NWHU should focus on its mandated programs

Ken’s
Korner

The time has come to move on for the Northwestern Health Unit.
The Chief Medical Officer fought a hard battle and lost last week when it was ruled that he was outside the bounds of his powers when he tried to impose a regionwide smoking ban in workplaces.
While just about everyone seems to agree that second hand smoke is a health hazard, the responsibility for doing something about it lies at the government level and not the bureaucratic level.
Initially NWHU officials had said that if the provincial and municipal governments were not going to do something about the problem they would. They tried and failed to reach their ultimate goal.
But in doing so they raised a vast amount of awareness about the issue, and perhaps can even take some credit for being the catalyst that prompted Liberal leader and now Premier Dalton McGinty to promise to enact legislation banning smoking from all workplaces within three years of being elected.
The government has said they would deal with the issue and now it is up to them to do just that.
There have been rumblings that the NWHU may appeal the verdict, but I think that it is time to move on to other things.
The NWHU just asked for a 36% increase in their funding from the municipalities, citing the fact that they do not have enough money to implement all the provincially mandated programs they are supposed to. Well rather than wasting money trying to win a battle that they do not need to fight they could apply that money to those programs and let the province deal with second hand smoke.
–Until then, Ken