Breaking Down Saskatchewan's COVID-19 Health Care Funding
Great news: Saskatchewan has TOO much money in health care. So then what's the problem? Who's the problem?
On April 14, 2021, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Health Paul Merriman dislocated all of his joints.
I’m assuming he did, anyway, given how hard he pretezeled himself trying to explain how he and Scott Moe used federal COVID-19 funds for health care during the pandemic.
So let’s start with the punchline - in its 2020-21 financial report, the Saskatchewan Health Authority reported a $1.5-billion surplus. At the end of that fiscal year, $366-million of that surplus was cash; $352-million in the bank and another $14-million in investments.
In the first full fiscal year of the pandemic only, the SHA carried a $120-mil (cash) surplus and an $80-million capital surplus. A total of $1.5-billion, when added to the SHA’s $1.3-bil accumulated surplus, which in addition to the cash is primarily comprised of its tangible assets (property).
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