Sometimes throwing money at a problem is the best solution.
In the case of B.C. doctors and teachers, the B.C. NDP government has done the right thing by handing them big pay raises because it’s the quickest way to address shortages in the classroom and in health care.
The B.C. Liberals all but blessed the announcement by Health Minister Adrian Dix that will see doctors go up in pay by about $135,000 per year. Except for a little grumbling from Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond about how the NDP plans to measure the effectiveness of the new spending, there’s not much to complain about.
There’s no need to task some civil servants to create spreadsheets when the only measurement that counts will be the ability of voters to obtain a family doctor and get in front of that doctor in a timely manner when needed. Add in the previous announcements (signing bonuses for new family doctors, faster recognition of internationally-trained physicians and more medical school spaces) and there should be some improvement soon on the health front.
Some of that will come from old-fashioned poaching from other provinces, especially from Alberta, where the United Conservative government there has been fighting with its doctors for years over pay and working conditions.
Let’s start with someone like Dr. Matthew Church, the cardiology chief resident at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. The Duchess Park and UNBC graduate (and Jeopardy! champion) left Prince George to go to medical school at Queen’s University in Kingston before landing in Alberta. Come on home, Dr. Church, if not to Prince George than to the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s in Vancouver, the province’s top cardiac care facility.
Meanwhile, B.C. teachers will move from the lowest-paid to some of the best-paid teachers in the country, thanks to increases between $6,000 and $8,500 per year. As with doctors, recruiting teachers starts with excellent pay and retaining them means keeping the ones trained in B.C. and attracting talent from elsewhere.
Both jobs require significant education and constant upgrading, while dealing with daily pressure from parents and patients. Both jobs are cornerstone positions for a healthy and thriving province. The service teachers and doctors provide is priceless, so paying and treating them well makes fiscal and political sense.
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
