Relevant to the determinants of health? - dr


Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000

Bills finally arrive on Harris anniversary

It is a year since Mike Harris was re-elected. And for the Premier it's now -
as Charles Dickens said in another age - the best of times, the worst of
times.

The best of times could hardly have been better just a month ago.

The no-deficit budget brought down on May 2 promised the best times of all
for millionaires - $70 million was set aside so a few thousand high-tech
gurus could earn $100,000 tax-free in stock options. Billions were committed
in corporate tax cuts stretching far into the future.

And there was still $1 billion to hand out in $200 cheques, or less, to each
taxpayer.

It was a minor curiosity that Environment Ministry operating funds were cut
by another $16 million to their lowest level - in real terms - in 30 years.
And who noted that the government's ``Water Protection Fund'' was cut from
$160 million last year to $51 million this year?

Indeed, in post-budget days, a triumphant march on Ottawa seemed inevitable
as the Premier's fast friend, Tom Long, sought national power by promising a
``Common Sense Government'' just like Mike's.

And if all went well the $200 cheques would be in the mail just in time for a
fall election.

But the worst of times were already in the water supply of Walkerton,
bacteria soon to be joined by invisible little killers, E. coli.

And as the death in the water made its way to Walkerton's taps, and into the
public consciousness, the triumphal march has stopped. The flow for Tom Long
has ebbed.

Instead, a powerful perception has taken hold that the budgetary best of
times are inextricably linked by a chain of cause-and-effect to Walkerton's
worst of times.

The main link in the chain is a simple reality. The well-to-do drink water
like the rest of us. And for most of their lives, they have felt safe and
secure, just like the rest of us, with turning on the tap, filling a glass
and drinking it down. And now where will their bottled water come from?

Walkerton, now, is more than a terrible tragedy. It is a metaphor for a
profound change in how we see both past and future.

We are all from Walkerton now. We all know what that glorious budget has
cost.

And the entire rationale - ideology - that sacrificed health and safety for
lower taxes and a $200 bribe to vote for Tom Long has suddenly soured.

Harris has been true to his beliefs, of course. His choices have been simple,
even simplistic. But now the costs are clear, too.

They lie in our hospitals where the $70 million for tax breaks on stock
options almost equals the added operating money hospitals got a month ago to
deal with unprecedented lineups for care.

They appear in schools, where experienced teachers are being driven out in
favour of the inexperienced - and lower paid - in the name of improving
quality.

They appear in universities where rising average incomes of students' parents
signals that doors are closing on middle class and poorer families and their
kids.

They appear in harassed squeegee kids and equally harassed disabled people,
in homelessness, lost day care and lost liberties.

Everything Harris did to create his version of the best of times remains as
it was, of course, as he comes up to his re-election anniversary.

Everything, that is, except the belief Harris created that we'd never get a
bill for it. And now the bills have arrived and they're worse than anyone
imagined.