SHAMEFUL, that on a party level the NDP functions this way, SHAMEFUL, if the people of Manitoba allow this to continue.

 

My wife is a member of the MGEU, they are a year without a contract because both the government and the union have agreed to delay the proceedings because of the NDPs sagging poll numbers. Instead of cutting the fat, or Filmon Fridays, which would be responsible government. Let's delay the contract, and pay the union in the end for doing so. It's only taxpayer money. Thing is the new contract will be signed before the next election, and I will bet you dollars to donuts that it will see the civil service get a decent raise but will contain all kinds of other hidden goodies. Get ready for a no-layoff clause for the 2nd straight MGEU master agreement, that leaves the Tories without option to cut the fat for a few years. They will introduce all kinds of new "quality of life" goodies as well.

 

What is really shameful is that right now the NDP have an unofficial hiring freeze throughout the civil service because they don't want to appear to be growing the civil service. HOWEVER, instead of hand picking which jobs to lose through attrition or simply eliminate due to a bloated mid management level, they are putting it on front line essential service workers. Therefore, for political optics, they are not filling a position but choosing to pay current staffing levels double time to fill the void in overtime because the shift still must be filled because it is a service position. Tax abuse at it's finest. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this kind of financial management is to the detriment of ALL taxpayers. All so that the NDP can say that they are not growing the civil service AND keep the bureaucracy they have created, the cost of government is soaring AND so with it our deficit and rate of taxation..

[The Unknown Poster]

Great post GCN

 

Marty Gold had a great story on his show, City Circus this past week about ER wait times.  I cant believe we're still talking about this.  Now it's worse.  The wait times posted are a lie.  This was a cornerstone promise the NDP ran like 15 years ago.

 

I'd love to know what happens behind the scenes that causes such massive waits.  I used to work for Grace Hospital many, many years ago, doing the overnight shift.  And the doctors would try to get some sleep when they could.  The ER staff would sometimes engage the security staff to locate and wake up the doctor when there was sufficient volume in the waiting room.  In other words, if the waiting room wasnt full, the doctor wasnt being woken up. 

 

I wonder what would happen if a private clinic opened a 24 hour ER.  I bet they'd churn out patients pretty damn quickly.

[GCn20]

I really don't understand, whatsoever, why in the world people are against private clinics or hospitals for that matter. Would it create a 2 tier health system...yes it probably would....however, the top tier would be paid for by the people using it and it would undoubtedly lead to a vast improvement in public health care by reducing the load placed on it.

Just throwing it out there, but anything has got to be better than 24 hour wait times and people dying in wait rooms. Instead the argument is that ALL Manitobans should be equally subjected to crappy health care. It makes no sense.....UNLESS, of course, you ask the unions...and there is the rub.

To combat common sense, the NDP have erected yet another boogey man to scare Manitobans into believing that anything run by the private sector would be inherently evil. After all, if it's private the unions are not the puppet masters.

[The Unknown Poster]

Its all politics.  Ask the general idiot on the street and he will be scared of "private healthcare".  Ofcourse the fact that private delivery already exists is something ignored by the politicans.  How many of us suffer an injury go to the ER?  Unless it's the middle of the night, we go to Pan-Am. 

 

I broke my knee cap a few years ago.  Middle of the night.  Went to the ER at Mis.  Told to come back the next morning because their cast clinic was closed at night.  Keep in mind Im walking around with a knee cap that was broken in half.  Go back the next day.  Sent for an X ray.  Back down to ER.  Only then when a nurse saw the X-ray image did she react with shock that I was being sent all over the hospital with a broken knee.  The pain wasnt too bad and Im not a complainer.  She offered me a wheel chair but I said at this point, I can walk down the hall.  Long story short, I get a cast that rank the length of my leg from my ankle to my balls.  Doc told me to come back in six weeks.

 

Everyone I knew advised me to get a second opinion at Pan-Am but I had been scared off by stories of long wait times.  Honestly, wasnt that bad.  Pan-Am doctor had the cast removed saying for this type of injury keeping a cast on longer than a week or two would do more damage by atrophying my leg.  Even in that short period of time, I nearly fell over when it was cut off and my thigh had shrunk.  Had I waited the 6-8 weeks, I cant imagine what my leg would have looked like.

 

If you have standards in place, private delivery of public healthcare is not a problem.

[GCn20]

I think there are a great deal of horror stories like this. 2 years ago my 4 year old daughter fell off a trampoline at our cabin in Thompson. We took her to the ER at 10 pm. At 4:30 am she had still not been seen and fell asleep. She was in a great deal of pain prior so we asked the ER nurse how much longer we could expect to wait. She said that since our daughter was not considered critical it would be another 2-4 hours. We took her home and came back the next day.

Next day at 10 am we arrived and waited until 4:30 pm before she was seen by a doctor. He sent her for an X-ray, though he insinuated that she might just be faking for attention. A 4 year old faking for a 24 hour span? At any rate, the X-rays came back and she had broken her leg and the break was right by her growth ring of her bone. Off to Winnipeg for emergency surgery where we were advised that had this gone any longer there would have been a real danger of her leg bone never growing correctly. The surgeon even suggested off the record that we file a lawsuit for malpractice as she should have been examined much earlier with a suspected broken bone. I didn't bother. However, I have decided to become active and vocal against the RHA's. Our medical care in Manitoba is in shambles so that the NDP can play politics with hospital care through the formation of the RHAs.

 Had my daughter been crippled for life so that NDP cronies can sit on boards, they are quite frankly completely unqualified for and fleece the taxpayers for per diems, I would have lost it.

Egregious management by the NDP. It just goes on and on. Anyone sitting down and viewing the truth would see this but the NDP are masters of throttling thought by creating panic with their "boogeymen".

[17to85]

I think there are a great deal of horror stories like this. 2 years ago my 4 year old daughter fell off a trampoline at our cabin in Thompson. We took her to the ER at 10 pm. At 4:30 am she had still not been seen and fell asleep. She was in a great deal of pain prior so we asked the ER nurse how much longer we could expect to wait. She said that since our daughter was not considered critical it would be another 2-4 hours. We took her home and came back the next day.

Next day at 10 am we arrived and waited until 4:30 pm before she was seen by a doctor. He sent her for an X-ray, though he insinuated that she might just be faking for attention. A 4 year old faking for a 24 hour span? At any rate, the X-rays came back and she had broken her leg and the break was right by her growth ring of her bone. Off to Winnipeg for emergency surgery where we were advised that had this gone any longer there would have been a real danger of her leg bone never growing correctly. The surgeon even suggested off the record that we file a lawsuit for malpractice as she should have been examined much earlier with a suspected broken bone. I didn't bother. However, I have decided to become active and vocal against the RHA's. Our medical care in Manitoba is in shambles so that the NDP can play politics with hospital care through the formation of the RHAs.

 Had my daughter been crippled for life so that NDP cronies can sit on boards, they are quite frankly completely unqualified for and fleece the taxpayers for per diems, I would have lost it.

Egregious management by the NDP. It just goes on and on. Anyone sitting down and viewing the truth would see this but the NDP are masters of throttling thought by creating panic with their "boogeymen".

 

 

But this is how ER works. The most serious stuff gets looked at first and with a broken bone it's generally just a matter of dealing with the pain as opposed to anything being potentially life threatening. They will make people sit in pain if they're not likely to die on them while they prioritize people who might keel over if they have to wait. 

[The Unknown Poster]

They need to devise a way to deflect non-urgent care from the ER's also.  I've been in the ER many times over the last couple of years due to having sick and elderly parents and there are a lot of people there over night that "seemingly" are not urgent (I say seemingly because I cant know in all cases).

 

Here's another one.  If you are brought in via ambulance, the medics must wait with you until you're triaged and accepted by the ER.  It is not uncommon for ambulance patients to be lined up in the back hallway for ages.  Which means the ambulance is not able to attend to other calls.  Even better, when the medics are doing this, they bill health for it.  Why wouldnt patients brought in by ambulance immediately be triaged?

[The Unknown Poster]

 

I think there are a great deal of horror stories like this. 2 years ago my 4 year old daughter fell off a trampoline at our cabin in Thompson. We took her to the ER at 10 pm. At 4:30 am she had still not been seen and fell asleep. She was in a great deal of pain prior so we asked the ER nurse how much longer we could expect to wait. She said that since our daughter was not considered critical it would be another 2-4 hours. We took her home and came back the next day.

Next day at 10 am we arrived and waited until 4:30 pm before she was seen by a doctor. He sent her for an X-ray, though he insinuated that she might just be faking for attention. A 4 year old faking for a 24 hour span? At any rate, the X-rays came back and she had broken her leg and the break was right by her growth ring of her bone. Off to Winnipeg for emergency surgery where we were advised that had this gone any longer there would have been a real danger of her leg bone never growing correctly. The surgeon even suggested off the record that we file a lawsuit for malpractice as she should have been examined much earlier with a suspected broken bone. I didn't bother. However, I have decided to become active and vocal against the RHA's. Our medical care in Manitoba is in shambles so that the NDP can play politics with hospital care through the formation of the RHAs.

 Had my daughter been crippled for life so that NDP cronies can sit on boards, they are quite frankly completely unqualified for and fleece the taxpayers for per diems, I would have lost it.

Egregious management by the NDP. It just goes on and on. Anyone sitting down and viewing the truth would see this but the NDP are masters of throttling thought by creating panic with their "boogeymen".

 

 

But this is how ER works. The most serious stuff gets looked at first and with a broken bone it's generally just a matter of dealing with the pain as opposed to anything being potentially life threatening. They will make people sit in pain if they're not likely to die on them while they prioritize people who might keel over if they have to wait. 

 

I'd be awfully suspicious over a wait time THAT long.  The implication being that life-threatening issues are continually arriving for that length of time?  Possible, but not likely.  Especially as stated that the break had other complications due to the age of the child.

[Jaxon]

Manitoba's reliance on transfer payments has been mentioned several times.  Transfer payments as a percentage of total government revenue are sitting at about 25%.  They used to be 40%.

I don't know what time frame you are comparing to, but is the change in percentage due to reduction in transfer payments, or increase in other taxes?

 

I know that on a per capita basis, we draw way more money in federal transfer payments than all other provinces west of the maritimes.  We draw almost double of what everyone west of Quebec gets.   We draw more than Quebec.   I find it all quite embarrassing.   We need to be self sufficient.

 

What offends me even more, is the cost of subsidy that we provide to the territories.   Manitoba (per capita) $ 2,626  (2014-2015)   Quebec  $ 2,390    Yukon  $24,901   NWT $29,412  Nunavut  $40,352.

 

I don't mind helping others get through tough patches and offering short term assistance, but we need to let unviable communities close and move rather than subsidizing the HE** out of them year after year after year.

 

http://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp#Manitoba

[Mark H.]

 

Manitoba's reliance on transfer payments has been mentioned several times.  Transfer payments as a percentage of total government revenue are sitting at about 25%.  They used to be 40%.

I don't know what time frame you are comparing to, but is the change in percentage due to reduction in transfer payments, or increase in other taxes?

 

I know that on a per capita basis, we draw way more money in federal transfer payments than all other provinces west of the maritimes.  We draw almost double of what everyone west of Quebec gets.   We draw more than Quebec.   I find it all quite embarrassing.   We need to be self sufficient.

 

What offends me even more, is the cost of subsidy that we provide to the territories.   Manitoba (per capita) $ 2,626  (2014-2015)   Quebec  $ 2,390    Yukon  $24,901   NWT $29,412  Nunavut  $40,352.

 

I don't mind helping others get through tough patches and offering short term assistance, but we need to let unviable communities close and move rather than subsidizing the HE** out of them year after year after year.

 

http://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp#Manitoba

 

 

No one is self-sufficient, not even Alberta.  Given the differences in resource base, I'm not surprised our transfers are about double what Alberta's and Saskatchewan's are.   

[Mark H.]

Okay, I found some info I was looking at a few weeks ago.  Check out some of the budget records, going all the way back to 1997.

 

http://www.gov.mb.ca/finance/provincialbudgets.html

 

Go into Financial Review and Statistics and compare our Own Source Revenve vs. Government of Canada revenue.

 

Example: the budgets in the late 90's drew almost 40% of their revenue from the Government of Canada.

[Mr Dee]

The way we do any kind of Health Care in this Country needs to be re-examined. To simply blame the erosion on any one Government, be they Liberal, NDP, or Conservative is over-simplification. They all got us into to this mess and nobody, so far, has the footballs to propose changes that will address the problem. Why? Because they fear the proposed radical changes will get them voted out, so they keep wasting and wasting, because "that's just what it costs".

And we accept it.

[GCn20]

The way we do any kind of Health Care in this Country needs to be re-examined. To simply blame the erosion on any one Government, be they Liberal, NDP, or Conservative is over-simplification. They all got us into to this mess and nobody, so far, has the footballs to propose changes that will address the problem. Why? Because they fear the proposed radical changes will get them voted out, so they keep wasting and wasting, because "that's just what it costs".

And we accept it.

 

You may be right. However, you can't tell me for one second that the RHAs don't make the issues even worse. The BRHA in Thompson is a prime example. Two fishermen from Norway House sit on that board strictly for political reasons. Nice guys, but they don't have a hot clue about medical or hospital management.