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Published in the Chronicle Herald on September 27, 2012 By Colin Busby With MPs back to work after their summer break, one task on their to-do list — found in the 2012 budget — is building a program to give financial support to employers of reservists on military leave. How they implement the plan will be crucial for Canadian employers and the reservists that they hire. Your local hospital’s…

Published in the Globe and Mail on April 26, 2012 By Gerard Boychuk Having won the Alberta election, Premier Alison Redford is now setting her sights on providing leadership in establishing the national agenda on health-care reform. In doing so, she won’t be able to ignore the issue of patient wait times. Wildrose may have lost the election, but it did propose some ideas in this regard that are…

Published in the Calgary Herald on January 24, 2012 By Colin Busby Ottawa surprised the provinces last month by unilaterally announcing that future federal support for health would grow more slowly, and would be tied to population growth and the strength of the economy. But most of the provincial premiers who gathered in Victoria last week saw it as a provocative snub. After loud throat clearing…

Published in the Financial Post on January 10, 2012 By Philippe Bergevin and Finn Poschmann With an eye on the Christmas shopping season, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last fall stood up for “irritated” Canadian consumers who persistently complained about high retail prices at home when cheaper buys were to be had south of the border. But rather than reducing barriers to cross-border bargain…

Published in the The Ottawa Citizen on June 13, 2012 By Ake Blomqvist and Colin Busby Changes to the fee structure of Ontario’s docs are stoking a fiery dispute between the Ontario government and physicians. But the current standoff takes the momentum out of physician-centred reforms with durable opportunities for cost savings in the health sector — such as having doctors commission care on…