I have a lot of questions swirling around my tiny brain after the signing ceremony for a partnership to bring an MRI diagnostic imaging unit to Cold Lake (see August 18 story on my Authory main page).

Healthcare is, of course a provincial responsibility. The MRI deal with CGA Medical Imaging is a response to Alberta Health Services’ decision that Cold Lake isn’t a priority for a permanent MRI service, and that we would continue to be served by AHS’s mobile MRI.

Are we letting AHS off the hook by establishing our own medical services? Cold Lake already owns a medical clinic, and is now financing the MRI. Is this another downloading of provincial responsibilities to our municipal ratepayers?

On the other hand, if municipal governments have the resources to fill in the gaps, in the interests of their citizens’ health, shouldn’t they do so?

There’s a forgotten name in Canada’s proud history of public healthcare. We’ve all heard of Tommy Douglas, the Baptist preacher-turned-politician who implemented Canada’s first provincial healthcare system in Saskatchewan. He later championed that model at the federal level, leading to the Canada Health Act. Douglas is remembered as The Father of Canadian Medicare.

There was also a grandfather.

Matt Anderson was a successful farmer and skilled carpenter who lived near Bulyea, Saskatchewan. Born in Norway, he served on the council of the Rural Municipality of McKillop from 1922.

During the “Dirty Thirties,” many families faced hardship and tragedy because there was no money to pay medical bills. In 1938, now as reeve of the RM of McKillop, Anderson introduced a plebiscite seeking support for a municipal healthcare plan. The vote passed.

Anderson’s municipal plan cost $5.00 per person to a maximum of $50 per family. Residents of the RM were covered for unlimited access to a municipal doctor, 21 days hospitalization, and prescription drugs (the drug component was dropped after 16 months).

The plan covered 2,350 people in the RM of McKillop, the town of Strasbourg, and the villages of Bulyea and Silton. The region was established as Health District No. 1 (fitting for Bulyea, where the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s No. 1 elevator still stands).

The model was adopted in many Saskatchewan municipalities and formed the basis for Douglas’s 1947 provincial plan. Other provinces followed suit.

Canada’s public health system has come a long way from its roots in small-town Saskatchewan, but health care is expensive and the cost is growing. The provinces, who must live by the Canada Health Act, demand money from the feds; but they reject any requirement that the federal money be spent on healthcare.

Federal, provincial, and municipal governments are all funded by the same taxpayer. In that sense it doesn’t matter which level of government takes the initiative on health projects—if there’s a bill to be paid, we’ll end up paying it.

Thanks to Matt Anderson, there is a precedent for municipal involvement in public health. And the success of his plan led to higher levels of government taking the burden off the municipalities.

But when higher levels of government crow about their fiscal responsibility, but leave municipalities to untangle the problems, are we maybe going backwards?

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Five bucks won’t buy much healthcare anymore