Looks like public hospitals in British Columbia, Canada, will have to cut patient services in order to comply with global warming laws established by the provincial government. The Surrey Leader reports:
The Lower Mainland’s health authorities will have to dig more than $4 million a year out of their already stretched budgets to pay B.C.’s carbon tax and offset their carbon footprints.
Critics say the payments mean the government’s strategy to fight climate change will further exacerbate a crisis in health funding.
“You have public hospitals cutting services to pay a tax that goes to another 100 per cent government-owned agency,” NDP health critic Adrian Dix said.
“That just doesn’t make sense.”
The Fraser Health Authority will pay $616,000 in carbon tax this year, rising to $821,000 next year, officials there said.
And by 2010 Fraser will also be paying $1.3 million a year to the province’s Pacific Carbon Trust to offset its projected 52,600 tonnes of carbon emissions released….
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority also expects its costs will be close to $2 million next year in combined carbon tax and offset payments.
And while human life is threatened, of course, the stated objective of global warming kooks is once again undermined:
Dix warned that some of the potential cuts – such as closing the ER at Mission Memorial Hospital – would actually increase carbon emissions by sending patients further afield.
“Obviously when you shut down regional centres it makes people travel farther to get to their health care facility,” he said.
Meanwhile a hospital executive states his greater concern for plant life than heartbeats:
Vancouver Coastal chief financial officer Duncan Campbell said his health authority believes the payments are appropriate and isn’t asking for any exemption from Victoria.
“For us to go back and ask for an exemption wouldn’t fit in well with our green care plans,” he said.
Did they hire this guy away from Planned Parenthood?
RSS Updates 
RSS E-Mail Updates 
CEI.org
I’m the Chief Financial Officer at Vancouver Coastal Health. I’d like to clarify some facts about how we budget to care for our patients. There will be no cuts to patient services in any of our hospitals as a result of the carbon tax and offsets. This year we are paying $800,000 in carbon tax and offsets, out of a total annual budget of $2.8 billion. Yes, our total bill might be $2 million next year, but we will cover this through conservation measures and administrative cost efficiencies. In fact, last year through technology upgrades we cut our ongoing utility bills by $450,000 per year and we have more of these projects in the pipeline. We don’t need to make reductions to patient care to pay these taxes.
Mr. Campbell, did IBM fired you because of your similar "financial expertise"?
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 4 trackbacks }