Whatever on earth did Ravi Kahlon do to deserve this?
There he was, sailing along as B.C.’s Jobs and Economic Growth Minister, a mostly good-news ministry that was all about the economy and job creation.
He woke up one morning last week to find himself the province’s new Health Minister and as such is now presiding over a portfolio that has become a bit of a political train wreck.
Kahlon is replacing Josie Osbourne, who is now B.C.’s Finance Minister. She in turn replaced Brenda Bailey, who had to step aside when she was diagnosed with treatable cancer.
In making the cabinet changes, Premier David Eby has put two of the most widely speculated successors to his job (the other being Attorney-General Niki Sharma) in two of the most difficult portfolios in that cabinet.
Osborn goes from the health care frying pan to the finance ministry dumpster fire. Gargantuan deficits and incredibly rising provincial debt levels await her. What fun she will have.
She comes into the post as the process to build next spring’s budget begins in earnest. Osborne will discover soon enough how much control she has over its construction and how much will be dictated by the premier’s office.
Indeed, the budget Bailey introduced this year seemed to have the premier’s office’s fingerprints all over it. Can Osborne avoid the politically tone deafness that was a main theme of that budget?
Things like making all kinds of changes to the provincial sales tax, delaying the construction of long-term care homes and nickel and diming all sorts of things drew heavy criticism with little to show for it when it came to the government’s bottom line.
We should know next February when Osborne delivers her first budget who its true architect really was.
As for the soon-to-be beleaguered Kahlon, he can look forward to getting pummeled in question period when the legislature resumes sitting in October (of course, that assumes the now-floundering B.C. Conservative caucus can get its act together and repeat its good performance it had under former interim leader Trevor Halford; the jury remains out about that).
He should look to Osborne’s performance as health minister as a blueprint of how to handle things. She never shied away from criticism and remained a steadfast defender of those who work in the system.
And Osborne did not try to justify things likely chronically closing rural hospital emergency wards and the ongoing human resource shortages that are driving so many of the problems.
Things are not going to get better in the health care system anytime soon. The population is rapidly aging and that will put ever-increasing pressure on a system already staggering under the weight of population growth right now.
Cancer cases will steadily rise with that aging population and there is little reason to think the problem of closed rural (and occasionally urban) ERs is going to be solved overnight.
Welcome to the health care frying pan, Mr. Minister!
Keith Baldrey is Global BC’s legislature bureau chief.
Keith.Baldrey@globalnews.ca
