This article appeared in the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal on July 4, 2015

When Brian Gallant’s government was elected to govern last year it told New Brunswick that all options would be “on the table” to balance the budget and make the province’s public services more efficient. Instead taxes are going up, people are leaving and the economy isn’t moving.

“All options” should include a discussion about whether or not we need to have some duplication of government services, and a duplicate bureaucracy, based on language. The bilingual Mr. Gallant is well placed to have such a conversation. That is if he is up to the task of governing his bilingual province in these difficult times.

Let’s begin asking why a small province needs two separate health bureaucracies – the French Vitalite Health Network and the English Horizon Health Network – to run one provincial health system for approximately 750,000 people. Couldn’t a bilingual province operate with just one? 

As a result of having two health authorities, taxpayers shell out for two health authority presidents with salaries of around $225,000 each, two executive teams with salaries of each employee in the range of $125,000 and $175,000 and two separate boards of directors. This doesn’t even begin to get into the duplication further down in the organizations’ structure to front line services.

Provinces much larger than New Brunswick have a single health authority.

Alberta with a population of over four million people has just one health board. Closer to home, Nova Scotia with a population of just under a million people has moved to a one health board model, though the world-renown IWK children’s hospital is under separate administration.

Having just one board would result in less overhead, better management of health information and a more efficient system. If the government had better information about wait lists or responses to treatments, it would have a better idea of where to put precious resources. Instead information is lost through layers of government processes. And having fewer heath bureaucrats on the payroll could mean an increased number of doctors.

This is not a novel concept. Other government programs such as social services or environmental protection are delivered without dividing administration into French and English. So why has health care remained separate?

Of course, health boards are not the only area of the government where Fredericton spends money to keep two separate French and English programs.

The desire for separate school bus services based on language is currently under debate. The Minister of Education says that he is working to ensure all school kids ride on buses segregated by language – even if schools must be closed to pay for the extra buses. It is unacceptable to the Liberal government that 92 students in the province had to ride in non-segregated buses this year.

Dominic Cardy, leader of New Brunswick’s NDP, has wisely said any decision on busing should be made at a local level, based on local requirements. Instead of trying to manage buses from Fredericton, the minister of education should focus his attention on the province’s high illiteracy rate.

Instead, the minister has referred the bus issue to the Supreme Court to find out if the province has to provide French and English school buses. But that ruling could be months if not years away. In the meantime, taxpayers’ money will adopt an inefficient and costlier bus service that the Liberal government isn’t even sure it required under the law.

New Brunswick has been a bilingual province for the past 46 years. We should be asking how New Brunswick can respect its obligations to French and English communities, ensure language fairness, and save tax dollars while maintaining good public services without the need for a second, costly bureaucracy.

Kevin Lacey is Atlantic Director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. You can find more information at taxpayer.com