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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-12-13, Page 13Johns speaks out on omnibus bill By JOHN GREIG Signal -Star Staff Ontario's government recently introduced a 200 - 'page bill to amend many of the fundamental ways in which government .is organized in Ontario. But the bill transfers controversial powers to the government, including the ability for cabinet ministers to open a person's medical files, the creation of a tribunal to force closures or reorganization of hospitals and charging people for access to personal information the government has about them. The opposition parties forced more public hearings on the bill last week with an over night sit-in at the Legislature. SS -- Could you tell me what the goals of the omnibus bill are? JOHNS -- Well I guess the basic goal of the bill is to restructure government and allow us to change the way the government operates in Ontario. It's a hard call because there's so many different parts to it but, that's the fundamental thing, we believe government needs to be restructured to get ecomonic viability back to Ontario. SS -- What about the reaction to the bill? JOHNS -- Well, Nhink that part of the reaction was that . the opposition wanted us to give more time to,public consultation. We felt we did it by offering it to go to three committees over one 'week. In effect we allowed the same amount of time as we eventually agreed to, although they wanted it extended until the new year, and we wanted it to be over with by the end of the year. We gave in to them basically. What I think about that, as you know I'm a firm believer that the debt is too high and it's costing. us all a lot of money and I'd like to act as quickly as we can. I'd like people to have the opportunity to tell us what they like and don't like about the bill, but on the other side we're dealing with $1 million an hour that we're spending more than • we're receiving in revenue. So I don't want to lolli$ag, either, there has to be Some concern about cost also. SS -- Some parts of the bill were controversial, such as the potential for cabinet ministers to open individual medical documents. JOHNS -- Well, that's how they're wording it. I see it in a different way. What we're going to do is we're trying to attack fraud. At this particular point, if a. doctor sends in a billing, we have no way of actually checking to see if he did the work for the client. So if we have significant proof that doctors are fraudulently billing, we need that ability to be able to go and check that client's record to tie it in to what they've billed OHIP. We don't do this obviously lightly. There has to be complaints from the general manager and there has to be maybe a review process that goes on. But I believe the Ontario taxpayer wants us to control fraud and make surf; that money spent on health care is truly being spent on front-line health care. So that's the difference between what they're saying and what I'm saying. SS -- It's something people have always seen as a sacred bond between a doctor and a patient• and there was no government official who could open that. JOHNS -- Well, no, under the Independent Health Facilities Act, you could do that prior to this period. You always were able to do that under portions of the act. It just hasn't been widespread throughout the act. Now we've just asked for that to happen. Obviously with that we have a sacred trust still between a patient and a doctor, but what we can do is ' take the financial information and we can tie in what they said they did to the client's record. So we'll be able to eliminate some fraud. SS -- I was wondering when you knew about the details of the bill? I'd heard there were backbenchers who found out about the details of the bill when it was tabled. JOHNS -- Well, because I work in health, I know something different before other people who work in other areas. So from my standpoint, the hospitals knew about some of it. I met with the Clinton hospital a week before the omnibus bill came out and talked to them abput cuts in the bill. There were portions we all knew about before the bill. We certainly knew the content from a number of weeks before as we started to talk about what was going on. Most of the ideas and concepts in the bill were outlined in the Common Sense Revolution. So from that standpoint, there were really no surprises in the omnibus bill. The micromanagement issue of how they were going to happen is different than the overall issue, but were certainly part of the overall plan of the Common Sense Revolution. SS -- I think it was some of the micromanagement issues that people have been concerned about. Such as the tribunal that could close hospitals. JOHNS -- The previous government asked a group of people to come together, under the district health councils, to look at how their communitywanted to have health care, and find out what would be the right approach for them in their community. We have 60 of those studies underway at this point. When the community decides how best to do it, what they need to have to continue their health care. We somehow need to have the ability to implement that process. We haven't had any ability to be able to implement that process. We, intend to pass that ability on 10 a restructuring committee who will implement that process and it allows the communittee to obtain what they want to obtain, ie. the best healthcare in the community for the amount of money the'community has available to it. SS -- One thing we're interested in is changes to access to information. People will now be charged to access their own personal information. Doesn't that indicate a switch in direction? JOHNS -- Well, there's a lot of controversy on that., There's been a lot of information that has come out that has cost taxpayers, you and I, a lot of money. For example there's a person Shop promotes Huron BY AMY NEILANDS CLINTON - The Made in Huron Shop allows for the promotion of products made entirely in Huron County. Allan Dettwciler has brought "30 businesses under one roof' with this co-operative style business located in Clinton on Victoria Street. "People. 'working co- operatively together has been an idea of mine for a long time," said Dettweiler. "It (the shop) grew out of that." Promoting local products such as woodworking, baking, crafts and art, Dettweiler stated that this is the first time there has been a shop with products from one specific geographical arca. "Products must be made in Huron County and by Huron County people; that's the only rule." hard to support local mcr- "Huron County is unique," chants." said Dettweiler. "Here we the sellermust stay all day promote Huron County people with their products. "It's a and their ideas and products." wasted day...Here they can Including an art gallery on spend more time doing what the second floor, the shop hosts they do best - producing their the products from 18 people product." from all over the county. "We have worked together co- Rentals for space in the shop operatively to make something run from $60 to $110 per happen," he stated. "And by month and the art gallery runs working together we can be on a straight 30 per cent com- successful with what we do." mission. Dettweiler noted that For those who are looking for there are 15 spots left for rent ways to display their own and he is' hoping for more products, they can devote more products from the south of the time to their products as Det- county. tweilcr runs the shop. "They rent the spot, set up their DcUweiler noted that com- display, design it the way they ments from visitors to the shop want to and I sell for them," he have been positive. "People are stated, adding that with selling thrilled with the idea and are at flea markets, for example, aware that we need to work ,t. G, • 'to"' o,� Save 30% Direct Diamonds .25 cts .33 cts .40 cts .50 cts .75 cts 1.00 cts Reg. Reg. Reg. Reg. Reg. Reg. $8-75.1)3 51225,00 4659.00 $200 o0 $42-25.C° 6995 00 Now Now Now Now Now Now 5599.00 5850.00 51150.00 51800.00 52950.00 54925.00 Save Hundreds Even Thousands (Styles & Prices vary by store) Anstett Jewellers since 1960 MAIN CORNER, CLINTON 482-3901 NOW OPEN TEL 9 P.M. tor your Christmas Shopping convenience, except Saturday. Dec. 16 L 23, open Iii 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 17 Closed, Open Sunday Dec. 2412.5 p.m. in a jail who actually got the plans to the jail; got how much salary everybody in the institution made. There's beena lot of abuse of the system. It's been taking hundreds of bureaucrats a lot of time to get the information. So what we're saying is if it's important .to you, you won't mind paying a bit for photocopying or paying the cost of having someone pull these documents out for you. So we're asking people to make sure the information is important information and will be utilized. SS -- Won't a lot of those costs put it beyond the reach of the average person? JOHNS -- Well, you either pall for it as a person, or as a taxpayer. Basically you're paying for it one way or the other. SS -- Did you think there would be such a backlash to the bill? JOHNS -- I don't quite see it as a backlash. It seems like it's a word being put in my mouth. I think that people still want to get on with the restructuring. They don't think we can wait too much longer. From that standpoint, there hasn't been a big backlash of a lot of people in my office saying don't do this. People still believe that the most important thing in Ontario is getting the financial house back in order. If this is what has to take place, be careful of the power, but if that's what it takes to get it going in the right direction, well, we'll have to put up with that. I think people are asking us to be cautious, but I think they're asking us firstly to get our fiscal house in order, because we haver to have it there for, our kids and grandkids. 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