Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[8 Ball]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

What sort of useless crap would you cut?

It would be difficult letting go of the support staff, but I would privatize that. We don’t really need to pay someone 50.00/dollars an hour to spend a week working on an incubator that they send back to the manufacturer to fix anyway. Paying a plumber two weeks to call in a private company to change a diaphragm in a flush valve in the nurses bathroom.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by 8 Ball

It would be difficult letting go of the support staff, but I would privatize that. We don’t really need to pay someone 50.00/dollars an hour to spend a week working on an incubator that they send back to the manufacturer to fix anyway. Paying a plumber two weeks to call in a private company to change a diaphragm in a flush valve in the nurses bathroom.

Is there enough large companies that can support this at a lower cost while maintaining the ability to have competition between providers and will disruptions when providers change be worth it.

Are the savings going to be real or is the level of service going to be cut to make it appear like it works?

Do we have good evidence that exporting these services has worked?

Which lab services are the lowest cost per test for the province?

I think you need to be careful with privatization of it creates an oligopoly.

[Roughneck]

If it's like other deals the provincial government has made over the past 50 years, it will just be a contract to a company of a former government staffer or other crony.

[MoneyGuy]

If this premier is returned and insists on implementing her policies it will cause harm to health care and who knows what else that will take many years or decades to remedy.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by GGG

Is there enough large companies that can support this at a lower cost while maintaining the ability to have competition between providers and will disruptions when providers change be worth it.

Are the savings going to be real or is the level of service going to be cut to make it appear like it works?

Do we have good evidence that exporting these services has worked?

Which lab services are the lowest cost per test for the province?

I think you need to be careful with privatization of it creates an oligopoly.

Let’s find out.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by GGG

Is there enough large companies that can support this at a lower cost while maintaining the ability to have competition between providers and will disruptions when providers change be worth it.



Are the savings going to be real or is the level of service going to be cut to make it appear like it works?



Do we have good evidence that exporting these services has worked?



Which lab services are the lowest cost per test for the province?



I think you need to be careful with privatization of it creates an oligopoly.

BC privatized lots of support staff to save money and they just ended it as the savings were small but the headaches big

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

BC privatized lots of support staff to save money and they just ended it as the savings were small but the headaches big

Ya, but free market Alberta will be different. Data isn't important here.

[Dynamic]

Originally Posted by 8 Ball

It would be difficult letting go of the support staff, but I would privatize that. We don’t really need to pay someone 50.00/dollars an hour to spend a week working on an incubator that they send back to the manufacturer to fix anyway. Paying a plumber two weeks to call in a private company to change a diaphragm in a flush valve in the nurses bathroom.

I think the part to remember is that this concept that letting support services to essentially be farmed out is NOT going to be some dream utopia of competition that maintains the level of same level of service for a lower cost. It is usually sold to simpleton conservatives as modest savings to start. But over time eventually these private companies will "game the system" as much as they can. Many of these support services are in niche industries with limited competition anyways.

People are expecting it to be like grocery stores where stores selling to the same consumer all are pretty close in price and are highly competitive. In reality it will be like our telecom industry. High prices, terrible service. A few major players that just all collude to bend over the taxpayer anyways.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, but free market Alberta will be different. Data isn't important here.

Wages were cut almost in half and pensions lost, which sounds like it should be a savings. However, after a few years the contracts were close to the same cost due to fewer bidders on the contracts as they couldn't find labour for that cheap

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Wages were cut almost in half and pensions lost, which sounds like it should be a savings. However, after a few years the contracts were close to the same cost due to fewer bidders on the contracts as they couldn't find labour for that cheap

Ya, I never understood the line of thinking that by adding a layer of profit taking, it will somehow get cheaper without impact.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, I never understood the line of thinking that by adding a layer of profit taking, it will somehow get cheaper without impact.

It makes sense if you view it from the lens of government wages and inefficiency. But when the sector is this large and the buyer is still government the cost pressures and bureaucracy don't end up making much difference. A purely capitalistic market where the buyer wasn't government may lead to more cost pressures and lower costs, I dunno. But privatization here hurt the workers with little fiscal benefit in the long run

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Yoho

Let’s find out.

This is the wrong attitude. It’s let’s review the data of the experiments already done in Alberta and other jurisdictions and determine how and where to do it effectively.

Let’s find out does seem to be the conservative approach to privatization.

The problem with let’s find out is that changing process is expensive and hard to undo. You eliminate the government capacity to execute work. An example being a government option in telecom. We pay more because the government doesn’t provide competition and there is no real cost effective way to undo it.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, but free market Alberta will be different. Data isn't important here.

Trudeau has promised a large pool of new immigrants so between that and the TFW programs it should be easy to staff a contracted company of support staff for cheap.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Trudeau has promised a large pool of new immigrants so between that and the TFW programs it should be easy to staff a contracted company of support staff for cheap.

And it'd be cheaper still if the government just hired them. How does hiring workers, and then building a company needing extra staff to manage those workers, and then taking a profit from it result in cheaper costs?

Look at the costs Nova Scotia has, and they don't have a choice now:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...otia-1.6654186

[Yikes]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, but free market Alberta will be different. Data isn't important here.

Haha...classic.

[Yikes]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, I never understood the line of thinking that by adding a layer of profit taking, it will somehow get cheaper without impact.

Classic II...you are on a roll.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1593957131249647616

Pretty bang on.

[Yikes]

Originally Posted by Yoho

https://twitter.com/user/status/1593957131249647616

Pretty bang on.

Don't know about any of this but I for one am pretty thankful for the system we have. Our little to zero cost to me health care system has been looking after me since I was a little guy and I have zero complaints.

[PsYcNeT]

Pretty telling that the only people who push for private health options are the rich.

[Dynamic]

Originally Posted by Yoho

https://twitter.com/user/status/1593957131249647616

Pretty bang on.

Forgive my ignorance but who is Dusty Rose? From the looks of his followers he is some loser oil baron of some sort.

People who spew this polarizing garbage need to be shot into the sun. If you look at Canadian universal healthcare as a failure and "the worst" you are literally telling the world that you know nothing.