Firstly, the Sask Party cancelled the community mall project in downtown Saskatoon. Their reasons were very politically savvy; we need the money (8 million dollars) to make the healthcare system work better. A valid and noble thing, if they hadn't then announced they were spending 10 million on making patient records digital. That number only (to my knowledge) covers the digitizing of current medical records. It does not cover the people needed to continue transferring doctors notes to computer as they are filed, or the new terminals that will be needed in hospitals and clinics to allow nurses and other staff access to those files or to add notes to those files and still have a computer for ordering tests and the like. So they've already blown that 8 million and more and haven't been honest about the real cost of taking everything digital. I should say I think the idea of taking everything digital is a good ones in regards to the speed and ease of patient care, but the money and timing are ridiculous.
Then, some useless uber-conservative blogger posts a completely bigoted and hateful statement basically telling poor people to either take care of themselves or die. And wonder of wonders, the Sask Party has a link to that blog on their website. Kudos to Cam Broten for standing up and calling them on it.
Now in the last couple of days a tape (I think Pat Atkinson released it, with some perverse joy, on thursday) popped up showing some conservative MP's and MLA's and other party faithful making bigoted, sexist and just plain derogatory remarks. Of course this all happened 17 years ago, but that doesn't matter, does it? Of course not, these men said terrible things and they can't have changed in 17 years because people don't change right? Well, I'd hope so. Seventeen years ago you could still make fun of homosexuals or for that matter joke about beating them up or how nasty they were without anyone really batting an eye. You can still walk into almost any workplace and hear sexist, racist, and other bigoted jokes. But things have changed. Attitudes have changed. People have changed. Well, some people have changed. If society has changed so much, why can't people change? And if people can't change, then has society really changed or has the media and the legal system just given minorities so much power that people are afraid to say what they really think?
I will finish this post by saying that I don't want to hear any Christians condemning these men. People sin, and the whole basis of our Faith is that because of the mercy of Christ we are able to change. Perhaps these men haven't changed, but perhaps they have. Their parties certainly have enough things to pick on without dredging up something from 17 years ago to bring them down now out of spite or hatred (I'm looking in your direction NDP.)
4 comments:
Yup, I agree ... but I won't say much more than that (except that I miss talking politics and religion with you Matt!!!)
I am having a hard time weighing the issue of Station 20 West. I have a distinct feeling that we are not hearing the whole story, and that the Sask Party is not trying to throw the down-trodden to the curb. I am waiting to hear more facts and insight from Mr. Wall.
It sounded like a good development, but I have also hard a few decent arguments to the effect that its programming and design are fundamentally flawed.
One thing I've learned in my short career thus far in commercial architecture as a student, its that you shouldn't make too many plans that involve government money during an election. Projects can get pulled in a heart-beat, which is what happened here.
One interesting comment I read somewhere involved the idea of rehabilitating some other buildings that are falling into disuse or disrepair (eg. the newly sold Barry Hotel), as opposed to building a whole new building. It may not cost much less, but it would certainly be a more sustainable approach.
I'm not entirely convinced of the Station 20 thing either, mainly because I really hadn't heard a terrible lot about it before this. I have heard that this was basically spent money, and what I mean is that it wasn't the Sask party's money to spend anymore.
I also talked to someone whose nephew was involved in a project to digitize to health records system a few years ago. She said after a couple years working on it they walked away from the project because the security issues and the shear mass of information was too much to overcome in any reasonable fashion.
I would be interested to hear why you think the Station 20 project was flawed Wade. Awaiting your thoughts...
Marie
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