The latest addition to the files of Stupid Investments R Us comes courtesy of Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre (HSC). HSC decided it needed a new logo; apparently the old one was too antiquated and required some spicing up. A local designer was hired to do the job and what he came up with was, well, the same logo, turned 45 degrees, colours inverted and added "Winnipeg." The "new" logo cost taxpayers $25,000 which works out to $555 for every degree changed.

Instead of focusing on serious issues such as wait times, patient care and finding ER doctors to fill shifts, HSC bureaucrats apparently have the time and money to contemplate logos.

The HSC logo lunacy hit the news on the heels of a Statistics Canada report which showed the average wait time to see a specialist was six weeks in Manitoba, with the Canadian national average in at 4.3 weeks.

But wait, it gets worse. The Public Sector Compensation Disclosure report shows the CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) Dr. Brian Postl is raking in a hefty annual salary of $358,923. This is the same Dr. Postl who is in charge of a federal wait time committee selected by the previous federal government; Health Canada picks up about one-sixth of his salary.

Rounding out the top ten of highest paid bureaucrats at the WRHA are:

- Brock Wright, Chief Medical Officer - $273, 231;
- Sharon Macdonald, VP Community Health -$238,056;
- Pat Alexander, Director Quality Improvement - $186, 656;
- Paul Brewer, COO Food Services (resigned) -
$171, 745;
- Robert Robson, Director Patient Safety - $170,330;
- Paul Kochan, VP Finance - $168,188;
- Ian Fish, Chief Information Officer - $166,631;
- Real Cloutier, VP Long-Term Care - $166,631; and
- Harry Schulz, Chief Innovation Officer - $166,050.

The WRHA also employs an army of 328 people, including 95 directors and managers. Now you know where some of your tax dollars are going; it's little wonder patient care is suffering, there isn't any money left over to hire doctors and nurses who actually provide services.

Poll after poll has shown wait times are the number one concern for Canadians, yet the very people put in charge of the system would much rather spend time building empires and gussying up logos.

Worse yet are the billions of tax dollars we pay each year for a health system that is failing to deliver. Government efforts to solve the problem have been a resounding failure as health care now swallows up nearly 43 cents of every tax dollar collected with little or not improvement to outcomes.

As long as the WRHA and HSC continue to waste money, build empires and fail to address our ER crisis, patients will suffer and the system will continue to deteriorate. Governments can no longer just throw more money at this problem. It's time for significant reform of the system that including ending government's monopoly stranglehold over the system. In the meantime let's hope new letterhead and business cards are not WRHA's and HSC's next health care priority.