Angry in the Great White North

One of the new ministries created by Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government in Ontario is the Ministry of Health Promotion:

The Ministry of Health Promotion was created on June 29, 2005 when Premier McGuinty asked the Honourable Jim Watson to become Ontario's first Minister of Health Promotion.

The Ministry will help Ontarians lead healthier lives by delivering programs that promote healthy choices and healthy lifestyles. To do this the Ministry will work closely with partners, stakeholders and all levels of government.

In addition, the Ministry will facilitate access to information and programs by partnering with various ministries, including the ministries of Health and Long Term Care, Education, Agriculture and Food, Children and Youth Services and Labour on initiatives that can target specific sectors of society.

So what is at the heart of healthy living that isn't already covered by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care? Well, the emphasis seems be on walking:

Working together to provide opportunities for healthy, active living is the most effective way to improve health for all Ontarians.

Our first priority will be our children and youth. Behaviours and attitudes developed in childhood last the rest of our lives. Healthy, active children become healthy, active adults. We will build a generation of healthier Ontarians.

So how much does this cost? In 2006-2007, the allocated operating expenses for this ministry topped $334 million.

The problem is that the spending isn't all that well defined:

The Ministry of Health Promotion was created to improve health outcomes for all Ontarians through healthy and active living. The Ministry's mandate is to champion health promotion, build on and enhance health promotion initiatives already in place, and improve, coordinate and deliver programs designed to contribute to healthy living and long-term wellness.

The ministry's focus on awareness, prevention, early identification and personal responsibility for health will help to reduce the need for intensive, costly treatment interventions and the strain on the health care system. By preventing problems from occurring, addressing issues early, and creating a healthy and physically active culture, Ontarians will have a greater opportunity to live longer, healthier active lives.

Yes, but what does that mean, exactly?

Salaries and wages ..................................................... 4,561,274
Employee benefits...................................................... 466,460
Transportation and communication ........................... 414,037
Services ...................................................................... 15,765,330
Supplies and equipment ............................................. 1,202,334
Transfer payments
Chronic Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion ..................... 80,348,864
Official Local Health Agencies ......... 187,144,775
Sport and Recreation Activities ......... 29,180,138

Total: 296,673,777

So the bulk of the money collected by the province goes to local health agencies. Didn't the Ministry of Health used to do this? In fact, it still does. According to the budget documents, the Ministry of Health delivered $221,427,170 to Official Local Health Agencies. Almost equal to what the Ministry of Health Promotion is delivering.

Chronic disease prevention? Officially that is the mandate of Public Health, also a branch of the Ministry of Health. Public Health got over $500 million as an operating budget. Not sure what $80 million to Health Promotion is supposed to do.

So why have two ministries stepping on each others toes?

And we still don't really have a grasp of what health promotion means, other than a more active lifestyle.

Maybe that's it. This serious stuff gets pulled off of other ministries and assigned to Health Promotion in order to give this ministry some gravitas and to deflect criticism that this ministry is just not all that important. But the real emphasis is on the fun stuff.

In fact, when you go through the Ministry of Health Promotion website, the entire site is about getting off the couch. There is Active2010, and the Communities in Action Fund, the Pause to Play advertising campaign, and the Trails Strategy.

No mention of the money that goes to Chronic Disease Prevention, unless it is the anti-smoking campaign. But $80 million for what? Smoking is virtually illegal in Ontario. And doesn't Public Health spend scads of money hunting down smokers where they might be hiding?

Local health agencies? You wouldn't know that nearly $200 million goes through this ministry to these agencies.

I have to say that the Ministry of Health Promotion really seems like the Ministry of McGuinty Promotion. The home page puts Dalton McGuinty's face front and centre, relegating Minister Jim Watson to a sidebar. Each of the headlines starts with "McGuinty Government this" and "McGuinty Government that", with each story about a recreation centre or free bike helmets being given to kids or how more smokers were found and dealt with.

And then there are the payouts. Here are the winners of this year's lottery:

Year-End Investments: Improving Quality of Life in Ontario

The McGuinty government is improving the quality of life for Ontarians by providing grants totalling almost $22 million for projects across the province. This year-end investment will support the work of the following recipients.

City of Clarence-Rockland: $3,000,000.00
Town of Cobourg: $1,350,000.00
Town of Moosonee: $1,330,000.00
City of Port Colborne: $3,000,000.00
City of Ottawa: $5,200,000.00
Greek Orthodox Metropolis: $1,000,000.00
City of Windsor: $4,000,000.00
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario: $3,000,000.00
TOTAL: $21,880,000.00

What does this money buy? Clarence-Rockland is getting a new recreation centre. So is Port Colbourne. Not sure of the others, especially the Greek Orthodox Metropolis, which the name of the Greek Orthodox church in Ontario, headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Sotirios.

Perhaps the clergy needs new walking shoes? Or maybe the diocese is building a recreation center too.

There are no links to news releases or other supporting documentation. I just used search engines and poked around.

Interestingly, the nickel-and-dime grants distributed far and wide across Ontario (but each one a feel-good vote getter) are described in some detail. Not much, but then you might not need to say more than "offer new physical activities and a referee clinic" for a $3,750 grant to South River.

You'd think a $3,000,000 grant would rank at least a short paragraph linked to this grant chart.

I'm sure these handouts will do people some good. But like the business with Michael Colle shovelling money out of the Ministery of Citizenship and Immigration, there is a sense that this funding is more about promoting Dalton McGuinty than anything else. It is carefully separated from the Ministry of Health to keep from getting connected to really sick people, which is always a downer. Instead it sticks with upbeat images of sports and trails and recreation centres (and smokers of course, but since smokers are evil, winning over their attempts to smoke quietly in public is something to cheer about). Unlike medicine, which is cause and effect science, health promotion is just so much voodoo and vapour. Maybe the people of Ontario will be measurably healthier in a generation thanks to this money being spent on trails or referees, but by then Dalton McGuinty won't be premier so who cares?