“They’ve clearly indicated that they’re sort of stepping away from the health portfolio as much as they possibly can,” said Allan Maslove, public policy professor at Carleton University.
“In terms of playing a role in what’s going to happen to the healthcare system at large or what’s going to happen to particular segments to it, like in the aboriginal population, they’ve clearly indicated they are no longer interested in being a player,” he added.
Health Canada will be expected to save $200.6-million by 2014-15, according to the 2012 budget. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research will be expected to save $30-million, Public Health will save $68-million in that time, and a number of organizations, like the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission and the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board will also be making cuts.
The National Aboriginal Health Organization and Assisted Human Reproduction Canada will be shutting down completely in the coming year.
In the past three weeks, more than 1,100 Health Canada employees have been told they could lose their jobs, and the department expects to cut a total of 840 positions. The department said that there are still a small number of employees who will receive affected letters at a later date.
Overall, more than 10,000 public servants have been told in recent weeks that their jobs may be cut due to the results of the federal government’s strategic and operating review. The government plans to achieve $5.2-billion in ongoing savings and cut 19,200 federal positions by 2014-2015.
“When you add all of these various cuts in the directorates, I don’t think anybody should be fooled that it won’t have a significant impact,” said NDP Health Critic Libby Davies (Vancouver East, B.C.).
Ms. Davies said that taken with the government’s non-negotiable decision on the rate of the Federal Health Transfers last December, the cuts are another example of the government shrinking the federal role in health care.
In December Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) announced that the next health care accord, which takes effect in 2014, would contain a six per cent funding escalator until 2017. From then on funding levels would be tied to nominal GDP, with a minimum funding raise of three per cent.
Unlike the previous accord, negotiated under Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, the government did not come to an agreement with the provinces, nor does the money come with any policy guidance.
Prof. Maslove said that in most cases, the cuts to organizations are not a source of significant savings for the government.
“I don’t think these are being done for fiscal reasons, let’s put it that way,” he said.
Carleton political science professor Scott Bennett said that the current budget cuts are a more cogent enactment of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) small government philosophy than past strategic reviews or budget freezes.
“His desire to see that, in so far as possible, groups within government are actually delivering services rather than promoting them or talking about them. Of course, this all has to do with creating a less expansive government, but there is more of a plan behind this than in some earlier cuts,” he said.
The National Aboriginal Health Organization, which was exclusively funded by the federal government, will be winding down by June 30 this year. For 12 years, the organization collected research about aboriginal health. It employed more than 30 health care research specialists, published the Journal of Aboriginal Health and more than 200 heath reports and fact sheets.
Before it shuts down, NAHO will be trying to negotiate the transfer of its intellectual properties to universities and health researchers.
According to Health Canada, the department shared the concerns of major aboriginal organizations like the Assembly of First Nations and the Inuit Tapariit Kanatami, who had withdrawn their support for the organization due to organizational and governance issues.
Upon the closure of NAHO, ITK president Mary Simon said that while ITK encouraged a restructuring of NAHO, the closure of its Inuit Tuttarvignat centre, which collected and disseminated information on Inuit-relevant health issues, would create a “serious void in Inuit health research and support.”
ITK itself is facing a 40 per cent cut to its health budget, due to the loss of $1.5-million in funding from the federal government.
“The announced cutbacks to federal health spending will have major and direct negative impacts on Inuit,” Ms. Simon said in a release April 17.
Conservative MP Colin Carrie (Oshawa, Ont.) the Parliamentary secretary to Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq (Nunavut), told Civil Circles that the government paid “special care and attention” when it reviewed health spending to ensure that front-line services to Canadians weren’t cut.
“In particular, community health care services in First Nation and Inuit Communities— where Health Canada plays a direct role—remain unaffected by these staffing changes,” he said of the cuts.
At Health Canada itself, Mr. Carrie said that almost 80 per cent of the jobs being cut due to the budget are “related to back office functions.”
The department will merge its back office functions with Public Health.
“We’re moving from two to one communications branch, two to one access to information branch, sharing some finance functions, and so on,” said Mr. Carrie.
He said the many of the job losses would come from eliminating this duplication. Health Canada also noted that of its 3,800 science-related jobs, about 150, or four per cent, would be cut.
“The largest staffing reductions within Health Canada were amongst employees who oversaw funding agreements with outside organizations, and who were part of the 400-person Policy branch,” said Mr. Carrie.
As part of a number of shrinkages in the department’s Science Policy Branch, the Science Policy Directorate will be closed, with some of its responsibilities being assigned to other parts of the department.
The Science Policy Directorate had five divisions, and its general mandate was to provide “leadership to integrate a strong science foundation and evidence into departmental decision-making.”
Mr. Carrie noted that the directorate was responsible for science co-ordination, not for conducting any research.
“Reviews of the group unfortunately showed that it wasn’t very successful in this regard,” he said.
He added that some things that the directorate did well, including an advisory panel for the deputy minister and an annual departmental science conference, will still be done by a different part of the department.
Mr. Bennett noted that most policy work undertaken by government departments is more program related that policy innovation.
“A lot of what goes on in departments is more program development with a view to program expansion or social marketing campaigns of various kinds,” he said.
Inside Health Canada, the Natural Health Products Directorate will also be cut. The group regulates natural health products sold in Canada.
“Savings within the Natural Health Products Directorate will be achieved through a combination of program and process efficiency measures using attrition, retirement and vacancy management strategies to minimize the impact of the cuts on Directorate employees,” said Health Canada spokesperson Stephane Shank.
The closure of Assisted Human Reproduction will save the government $8-million in 2012-13 and $9.5-million in subsequent years. The organization is being closed due to a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that limited the federal role in regulating the field. Health Canada will be taking over some of the organization’s leftover responsibilities after it closes in March 2013.
The department refrained from commenting on what would happen to the workers without giving them advance notice about what would happen to them.
At the National Research Council last week, 54 workers found out that their jobs would be affected by cuts.
Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, represents about 57,000 public service workers who are mostly scientists, technical workers and professionals.
His union represents the affected NRC workers. He said that the group was working on a way to make MRIs less expensive and more accessible for hospitals.
He said that he expected another wave of job cuts this week. He noted that some large government departments, such as Human Resources Skills Development Canada, and Public Works, had yet to check in.
While workers in some departments may be finding out what is going on at work this week, others will likely have to wait longer.
At Statistics Canada, for example, he noted that as the agency depends on getting paid to do work for other departments, it would be at the mercy of their ability to pay for statistical research.
“If other departments and agencies are having a hard time, and they can’t afford to use cost recovery, it’s going to be a direct impact on the workforce in StatsCanada,” he said, adding that about 85 per cent of the funds StatsCan gets for work goes towards paying salaries.
Mr. Corbett said that Treasury Board President Tony Clement’s (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) statement last week that it likely won’t be until spring 2013 that the details of the budget cuts are known was “probably the most accurate thing he’s said all along.”
“By the time this all sorts out, it could very well be the fall or the spring of next year,” said Mr. Corbett.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: JESSICA BRUNO
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