Your hosts- Lynn, Carmel, and Marc
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A lawsuit brought about by a doctor in west coast British Columbia has the potential to radically change, even bring about the collapse of Canada’s public health care system. The court case began this week.
The current system allows for equal access to health care, tests, surgeries and so on, for all Canadians, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.
The British Columbia doctor who operates a for-profit surgery clinic in Vancouver wants the right to charge whatever price he wants, and says rich people should be allowed to bypass the public system if they can pay.
He is making a constitutional challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. if Dr Brian Day wins the case, it could result in the overturning of the Canada Health Act and of publicly funded health care, which has become a pillar of Canadian society.
Marc spoke to Adam Lynes-Ford on his mobile phone from steps of the BC Supreme Court this week. Lynes-Ford is a campaigner with the British Columbia Health Coalition which has intervenor status in the case and begins with some background to the case
This past Monday was a national holiday in Canada. It’s called Labour Day, and it is a chance for workers to celebrate the Labour movement and its achievements. It’s also a chance for the Labour movement to talk about issues and improvements still to come
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), which represents about 3-million unionized workers, held a parade in Toronto Ontario on Labour Day
Lynn spoke to Barbara Byers, secretary-treasurer of the CLC who said the union is concerned about the growing lack of secure full-time jobs, especially for young workers, women, and newcomers, as well as issues like safety in the workplace.
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Bad news, but mitigated with some good news, for Canada’s commercial jetliner manufacturere, Bombardier Aerospace.
Their new line of jets, the C-series is already a couple of years behind schedule in delivery, and at least $2-billion over budget. Now they’ve announced further delays because their engine supplier, Pratt and Whitney is behind.
This is further bad news for the company.
The C-series was supposed to deliver substantial operational cost savings.
Carmel spoke to Ian Lee, associate professor at the Sprott School of Business in Ottawa, He says that in spite of the bad news, there is some good news for the company. That is that the planes it has managed to deliver are getting very good reviews from their customers. In addition to noise reduction, he says Lufthansa shows the planes are returning a 15-20 percent cost saving is extraordinary.
The week in images
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