Almost 18 months after winning a decisive majority,Islanders still have no idea what Premier Robert Ghiz stands for or moreimportantly what his vision for the Island is.
In politics, the first 18 months of a mandate is reservedfor substantive, and more often than not, controversial decisions. Decisionsthat need to be made for the betterment of the whole.
Robert Ghiz has squandered this window of opportunity. It’sone thing to pump out self-congratulatory press releases. It’s another todeliver real change. And on this front the Ghiz government is like a deercaught in the headlights. It is frozen by indecision.
Health care is just the latest in a growing list of weakleadership.
The former Conservative government promised a new singlehospital for West Prince. It even set aside $22 million for its construction.Robert Ghiz campaigned on a promise to freeze that decision for 30 months,allowing him the time to examine the whole issue of health care delivery in WestPrince.
Well it didn’t quite take 30 months, but the ‘decision’government ultimately made isn’t really a decision at all. It will continue tooperate both Western Hospital in Alberton and Community Hospital in O’Leary.Taxpayers will spend in all likelihood millions upgrading the bricks andmortar. But at the end of the day, what will government accomplish.
It will not improve its ability to recruit and retaindoctors.
It will not improve its ability to recruit and retainnurses.
It will not improve its ability to delivery a broader rangeof services.
It will not deal with the pressing need to replaceAlberton’s aging manor.
It will do nothing to deal with the very real issue of anaging demographic – not only in West Prince, but across PEI.
If Robert Ghiz wants to keep both hospitals open where ishis plan to deal with all the issues that decision will create? Where is themoney to pay for it?
Whether a centralized hospital is the best option orconverting one of the two current facilities into a regional facility is amatter of fair public debate. Thereal issue is the Ghiz government has opted to do nothing but delay necessarydecisions to some future date.
That’s not leadership.
Nor is it leadership to squash the initiative of Georgetownin its efforts to attract a physician. Without help from the province, the townis prepared to finance and build a medical clinic that would also include apharmacy. The town recruited a doctor willing to staff the clinic on a regularbasis.
That’s not good enough for the bureaucrats in the massiveDepartment of Health, even though such an idea could likely save taxpayersmoney in the long run. The plan was rejected because the department’s priorityis to fill the complement of physicians in Montague and priority is being givento a doctor who will work in Montague’s emergency room.
It’s the type of rigid, unimaginative thinking that doeslittle to move the Island forward. Filling the physician complement isimportant. But so too is supporting communities struggling to survive.
Georgetown is on the cusp of redefining itself. GeorgetownShipyard is a world leader. New restaurants and businesses have opened. Thelong suffering capital of Kings County has even managed to attract 50 newresidents – a very impressive feat considering the opposite is true invirtually every corner of rural PEI.
To get to the next level, Georgetown needs a doctor and apharmacy. And it needs provincial government willing to look for imaginativeways to achieve competing ends rather than bureaucrats nixing good ideasbecause it will mess up their spreadsheets.
Why is Alan Campbell, the newly minted minister responsiblefor rural PEI, not defending the very rural communities he is paid to defend?
Islanders expected more from Robert Ghiz. He promised a newway of governing. He promised a revitalization of rural PEI.
Yet, all he has managed to deliver in 18 months is a load ofrhetoric.