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Bill 36 Update - The Health Professions and Occupations Act
3rd February 2023 • Recovery Machine Podcast • Nathan McLean & Corey Williams
00:00:00 01:01:27

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Car chases, gun fights, moonlight romance, and riveting drama are all things you won't find in this episode! However, you will find important information regarding Bill-36 in B.C. How will it affect healthcare providers? How will it affect the public? Find out now on the Recovery Machine Podcast!

#bill36 #healthprofessionsbc #drugaddiction #drugpolicy

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Transcripts

Nathan:

Welcome everybody to Recovery Machine.

Nathan:

I'm your co-host, Nathan.

Nathan:

Join as always by my co-host and your co-host.

Nathan:

Corey, how you doing, Corey?

Nathan:

Hey, I'm doing

Corey:

all.

Corey:

How are you doing?

Corey:

Good.

Nathan:

Uh, I don't know.

Nathan:

I, I don't feel very good today.

Nathan:

I'm filled with anger.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, and, uh, I've been doing good with anger for a while, so it's, I'm

Nathan:

just trying to, uh, let it be and kind of examine it from an, uh, an

Nathan:

observer's point of view if possible.

Nathan:

That something I've been working on with meditation is to try to step back

Nathan:

and, uh, just really look at my thoughts as they come along, and then kind of

Nathan:

from a point of kindness, examine them and take them for what they are and

Nathan:

then learn from them as they come by.

Nathan:

But, ever since yesterday.

Nathan:

I, I felt very locked into my body and, uh, unable to step back.

Nathan:

And then I realized that there's an interesting thing happening there

Nathan:

where the more frustrated I become with the world in general, and

Nathan:

that's partly to do with, I think, researching the topic that we mm-hmm.

Nathan:

researching here.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, but that frustration tends to, uh, accumulate.

Nathan:

And then I become, I have this kind of smoldering like, uh,

Nathan:

anger I guess, and, uh mm-hmm.

Nathan:

what it wa what it makes me want to do is use drugs.

Nathan:

It's, uh, it's interesting how it, it's such a clear path from

Nathan:

fear, anger, and then hopelessness, and then from hopelessness to

Nathan:

like, just fuck it, you know?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

I mean, it's not, I'm not the type of guy, I don't believe I'm at the

Nathan:

point in my life where even if I did go and use a whole bunch of drugs, I

Nathan:

could probably get myself out of it.

Nathan:

Uh, that's not, I don't think it's ever healthy to try to use

Nathan:

drugs to, it's, I feel the same way about any kind of behavior.

Nathan:

But I mean, same with drinking, right?

Nathan:

There's a difference between celebrating and, uh, trying to escape your problems.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. And, uh, that's what I feel like doing.

Nathan:

I've put myself in a position where I don't have access to.

Nathan:

Um, those things are not easy to obtain.

Nathan:

At least they're not at arms, within arms reach.

Nathan:

And that's kind of the best thing.

Nathan:

I think.

Nathan:

Um, it might be, might be trouble for me to have those things just laying

Nathan:

around when I'm feeling like this, but it is a, it's something to pay

Nathan:

attention to, I think if, mm-hmm.

Nathan:

you are a person who has had problems with drugs in the past, such as myself,

Nathan:

and I believe you as well, Corey.

Nathan:

. Corey: Yeah.

Nathan:

You know, it's, it's such a, I can relate to how you feel in the last 24 hours

Nathan:

and it, it, it's not the first time with either with you or with other friends.

Nathan:

I have where once you kind of say it, you realize that

Nathan:

you're on the same wavelength,

Nathan:

And that's one of the cool things about saying it.

Nathan:

That's one of the benefits of saying it, is that you, you are vulnerable

Nathan:

and then you end up usually, hopefully learning about other people.

Nathan:

And, and it lets other people share that too, because I have had sort

Nathan:

of similar feelings and it's just been, uh, specifically just some

Nathan:

stress over, over, uh, childcare of my four-year-old and stuff.

Nathan:

That's not about me.

Nathan:

Nothing that I kind of, it's not a personal thing, it's just sort of.

Nathan:

The approach of the school and kind of what to do next about it and what the

Nathan:

next steps will be, and not liking the, their delivery of that information and

Nathan:

created a lot of, a lot of stress in me.

Nathan:

A lot of like stressful thinking about like the uncertainty and, and feeling some

Nathan:

distrust there, feeling some angst there.

Nathan:

But what I really noticed in myself, and this has been over the last little

Nathan:

while, is that I always used to describe, like, my reaction to tension and stress

Nathan:

as being in my chest and being in like, you know, the center of my body.

Nathan:

More, what I noticed lately is that it's much more in my head.

Nathan:

Hmm.

Nathan:

But that, that feeling of stress is much more like, feels like, um, not a, not a

Nathan:

conventional headache, but it feels like an actual cloud or obstruction within my.

Nathan:

Interesting.

Nathan:

Which is not a good feeling.

Nathan:

. No.

Nathan:

Is it clouding your ability to think coherently?

Nathan:

Like does it feel like brain fog or does it just feel like a, uh, type

Nathan:

of, uh, angst, like a mental angst?

Nathan:

Uh, I would

Corey:

say, well, I, I would say both.

Corey:

Both brain fog, um, in that it's like I feel locked into like a,

Corey:

a pretty negative perspective.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Um, and unable to kind of like, and I, and maybe there's part of that

Corey:

is the solution is that you can't necessarily think your way out of

Nathan:

it.

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

You can't.

Nathan:

Sometimes there's a limit to the intellect

Corey:

and part of that is that you have to kind of, uh, sometimes feel your way

Corey:

out of it or physically work your way out of it, or express your way out of it.

Corey:

But it won't necessarily come with like a physical, like, uh,

Corey:

with just like a cognitive, okay.

Corey:

I just gotta think this through.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Cause that, at least for me

Nathan:

yesterday, that wasn't working.

Nathan:

It's really interesting that you say that because I, I was just, last

Nathan:

night I was considering cognitive behavioral therapy and Me too.

Nathan:

What a useful tool it is.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. And yet it is limited in that, I think, uh, it's almost a trap to

Nathan:

believe that you can think your way out of this problem entirely.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And, and by this problem, I mean, negative thinking in general, or this

Nathan:

feeling of, uh, kind of angst or, you know, the human condition where you

Nathan:

extend yourself out into the future and, and feel anxious about that.

Nathan:

You can do the brain training with those pathways and that's fine, but it's the,

Nathan:

at some point you've gotta look at that kind of, uh, thought behavior, emotion

Nathan:

cycle and step back and just be okay with not knowing what's gonna happen and

Nathan:

realize that you're not in control of.

Nathan:

, even those things all the time, and you just can't be mm-hmm.

Nathan:

and that's okay.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So that's what I believe is the, is the answer is taking like a, almost like a

Nathan:

blind faith approach to it and stepping back and realizing that if you acknowledge

Nathan:

the feelings that are happening, whatever it is in your life that are

Nathan:

causing those feelings, then eventually some grace will appear and you'll

Nathan:

kind of be able to get back on track.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, but it requires a faith in the system of this reality or, or whatever God

Nathan:

you believe in, or, or, you know, some kind of, uh, spiritual faith of some

Nathan:

sort, I think, to, to do that, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, Corey: and then it, it's like the old

Nathan:

that I've heard from people in, in the community and have experienced myself.

Nathan:

It's one thing to do those pieces of maintenance when you're feeling

Nathan:

okay, but pulling yourself through that fog or congestion or whatever

Nathan:

you wanna call it, and saying, okay, now I'm gonna do that maintenance.

Nathan:

Now I'm gonna go and lift weights for an hour, or I'm gonna just scribble

Nathan:

out some piece of art to just see what comes out and like pushing

Nathan:

through and doing those things.

Nathan:

This is the critical time to, to put that into practice.

Nathan:

And so I, it is, you know, last week I did, I had had a really good week with

Nathan:

getting back into some weight lifting and doing some, working out at home and stuff.

Nathan:

And then yesterday we ended up being too busy of a day.

Nathan:

As you know, the day sort of got away from me, but like, I've got

Nathan:

time today gonna make that happen.

Nathan:

Cuz now's the time to really put that into practice.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

It's always, uh, yeah, I've, I've noticed that especially with like, I,

Nathan:

I have the most resistance to doing, uh, like cardio training cuz it's,

Nathan:

I think mentally it's harder, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, um, , and it's always when I'm like, you know what?

Nathan:

I don't even think I can do it.

Nathan:

I feel too, I'm too tired.

Nathan:

I, I just, you know, I'd rather take a nap or whatever.

Nathan:

But that is exactly the time when I need to get out there and run or, or do

Nathan:

something that gets a blood because it, it is, uh, you're right, it's tough when

Nathan:

you, uh, you try to apply these things when things are not as bright and cheery

Nathan:

and I don't know, maybe it's, uh, I'm finding this time of year, I, I know it's

Nathan:

a, you know, we talk about it a lot or whatever, but I, I really thought that,

Nathan:

that January had like 45 or 50 days in it.

Nathan:

Yeah, . It was the longest January on record for me.

Nathan:

I mean, it was just like, I, I, what am I in a time dilation here?

Nathan:

I don't understand what's going on.

Nathan:

It's on and on and on.

Nathan:

But here we are, . Yeah,

Corey:

no, it's so true.

Corey:

I had the same thought about it.

Corey:

Like, uh, in looking at our kind of tracking the, some of the

Corey:

podcasts from the month of January and then being like, oh my God,

Corey:

we got 10 days left in this month.

Corey:

Yeah, . We still have five days left in the month.

Corey:

Yeah, no, it's true.

Corey:

Yeah, I think that's probably a fairly common experience, right.

Nathan:

for sure.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Good opportunity to thank all our new listeners as well.

Nathan:

We've, uh, definitely got a little more traction now on the audio side, and we're

Nathan:

starting to see some, uh, some solid data as far as, uh, lots of shares going

Nathan:

on, on, on Facebook and stuff like that.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

that is, uh, really appreciated and it, it definitely encourag us, encourages

Nathan:

us to, uh, continue what we're doing.

Nathan:

Even the people who, who aren't happy with some of the things we're saying, we are

Nathan:

fine with that because we make mistakes and, uh, we have different ideas about

Nathan:

different things in the world of recovery.

Nathan:

And, uh, so do other people and that's all fine.

Nathan:

We're here to, we're here to

Corey:

learn.

Corey:

Totally.

Corey:

And I might be wrong, but I think that today's topic might

Corey:

be a, a divisive topic as well.

Nathan:

Nathan . Well, it's an interesting one.

Nathan:

What we're gonna do today is talk about Bill 36.

Nathan:

This was a bill that was passed quietly last year.

Nathan:

They've been working on it, I think as far back as, I suppose you

Nathan:

could say, maybe 2018 or earlier.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. And, uh, what the bill is about is basically regulating the regulators.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So we're talking about colleges for healthcare professionals

Nathan:

in British Columbia.

Nathan:

So there's, I think, 20 in existence, uh, 25 potentials, something like that.

Nathan:

And these are bodies that are self-governed.

Nathan:

So like, uh, using my own college as an example, the College of Pharmacists,

Nathan:

they're tasked with basically licensing pharmacies, licensing pharmacists.

Nathan:

They make acts and guidelines for us to follow as far as

Nathan:

practice policies concerned.

Nathan:

Their number one mandate is to protect the public.

Nathan:

So I guess what the, what the idea is here is that they're,

Nathan:

they're looking to modernize the, uh, health Professionals Act.

Nathan:

So it'll be the Health Professionals and Occupations Act.

Nathan:

and there's a few stages that took place over the last few years where

Nathan:

they gathered information to do this, uh, to move forward with this.

Nathan:

So I think it was November 24th last year, it, uh, received royal

Nathan:

ascension, which is, uh, that's pretty, that's pretty heady governmental,

Nathan:

uh, verbiage there, uh, royal asce.

Nathan:

So that means it became a, uh, became an act, and then we're waiting to

Nathan:

hear there's gonna be a date of implement, uh, implementation for this.

Nathan:

So it, it's going to affect every healthcare professional in British

Nathan:

Columbia in some way, shape, or form.

Nathan:

We've both looked at this and we've kind of, uh, just to get a better understanding

Nathan:

of how the, the bill came about, how it got passed, what the province is

Nathan:

trying to do, and ultimately how we're looking at it from a, uh, healthcare

Nathan:

professional point of view, just because obviously that's where our experience

Nathan:

lies, but there's also concerns with the way, the way this is tilted and,

Nathan:

uh, that might be a point of contention, but we'll, we'll kind of move through

Nathan:

it and, and go for some pros and cons and see what everybody thinks about it.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

You know,

Corey:

this is, the timing of, of this, of us doing this

Corey:

discussion is so interesting.

Corey:

I, I live in the Fraser Valley and there are two spots within

Corey:

my daily drives that I take that have been over the last two years.

Corey:

A year and a half maybe have been consistently, uh, labeled with graffiti.

Corey:

And the, the graffiti is, is consistently anti anti-government, anti-vaccine,

Corey:

primarily anti-vaccine, I would say in these two different spots on my

Corey:

drive that i'll, and usually some poetic message about the harm of

Corey:

the vaccines and stuff like that.

Corey:

And interestingly, this week, those pieces of graffiti have

Corey:

been replaced with large antibi,

Nathan:

36 graffiti . Wow.

Nathan:

And this

Corey:

morning, you know, there was a, probably a, a 10 foot long

Corey:

strip in this entryway into the city that, you know, stopped Bill

Corey:

36 with a big skulling crossbones.

Corey:

So kind of interesting, this to me that says this is such a politically

Corey:

loaded, divisive issue much more.

Corey:

I mean, it's much more than meets the eye.

Corey:

And it's mu it's so much about the politics in Canada right now, the politics

Corey:

of healthcare and the influence of politics on that than just like, , oh,

Corey:

we gotta clean up these regulators.

Corey:

So, and this is where the, the discussion I think in, in social media and stuff

Corey:

will probably come in and we welcome that.

Corey:

But I think we want to just sort of be, we have, you and I have our

Corey:

own, it is no shock or surprise that we are not necessarily

Corey:

friends of the regulators mm-hmm.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

On this podcast that we've been very critical of, of these,

Corey:

some of these regulatory bodies.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

And have, and have said before this bill passed that we want to see

Corey:

changes and want to see reform.

Corey:

But that doesn't mean we're not gonna pick this apart and let the

Corey:

government off easy with this either.

Corey:

Cuz I think it, there's both sides to this for sure.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Absolutely.

Nathan:

Uh, , I've been, I don't know how many, it probably, when they started looking into

Nathan:

this was probably when I really started reaching out across Canada, trying to

Nathan:

understand who was in charge of these, these colleges and, and what possible

Nathan:

ramifications or reprimands they could.

Nathan:

Receive from, uh, some sort of an oversight body.

Nathan:

And I was told that there really wasn't anything in place but

Nathan:

that something was coming.

Nathan:

So that was, I think, as far back as 2020.

Nathan:

And since that time, I've heard, I've, I've been in contact with people

Nathan:

who were closer to these regulatory affairs and, and they kind of echoed

Nathan:

that same belief that, that something was coming and it was probably gonna

Nathan:

be bad news for some of the colleges.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, whether this Bill 36 Health Professionals and Occupations Act is bad news.

Nathan:

I think it will, it will depend very much on how this is rolled out.

Nathan:

So I guess what got this going is, uh, public criticisms mainly about,

Nathan:

this is hard to understand from a, a healthcare professional's point of view.

Nathan:

Believe me, it's.

Nathan:

if you're on the ground and the amount of flack you receive for every complaint that

Nathan:

is valid, it's difficult to calculate.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, I mean, people are wild and they're especially wild when they're sick,

Nathan:

hurting, or have been waiting for a long time or just found out they

Nathan:

have to pay for something they don't think they have, they should pay for.

Nathan:

So . Nevertheless, the belief is that the current colleges, uh, under

Nathan:

the Health Professions Act, has enabled cultures that can sometimes

Nathan:

promote the interests of professions over the interests of the public.

Nathan:

What do you think when you, when you hear that as a, uh, a motivator for this bill?

Nathan:

I see a lot of

Corey:

truth in that statement.

Corey:

I think there is a, a, what comes across as a, uh, first

Corey:

of all, a lack of transparency.

Corey:

, Nathan: there's a huge

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Which there's several parts of this, of this document that get

Corey:

into that peaceable transparency.

Corey:

I think that there's a self-serving nature that it comes across and, and in

Corey:

thinking about my own experience with, with dealing with the regulatory body,

Corey:

that it was, that they were protecting the profession to the utmost and then

Corey:

protecting the public, protecting me was not a, even though I was a part of the

Corey:

profession that wasn't their interest.

Corey:

And that's okay.

Corey:

That's not their mandate.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

But I think it, it certainly fe felt that the protection of the image of

Corey:

the profession and then interests of the profession were first, and then the

Corey:

piece about protecting the public was second at the time that I went through

Nathan:

that.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

That's a, that's a really good way to parse this out because.

Nathan:

I think it's, it's hard for me when I look at this and, and I see the idea that, uh,

Nathan:

the interest of the profession is coming.

Nathan:

First.

Nathan:

I, when I, when I read that, at first I look at it and I say, well, you're

Nathan:

talking about the interests of the people who are in the profession.

Nathan:

But that's, that's not really what it is.

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

That the colleges don't, I, I, as far as my dealings with the, the College

Nathan:

of Pharmacy are concerned, I am simply a statistic that spits out money.

Nathan:

That's it.

Nathan:

That's all I am to them.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, they know how many there are of me, , and they collect a tremendous amount of fees.

Nathan:

And for that money, you get very little and they're at no time in my career

Nathan:

have I ever felt that my college was there to protect me as a professional.

Nathan:

No, never.

Nathan:

No, no.

Nathan:

Same.

Nathan:

Quite the opposite.

Nathan:

But the idea that they want to protect the image of the profession so that

Nathan:

they can continue to exist as an entity, that feeling is palpable.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

, and I can only speak towards a, I, I mean, I've had dealings with, uh, you know,

Nathan:

mostly the, the College of Pharmacy, but also a lot with the, um, the College of

Nathan:

Nurses and, and midwives, and not so much with the College of Physicians, although

Nathan:

I do pay attention to what goes on there.

Nathan:

And I think they could maybe take a little bit of blame for some of this

Nathan:

, uh, especially with their, uh, wildly inappropriate judgment on the conflict

Nathan:

of interest scenario with monitoring, backing up the, the clinic down at the

Nathan:

coast there, that was, it was an obvious conflict of interest the way they had

Nathan:

their, their clinic set up there, and the public did complain about that and

Nathan:

the college backed them up, so, mm-hmm.

Nathan:

So if you are not prepared to do what you're supposed to do, which is

Nathan:

regulate your members in a way that is ethically sound, then you can

Nathan:

expect to have some concern raised.

Nathan:

Maybe that's indicative of, of some of the types of actions that have

Nathan:

led the province down this path.

Nathan:

. Yeah.

Nathan:

One of the things they're gonna do here is Amal amalgamate colleges.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So they want to bring the, well, the total number of, uh, professional disciplines

Nathan:

is 25 in this province, and they're going to make six colleges outta that.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So they'll be regulating some professions that were not regulated,

Nathan:

and then there'll be amalgamating.

Nathan:

Uh, there's two big amalgamations, and then they're also

Nathan:

grouped everybody together.

Nathan:

And I guess, uh, we, we can look at that a little bit closer in a bit here.

Nathan:

But the other concern they had is that the colleges are not meeting changing

Nathan:

patient and family expectations regarding transparency and accountability.

Nathan:

. And finally they just used the word inefficient.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

and, uh, the inefficient one is, is at a level now where I

Nathan:

would say it is not sustainable.

Nathan:

I just looked at the College of Pharmacists financials for 2021.

Nathan:

They take in over 10 million a year, but they have less than a hundred members.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, there's a less than a hundred people working there, but they're

Nathan:

taking in 10 million in just fees.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So you do the math on that and you look at, uh, they have their building lease

Nathan:

there, they have their investments, they have everything on there.

Nathan:

And it's like, that means that every single person, regardless

Nathan:

of whether you're a receptionist or uh, the c e o, every person is

Nathan:

making much more than a pharmacist.

Nathan:

Yes.

Nathan:

What's the justification for that?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

I, what are they doing?

Nathan:

You know, why are we.

Nathan:

, why would a, uh, college registrant pay them for the

Nathan:

services that we're receiving?

Nathan:

If it's the public that they're mandated to protect, then

Nathan:

let the public pay for them.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

You know, if you're gonna be that wildly inefficient, then guess what?

Nathan:

Maybe the government's gonna come in and, and, uh, police you.

Nathan:

That's mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, that's kind of, I, I like, I, I understand why there would be concerns.

Nathan:

Right?

Nathan:

Sure.

Corey:

And the same thing has happened within nursing is that those fees

Corey:

have went up and up and up every year.

Corey:

They amalgamated with the midwives prior to this bill

Corey:

amalgamated with practical nurses.

Corey:

They have, you know, there's over 40,000 registered nurses in the province.

Nathan:

Um, 50, 59,000 members now in that, in that thousand members.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So, yeah, I mean, they are taking in a large sum of money.

Nathan:

That is way over and above.

Nathan:

Like, I don't know how much union dues are in comparison, but I can't

Nathan:

imagine that they're that much.

Nathan:

One of the things I, I thought when looking at this new bill is that if

Nathan:

these colleges are amalgamated and you end up with, you know, instead

Nathan:

of six different colleges, say four, like the naturopaths, uh, Chinese

Nathan:

herbal medicine acupuncturists, can't remember, there's a few that are being,

Nathan:

uh, put into like a natural Yeah.

Nathan:

Healthcare group psychologist.

Nathan:

What's another one?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So if, if everybody goes into this, this group, and they're talking about

Nathan:

streamlining the process, when I hear the word streamlining from a government,

Nathan:

uh, body, I, I mean there's a little bit of cynicism that automatically

Nathan:

comes up there, but let's say they do what they're gonna, they say they're

Nathan:

gonna do, and instead of, uh, a combination of maybe 200 members over

Nathan:

six colleges, they get it down to 50.

Nathan:

So the vast majority of the money and dollars you are spending in

Nathan:

fees, when those go to the college is for those people's salaries.

Nathan:

It dwarfs everything else by, it's, it probably 90% of

Nathan:

their expenses is salaries.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So if we're to see a streamlining occur and through these amalgamations

Nathan:

we drop from 200 employees down to 50, I, I don't know what they're doing

Nathan:

in there most of the time anyway.

Nathan:

Honestly, I can't imagine that the, they process everything so slowly, it's wildly

Nathan:

inefficient, but let's say they're able to continue doing what they're supposed

Nathan:

to do with the quarter of the workforce.

Nathan:

That means we should see if your college has been amalgamated, we,

Nathan:

you should see a drop in fees.

Nathan:

If you don't see a drop in fees, then right away there's a problem.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And

Nathan:

I

Corey:

guess time will tell.

Corey:

We'll have to see with, with particularly these amalgamated bodies, the, where there

Corey:

are, uh, it's a whole pool of colleges.

Corey:

It'll be very interesting to see what happens to the fees there.

Corey:

You know what the Caden report, which is the, the report on these governing

Corey:

bodies that kind of led to this bill, it criticized the, the lack of transparency

Corey:

for the public in regards to timelines,

Corey:

And that was, you know, that's one that we're really quite familiar with.

Corey:

And, and the concern is that the public makes a complaint about,

Corey:

about a, a pharmacist or a nurse.

Corey:

And then they don't hear, and they don't hear, and they don't

Corey:

hear, they don't get the update.

Corey:

They don't know when the investigation is gonna happen,

Corey:

and it goes on and on and on.

Corey:

Well, this is true for, for both sides, that there has been a, a lack

Corey:

of transparency yet in terms of being the person on the other side, being

Corey:

the professional on the side that needs to answer to the, to the college.

Corey:

There's usually quite a strict time to respond, like, oh yeah,

Corey:

re respond to this email within.

Nathan:

40 hours, 48

Corey:

hours, something like that.

Corey:

Or you know, please send your, um, you know, your letter response, which

Corey:

is a, if you've been investigated by the college, your letter of response

Corey:

is kind of your singular piece of, of voice and your singular time

Corey:

to, um, kind of make a, a rebuttal.

Corey:

There's a strict timeline there, but there hasn't been a timeline.

Corey:

no.

Corey:

In the process otherwise, and no timeframe where they say we

Corey:

are, we will be accountable.

Corey:

We will conclude our investigation within 60 days or, or whatever it may be.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

. So that's one where I hear Okay.

Corey:

Some accountability there.

Corey:

Uh, in terms of your just timeframes alone, that seems like a fair request

Corey:

to make of, of these governing bodies.

Nathan:

is super fair request.

Nathan:

Uh, sorry to cut you off there.

Nathan:

I just, Nope.

Nathan:

Do you have any faith, like looking at, looking at this, and it's one

Nathan:

thing to put uh, a bunch of words down on paper about what's gonna happen,

Nathan:

but can you imagine any circumstances where they reduce the members?

Nathan:

Like they're, they're gonna leave the College of Pharmacy alone as far as it,

Nathan:

it will stand alone, but there won't be any more elected members on the board.

Nathan:

Right?

Nathan:

So that means that the government is gonna decide who sits on the board and

Nathan:

it's going to be half public and half professionals because they want the

Nathan:

all appointed by the government though.

Nathan:

That's right.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So I guess the, the, the part that's difficult to believe is that you're

Nathan:

going to make that change to an already wildly inefficient entity.

Nathan:

and then expect them to adhere to guidelines regarding time and

Nathan:

communications with the public.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, my question would be, what happens if they don't?

Nathan:

And how soon do you affect ? How soon do you expect these changes

Nathan:

to come into, uh, into play?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, Corey: this was maybe the most,

Nathan:

that whole document to me.

Nathan:

Like the idea of looking at how these boards are, are made up.

Nathan:

Fair enough.

Nathan:

The idea, and this is where I can empathize with the public

Nathan:

criticism, that like, hold on here.

Nathan:

All of the members will be appointed by the government, by the Ministry of Health.

Nathan:

It's hard not to feel cynical

Nathan:

about that.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Because aren't you then just facing the same problem?

Nathan:

I mean, is there anybody out there who thinks that the government is all

Nathan:

of a sudden gonna turn into a super efficient, non bureaucratic monster?

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

Well,

Corey:

no, for sure.

Corey:

And.

Corey:

Additionally, is there any, anyone out there who doesn't think that there will

Corey:

be some political motivation in the assignment of people to a given board?

Corey:

Of course, a and particularly given that substance use and drugs are,

Corey:

are a big, have become in the last couple of years, a big political

Corey:

issue and drug policy and safe supply and legalization and all that stuff.

Corey:

Or decrem rather, what will happen to these boards if, if there's a

Corey:

change in politics in the province.

Corey:

And right now we have a, we have a, a new premier, a rel, you know, within

Corey:

the last couple of months here, a new premier, but the same party that's,

Corey:

that's been in power for some time.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

, if that mm-hmm.

Corey:

. if and when, cuz this is what happens in politics is there

Corey:

will be a, a another shift.

Corey:

What will happen to those boards, and I don't, I'm not claiming to know the

Corey:

answer here, but potentially those boards could be then replaced by a much

Corey:

more anti-drug or conservative base.

Corey:

And that will assuredly influence the board decisions, the review

Corey:

decisions, the decisions on penalties or, or, um, restrictions that are put

Corey:

on workers or nurses or pharmacists or whoever who are found to have

Corey:

developed an issue of substance use.

Corey:

There will be an implication that goes that

Nathan:

far down.

Nathan:

I think certainly, for example, look what would happen if we just moved Alberta's

Nathan:

regulation bodies over to bc Right?

Nathan:

And they took over overnight.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Imagine the different outcomes you'd have with healthcare professionals.

Nathan:

And the other thing that is interesting to me is that this does seem like a.

Nathan:

It's a very public safety centered, at least that that's how it comes across

Nathan:

is that this is all about public safety.

Nathan:

Will that translate to more healthcare professionals being dismissed?

Nathan:

I mean, it seems like they're really stepping up the, the wording,

Nathan:

especially like they're gonna take a hard line stance on, uh, accusations

Nathan:

of sexual misconduct for sure.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

and culturally, uh, discriminatory practices.

Nathan:

And those are serious issues that, that of course, need to be addressed.

Nathan:

My concern would be one of kind of fair and, and due process, and I'm sure that's

Nathan:

one thing that comes with the territory when you're working for one of these

Nathan:

colleges, is you're probably inundated with a, an absurd number of complaints.

Nathan:

Uh, just volume wise, and then you have to go through all those complaints.

Nathan:

And I would imagine that from what I've seen, 90% of those are just

Nathan:

people who are angry at the doctor or dentist or psychologist, or because

Nathan:

they didn't agree with a diagnosis.

Nathan:

Whatever.

Nathan:

People, when they get upset, they tend to complain.

Nathan:

And many times it's not a, um, you know, the, the healthcare professional acted

Nathan:

like a human being and did the best they could with the, the situation.

Nathan:

So I don't know if there'll be more of a no tolerance kind of, uh, aspect to that.

Nathan:

And if so, How does that factor into the equation when we're looking at a

Nathan:

doctor shortage, a pharmacist shortage, nurses who are just walking off the

Nathan:

job, how do we maintain the structure of the healthcare system if there is

Nathan:

going to be a stricter, less nuanced approach to these types of complaints?

Nathan:

Yeah,

Corey:

really good question.

Corey:

And I'm not sure that they have been concerned about that this whole time.

Corey:

Like just this year we are seeing, you know, that they're, they're looking at

Corey:

expediting the process of getting licenses for newcomers to Canada who ha have

Corey:

that certification or have that license.

Corey:

And now they come to Canada and, and it's usually a bureaucratic

Corey:

nightmare to get through that, to get licensed to work here.

Corey:

So they've said that they're gonna commit to improving that.

Corey:

Other than that, I, it hasn't seemed that they've been concerned about

Corey:

people walking away from the profession.

Corey:

And that change probably says to me that, that will continue

Corey:

and potentially get much, much.

Corey:

more prominent that there will be more

Corey:

people

Nathan:

walking away, I would think.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

, I thought it was interesting that they brought an expert in from the uk mm-hmm.

Nathan:

to do this, uh, to do the 2018.

Nathan:

Um, Harry, uh, was it Caton?

Nathan:

Caton, yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So this guy's an expert in college, uh, regulatory affairs and it's fuel

Nathan:

for the conspiratorial fire because there's, there's a lot of, uh, kind

Nathan:

of talk, at least in social media about how the UK is our future.

Nathan:

If you look at what's happening with the UK's medical healthcare system,

Nathan:

it's slightly ahead of us in its decay, but heading towards the same end,

Nathan:

which is inevitable privatization.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. And there is concern that some of.

Nathan:

Pressure that's being put on their medical system.

Nathan:

Undue pressure is from parties who are interested in moving that forward faster.

Nathan:

So I thought it was interesting that you would bring somebody over from the place

Nathan:

that is having the exact same problem as us, only they're further down the road.

Nathan:

to do that study here.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

just a, just a funny coincidence and I'm sure there's nothing there, but,

Nathan:

and looking over the guy's work, I, I thought he, everything that

Nathan:

he, that he said was, was accurate.

Nathan:

I'm not sure what got them interested in the dental college, but there

Nathan:

must have been something there that, that got them going cuz.

Nathan:

They're the first ones they looked at.

Nathan:

Oh, yeah.

Nathan:

So his kind of summation of what was going on, there was a very articulate, polite,

Nathan:

general statement, which equated to, there is a potential for a lot of corruption

Nathan:

here in that there's, uh, maybe protection of the, the entity of the college

Nathan:

itself that doesn't serve the public.

Nathan:

There is efficiency problems throughout.

Nathan:

There is too many board members, there is too many committees, there is too

Nathan:

much, uh, there's too many colleges, uh, for oral health professionals.

Nathan:

I mean, so that's fine.

Nathan:

I just thought it was funny that they, they brought somebody in from

Nathan:

the UK if people knew that maybe there'd be some eyebrows raised there.

Nathan:

did you get a chance to go over his report a little bit there?

Corey:

A bit, yeah.

Corey:

Specifically going back to the idea that, you know, one of the concerns

Corey:

that was raised in the report was that, that people, that on these boards that

Corey:

make that do the review process end up making the decisions about licensing

Corey:

or about any kind of penalty paid by the, by the professional, was that

Corey:

the profession, the professionals who work within that profession, so the

Corey:

pharmacists who then sit on the board of the College of Pharmacists, that

Corey:

they are paid more than the public members, there are more of them.

Corey:

So there is an, a power imbalance there.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

. So one of the recommendations again was that, that there's equal pay

Corey:

between public members of the board and professional members of the board.

Corey:

And that a better sort of balance is struck.

Corey:

Right.

Corey:

The other recommendation was that there would be, particularly for

Corey:

these, he spoke to the, like the, the amalgamated colleges that there would be.

Corey:

Sort of subcommittees that would look at the interests of each specific profession.

Corey:

So if there was a, um, an occupational therapist, for example, who an

Corey:

issue arose with or a complaint arose with, there would be people

Corey:

that had a specific approach to the occupational therapy profession.

Corey:

I had concern when I initially read that and then going back to reread

Corey:

that they had said, well, no, no, we would, we would set something up so

Corey:

that there could be some oversight of these specific professions.

Nathan:

How do they know that the members of the public that are sitting

Nathan:

on those boards have enough of a background in healthcare even to, to

Nathan:

be able to make judgments like that?

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

So

Corey:

I, I think that's the.

Corey:

Uh, I guess they're just saying that they would, they would

Nathan:

be, um, so they're gonna set up another committee to make sure

Nathan:

that that committee is, uh, yeah.

Corey:

Okay.

Corey:

Okay.

Corey:

And there's a few examples of that where, where, where the bureaucracy

Corey:

is being, um, uh, fortified . Right.

Corey:

Well, this it's being simultaneously paired down and fortified

Corey:

. Nathan: That's right.

Corey:

I guess, uh, I'm just gonna quickly, uh, go over the information that we have for

Corey:

amalgamations so people know if they're listening, what, who's going where.

Corey:

Sure.

Corey:

Uh, the College of Doctors and, uh, physicians and surgeons is

Corey:

not amalgamating with anybody.

Corey:

They're, they're staying put, college of Pharmacy is staying put.

Corey:

The amalgamations that we know about so far are for the, they're gonna put the

Corey:

dieticians, occupational therapists, opticians, optometrists, physical

Corey:

therapists, psychologists, and speech and hearing professionals under one banner.

Corey:

And that's a large banner right there.

Corey:

There's quite a bit of, uh, quite a difference between a

Corey:

optometrist and a psychologist.

Corey:

Yeah, huge.

Corey:

Another one they're gonna do is chiropractors, massage therapists,

Corey:

naturopathic physicians, traditional Chinese medicine, and

Corey:

acupuncturists into one regulator.

Corey:

That one feels

Corey:

a little bit more cohesive.

Nathan:

I don't quite understand how you're going to put all those

Nathan:

colleges together and then pair them down and get more work out of them.

Nathan:

I guess that's my concern.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, like, how do you get these people who are sitting in these very cushy positions

Nathan:

where there's, there hasn't been anybody watching them work for a long time.

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

They, they just, I mean, I don't know if they have any kind of,

Nathan:

uh, oversight as far as how much they're supposed to get done.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, but based on the timelines that I've seen with colleges, there appears to be nobody.

Nathan:

There's nobody cracking the whip, basically.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And, uh, how do you navigate that if you're trying to implement this bill?

Nathan:

You know, you're taking, let's see, there's one too.

Nathan:

There's like, say you're taking seven different colleges that exist, and

Nathan:

these are small colleges with, uh, probably not many people in them, but

Nathan:

say there's, let's, uh, conservatively say there's 70 people working.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So you're gonna pair that down.

Nathan:

Maybe cut half the jobs, you're down to 35 and now you're taking care of,

Nathan:

you're gonna have people there who don't know a thing about the other

Nathan:

members of the other professions.

Nathan:

The other professions.

Nathan:

For sure.

Nathan:

Yeah, for sure.

Nathan:

So that'll be a bit of a challenge for them.

Nathan:

Not saying it can't be done and it sh uh, I'm not saying it shouldn't be done.

Nathan:

I think the idea of scaling it for economy and then getting rid of the superfluous

Nathan:

employees, I mean, I'm sorry, but you had your chance, you had a long time here.

Nathan:

And it looks to me like there's a lot of just, I don't know

Nathan:

where this money is going.

Nathan:

That's, that's a huge concern for me.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Why are my fees going up?

Nathan:

And I don't, there's no changes.

Nathan:

I mean, the last thing, uh, the last rumor I heard is that the college

Nathan:

fees are going up for pharmacists because they wanna renovate their

Nathan:

building because the dentists renovated their building across the way.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

like this kind of stuff.

Nathan:

It doesn't build faith, it doesn't build trust.

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

It doesn't.

Corey:

And just in the interest of, of fairness, The unions, in my

Corey:

opinion, have done the same thing.

Corey:

The nurses union has certainly done the same thing.

Corey:

They, their, our fees went up when they were building a, a

Corey:

splashy building in downtown

Nathan:

Vancouver.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And this is always a problem, isn't it?

Nathan:

I very much believe that we are heading towards a situation here

Nathan:

where it may be required that all healthcare care professionals come

Nathan:

together under one banner and have one union that protects us all.

Nathan:

Because the way things are going here, eventually we will have no say in what

Nathan:

happens with our professions at all.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, um, if, you know, if these types of processes become corrupt or become

Nathan:

politicized to the point where it's, I mean, it's already not great, right?

Nathan:

I mean, it, it's been not great for a while.

Nathan:

And it's hard to, it's hard to look at this and be optimistic as far as, uh,

Nathan:

you know, when the government talks about streamlining and amalgamating,

Nathan:

I think centralization of power, I think bureaucratic inefficiency.

Nathan:

And I scratch my head wondering how on earth they're going to, like, they

Nathan:

haven't even put a timeline forward yet.

Nathan:

They've been working on this five years.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Corey:

So do you, in, in those things that you think of, do

Corey:

you think of accountability?

Corey:

Does tighter governance and more governance over a group of bodies,

Corey:

does that equal more accountability?

Corey:

Are those things mutually exclusive?

Nathan:

Well, policing a profession is tricky, right?

Nathan:

It's not like policing the public where we've got reams

Nathan:

and reams of data to draw from.

Nathan:

It's kind of a niche sector, so you need people within that

Nathan:

sector who are representative of the profession and are reasonable

Nathan:

and do care about public safety.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. But there also has to be some concern for the livelihood of the, the profession.

Nathan:

And that doesn't mean that you have to protect members who are not treating

Nathan:

the public well or treating them with the discrimination course, or, or all

Nathan:

the crazy things that that happen.

Nathan:

Most healthcare professionals, I think, are in this province especially are, are

Nathan:

good people who generally want to help.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, they work very hard and most of them are not paid enough.

Nathan:

Uh, nurses, doctors come to mind, you know, even with the, uh, the

Nathan:

new contractor getting, or I, I.

Nathan:

I don't know if it's gonna be enough, if, I guess it depends on how this is

Nathan:

going to be implemented and, and what kind of fairness is gonna be exercised,

Nathan:

because I don't, I see a lot of talk about protecting the public, which is great.

Nathan:

I want, I, you know, I want my parents to be able to go, uh, and see a doctor

Nathan:

in their hometown and, and not have something crazy happen because that doctor

Nathan:

is either not qualified or up to some billing scam or, you know, like we have

Nathan:

to have, somebody's gotta be watching out and making sure that outliers are, are

Nathan:

reprimanded or taken outta the system.

Nathan:

That's, that's gotta happen.

Nathan:

But if you make the environment so inhospitable for professionals to work,

Nathan:

and we've already got a problem with, uh, paperwork in this province as far

Nathan:

as, you know, they're, they're trying to rectify that with the, the new physicians

Nathan:

deal where they're, they're getting paid for some homework and stuff, but

Nathan:

I mean, physicians are smart people.

Nathan:

They'll, uh, , they're not, they know what, what they can get elsewhere.

Nathan:

And if, if these policies are implemented and it's heavy on the public side and, you

Nathan:

know, every single complaint is taking an extra, you know, if, if a public member

Nathan:

can go in and complain about their doctor and then that doctor has to write a two

Nathan:

hour report to defend themselves when they've done nothing wrong, guess what?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Your doctor's gone.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

They'll, they'll go to another province or they'll go to the states.

Nathan:

Why would they stay here?

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

So, , that's, uh, that's concern I have about whenever you, I mean,

Nathan:

we, we've already had a problem with bureaucratic paperwork and

Nathan:

this province is rife with red tape.

Nathan:

It's way over the top.

Nathan:

So if this turns out to be a real streamlining process and it

Nathan:

actually does cut through some of that, then kudos to them.

Nathan:

I just, I personally don't have a lot of faith when I see a p uh, an amalgamation

Nathan:

into a government entity like this.

Nathan:

Yeah,

Corey:

yeah, I agree.

Corey:

It seems like simply a, a transfer of bureaucracy

Nathan:

kind of, right?

Nathan:

Uh, yeah.

Nathan:

That

Corey:

we will, that, that the process within the regulatory bodies might be

Corey:

smoother this way, but the process to establish the boards, to oversee them,

Corey:

that part will still be, still be loaded.

Corey:

I.

Corey:

I wonder if that will end up just sort of balancing out and we won't see a

Corey:

big difference in terms of timelines, in terms of efficiency, unless it's,

Corey:

this is usually the case, right?

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Unless there's a big political shift that could influence it one

Corey:

way or another, then I think it could change, change timelines, but

Corey:

it might just kind of balance out.

Nathan:

It usually is a wash when they do stuff like this.

Nathan:

Um, only the, the people at the bottom get a little more taxed, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So what I would expect to see is within about five years, they've got

Nathan:

this implemented, the government is now overseeing these colleges and

Nathan:

our fees will somehow be higher.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

You know, , oh yeah.

Nathan:

This is, that would be the unsurprising outcome here.

Nathan:

But, uh, just to quickly give a summary of what they're trying to accomplish

Nathan:

with this new, uh, modernization of the healthcare providers act into the

Nathan:

healthcare providers and occupations act.

Nathan:

So they're looking to, we've already talked about the amalgamation process.

Nathan:

One of the goals will be to streamline that process.

Nathan:

So we'll, once we have a timeline for implementation, we'll, we'll keep an

Nathan:

eye on that and see how that goes.

Nathan:

They want to bring in a new oversight body, and we're gonna put in a

Nathan:

sound effect for oversight body.

Nathan:

I think ForSight Buddy.

Nathan:

. Corey: Yeah,

Nathan:

. Nathan: Cause it, uh, yeah, it's, uh,

Nathan:

term, but , this is to be, this is where you'll see your fees, by the way.

Nathan:

This is what's gonna happen.

Nathan:

So this body is to be funded by the colleges.

Nathan:

So now the colleges get a taste of what we've been dealing with.

Nathan:

Right?

Nathan:

Ah-ha.

Nathan:

Now the college will get, will pay to be policed, but will the college pay?

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

They will shift that money back to us because that's

Nathan:

where their money comes from.

Nathan:

Without question.

Nathan:

Yes.

Nathan:

So this new , and there's more so the oversight body, uh, is going

Nathan:

to conduct routine audits and regulatory on regulatory colleges.

Nathan:

I'm hoping that also includes financial audits because as a member of a col,

Nathan:

as a, a healthcare professional, that's, that's a big concern.

Nathan:

I wanna know where my money's going.

Nathan:

Yeah, I think it'll be more to do with safety and protocols, but you never know.

Nathan:

So the oversight body is going to process and investigate complaints about the

Nathan:

regulatory college's actions and policies.

Nathan:

Now that is probably going to be more from a public point of view.

Nathan:

I don't know how involved they'll be with.

Nathan:

Professionals complaining about the, uh, regulatory colleges.

Nathan:

If there's an avenue for complaints, then I've got about, uh, I've got a

Nathan:

backlog log of about 200 . So, um, and I will be sending them all Yeah.

Nathan:

, because I, I would, there's things that need to be addressed from mm-hmm.

Nathan:

long time ago till now.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, uh, many, many complaints.

Nathan:

So, we'll, we'll see what happens there.

Nathan:

And the other thing they did with, they're, they're separating.

Nathan:

So normally the college would've taken care of the investigation of a

Nathan:

complaint towards a, a professional, and they would've been responsible

Nathan:

for the disciplinary action.

Nathan:

Right now, now they're separating it.

Nathan:

So the college is going to initiate the investigation and the

Nathan:

disciplinary side of it was going to be supported by the oversight board.

Nathan:

What do you make of that?

Nathan:

It's interesting that they think, again, this, this tells me that they

Nathan:

think that there's shenanigans going on where the healthcare professional

Nathan:

is being protected by the college.

Nathan:

You know, it's not the case.

Nathan:

, it's not the case.

Nathan:

, I mean, maybe, maybe that's happened where a, where somebody had a friend

Nathan:

on the board or something like that.

Nathan:

I'm sure that's happened in the past, but largely were treated like cattle, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

I mean, they, they do the ver the minimum that's required by law that

Nathan:

they can get away with, and that's it.

Nathan:

So, I, I don't, I'm not entirely sure what they think they're gonna do other

Nathan:

than there seems to be concern about, you know, if they're talking about

Nathan:

transparency issues and they want somebody who's being investigated, if

Nathan:

they want the public to be involved in that investigation, as in they get access

Nathan:

to that person's name, credentials, work history, uh, what happened

Nathan:

during the event and stuff like that.

Nathan:

Then that's gonna be, that'll be a court case, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, I mean, that's a privacy act violation.

Nathan:

. Corey: And what, what's

Nathan:

gonna be?

Nathan:

Well, that's the thing.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

One of the reasons, like, uh, David Eby is, uh, is poor

Nathan:

guy's already up for a recall.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. But, uh, that's one of the concerns that, uh, and of course this

Nathan:

recall is politically motivated.

Nathan:

It's being headed by a guy who was trying to get elected in the

Nathan:

first place, blah, blah, blah.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. But that guy does have a point, and that this does, if that's the angle

Nathan:

they're taking, then you're getting into privacy act issues again, where

Nathan:

you gotta remember that everybody is innocent till proven guilty.

Nathan:

So, and that should include, you know, people who are being accused of

Nathan:

professional conduct issues or whatever it might be for things like that,

Nathan:

which are the majority of what the college is gonna face in complaints.

Nathan:

I think the, the people involved in that have a right to confidentiality

Nathan:

until a decision is made.

Nathan:

If it's a, a grievance that is bad enough that it needs to

Nathan:

be made public, that's fine.

Nathan:

I mean, there should be room for that.

Nathan:

But that's a real touchy one as far as, uh, human rights goes, you know?

Corey:

Yep, it is.

Corey:

And again, this is the whole debate about who are they protecting

Corey:

first, the public or the profession.

Corey:

Seemingly, when you look on any of these colleges, any of them, if you

Corey:

look on their websites, you can see, uh, who's being investigated and

Corey:

some details of or, or even more.

Corey:

There's some that are quite thorough, unless there's a, a medical

Corey:

diagnoses that makes it so that their privacy is, should be maintained.

Corey:

It's all on there and it's on there before, at this time.

Corey:

It's on there before there's a conclusion that's been reached.

Corey:

Unless

Nathan:

you have a good lawyer.

Nathan:

That's right.

Corey:

So to me that says that the, right now, that is the motivation

Corey:

of that is to protect the public.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

and not the other way around.

Nathan:

Yes.

Nathan:

I, I would agree with you there.

Nathan:

They're gonna create an independent discipline tribunal that will be the,

Nathan:

uh, the entity that, that oversees that.

Nathan:

And that'll be, that will be an interesting thing if they do make

Nathan:

that more, like, if it becomes more accessible to the public and transparent

Nathan:

again, as long as it's within the, the confines of the normal judiciary system.

Nathan:

As in, you know, if there's a grievous accusation and there's good evidence

Nathan:

to suggest that it's, it's true, then, you know, maybe it can be a

Nathan:

little more fleshed out in the public.

Nathan:

But

Corey:

will that include the nurses, midwives, physicians, and pharmacists?

Corey:

Will, will, is that oversee all governing buddies?

Corey:

I believe it does, unless that entity that looks at discipline is

Corey:

enormous, that will get bogged down so quickly if now all are being funneled

Corey:

through the same spot, won't it?

Corey:

Like the, looking at the, the, the board who looks after discipline for nurses.

Corey:

That board is bogged down.

Corey:

That board is, is completely, I think, drowning in complaints and

Corey:

in, in, in disciplinary issues.

Corey:

And that's part of why, or so they claim, and that's why it takes so long

Corey:

too, is that there's a lot of them.

Corey:

But if, if they're all going through the same place, I

Corey:

imagine that is, uh, traffic jam,

Corey:

. Nathan: I, I would see that

Corey:

I'm, and again, I, I don't know how, when you say streamline and you're

Corey:

talking about reducing the number of people who are working at these

Corey:

places and yet somehow getting more productivity out of them, I'm a little

Corey:

confused as to h Like it's these, these types of documents always.

Corey:

It's like they have all the information there.

Corey:

They have the reason why they're making the decisions, but the implement.

Corey:

and maintenance of those decisions so that a document like this

Corey:

can, can be pragmatic and useful.

Corey:

That's the part that I don't see, and I, I guess I, we can hope that when they

Corey:

have a timeline, perhaps they'll have, uh, implement, uh, implementation strategy

Corey:

so that we can take a look at how they're going to actually regulate this process.

Corey:

Right?

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

So we don't have to put a, another level of regulation on the regulators

Corey:

who are doing the regulation . Right?

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

So what we could do is, uh, did you have, uh, just a, a kind of

Corey:

summary of your pros and cons?

Corey:

I can give you that.

Corey:

Yep, sure.

Corey:

Let's hear what you got.

Corey:

So for me, a

Corey:

pro, again, we should preface this by saying this is if it is

Corey:

implemented and proves to be working as they claim that it will work.

Corey:

if it

Nathan:

meets its goals.

Nathan:

So we're, we're giving it the benefit of the doubt

Corey:

for the sake of the exercise.

Corey:

We'll give it the benefit of the, of the doubt.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Uh, that said, we will also highlight some concerns, but if it meets its goals, then

Corey:

the idea of more transparency Absolutely.

Corey:

A pro for me.

Corey:

Agreed.

Corey:

I'll, I'll hand it back to you.

Corey:

What would be your first

Nathan:

pro?

Nathan:

Well, I've said it for years.

Nathan:

The colleges need to be policed.

Nathan:

They need to be audited, they need to be held accountable.

Nathan:

I can't believe that we've went this long, allowing these entities to

Nathan:

function the way they have with the misappropriation of power and funds.

Nathan:

And it just, it, it's strange to me because other countries generally have

Nathan:

some kind of a structure in place to, to allow for self-governance, but to alway

Nathan:

also kind of keep an eye on it and make sure that things don't get outta hand.

Nathan:

And we haven't had that.

Nathan:

So if this is implemented properly, it's a no-brainer.

Nathan:

It should have been done a long time ago.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

. Corey: I think another pro

Nathan:

balance within these boards.

Nathan:

Personally, I, I don't think it's a bad idea to say, to say, we're gonna

Nathan:

pay the public members the same as what the, the private members are

Nathan:

who sit on these, on these boards.

Nathan:

That's the pro there.

Nathan:

The con there to me is that these boards will be entirely

Nathan:

appointed by the government.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

That doesn't make sense to me.

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

I think, and it not only is, does it not make sense, but it is just

Nathan:

setting up for potentially being

Nathan:

abused and misused.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And politicized further, like you said.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

This country is heading towards a pendulum swing here of epic proportions, and if

Nathan:

that means that all of a sudden bcs.

Nathan:

Back under blue governance . Then there will be significant, I could

Nathan:

imagine, like you said, significant changes to this very quickly.

Nathan:

But yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Nathan:

I guess the other thing I like here is just.

Nathan:

It's personally very satisfying to me.

Nathan:

And, uh, it makes me not a very good person.

Nathan:

It's, uh, it's a terrible thing to say , but I love that the colleges

Nathan:

are going, they're going to get a, a taste of their own medicine.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And I have to take these, these small delicious victories.

Nathan:

Even if they might be, they might turn out to be just as, uh, crazy.

Nathan:

And I think at, at least, at the very least, they're gonna be subject to the

Nathan:

same ambiguous, non-existent guidelines where they're gonna be expected to follow

Nathan:

rules that they can't find, you know, and then be reprimanded when they don't.

Nathan:

I, I could see that happening very easily and, uh, I will

Nathan:

not lose any sleep over that.

Nathan:

No, we'll put it that way.

Nathan:

No.

Nathan:

I

Corey:

think some, a pro would be some reorganization of some

Corey:

of these smaller colleges might.

Corey:

I could see, and, and to be honest with you, I'm kind of like naive about

Corey:

what the, what the college of, of like naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine

Corey:

and massage therapy and stuff like that.

Corey:

Like that's out of my, my realm.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

. But to me, I could see restructuring that as making some sense if they're,

Corey:

if these boards are that small, if the regulatory bodies are that small, which

Corey:

presumably they are, I think a con is that they have probably, for a variety

Corey:

of reasons, not wanted to touch the, the doctors, the nurses, and the pharmacists.

Corey:

And so you're leaving three pretty muscular entities there and will that

Corey:

in fact create more of a, an imbalance between those three and all of the rest.

Corey:

I think that imbalance was probably already there, but

Corey:

will this perpetuate that?

Corey:

I wonder?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

I wonder too, the only upside of that is, like I said, economy of scale.

Nathan:

I mean, if those guys are paying, um, uh, who's, somebody gets really shafted.

Nathan:

There's a, I can't remember which one it is.

Nathan:

It might be, there's some little college that pays a crazy high.

Nathan:

It's like $2,400 a year, something fees.

Nathan:

They should see a reduction.

Nathan:

Wow.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

It's, it's wild.

Nathan:

And they only have like a few members, right?

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

. So those ones that are being amalgamated, if you are a member of those colleges,

Nathan:

uh, or being regulated by them, I would expect to see some reductions in fees.

Nathan:

So watch for that and let us know if you don't, because if there's no

Nathan:

economy of scale, then I, I don't know how that's gonna be more efficient

Nathan:

for anybody, but, but we'll see.

Nathan:

There's more to be, uh, learned here.

Corey:

Yeah.

Corey:

Again, as we have talked about so many times on this podcast that.

Corey:

. There's such inconsistency with the disciplinary process that

Corey:

individuals that you and I know, including myself, get handled one way.

Corey:

The next person gets handled a different way.

Corey:

The next person gets a whole other set of rules applied.

Corey:

The next person hasn't heard back . Mm-hmm.

Corey:

and and so on and so on and so on.

Corey:

So for everyone to go through a more centralized, for lack of a better word,

Corey:

disciplinary panel, there might be some consistency that's created there.

Nathan:

Yes.

Nathan:

We should all be screwed equally.

Corey:

the, well, this is right.

Corey:

The con of that is that A will be potentially a bottleneck.

Corey:

It may actually take MO more time, and B, depending on the political will now,

Corey:

that these boards will be influenced by, directly by politics, that there will be.

Corey:

equal screwing or some un , a lack of fairness or, um, an influence of an

Corey:

anti-drug mindset, et cetera, et cetera.

Corey:

There's just an endless list of, of things that could go wrong with that.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

, but it could also create some consistency.

Nathan:

It could, yeah.

Nathan:

Uh, and that's what we would, we would hope to see if we could

Nathan:

get a little more consistency.

Nathan:

I think the biggest thing is time.

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

If we could get, I mean, if you rob a bank, you have a Right

Nathan:

to a fair and timely trial.

Nathan:

Right?

Nathan:

Right.

Nathan:

So, you know, I mean, there has to be some kind of, there has to be some

Nathan:

kind of standards that are set and met as far as timelines are concerned.

Nathan:

And I think, I mean, if they could make that better, just that

Nathan:

alone would really help healthcare professionals who are dealing with,

Nathan:

uh, substance use, uh, use issues.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Generally speaking, the amalgamation of power, especially into government bodies,

Nathan:

is, in my opinion, an overall negative.

Nathan:

Uh, I'm always leery of centralization, and this is no exception.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

, but giving it the, uh, the benefit of the doubt.

Nathan:

We'll, we'll see.

Nathan:

I believe the transition will take years.

Nathan:

Like, uh, they could set a date two years maybe as a target.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

and, uh, I, yeah, we'll, we'll see.

Nathan:

I'm not sure what the transition stage will look like as far as how

Nathan:

professions are dealing with their day-to-day on the ground level.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Nathan:

is there going to be, now they're saying up until the implementation

Nathan:

date, the old Health Professions Act will be in place and the

Nathan:

colleges will be business as usual.

Nathan:

But I can't see that really being the case if, you know, you've got

Nathan:

half your staff that knows are getting relieved of their duties.

Nathan:

I, I was just gonna say that you're gonna see, uh, uh, there'll be a

Nathan:

transition period of probably fairly extreme flux where I would expect.

Nathan:

all momentum to nearly come to a e either a stop or a crawl, right?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Until the next group of whatever this is gonna be, takes over.

Nathan:

So that's something to, that I'm a little leery of.

Nathan:

And, uh, I'll be keeping a, an eye on.

Nathan:

I just hope that they keep healthcare professionals in mind here.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

, I, I also wonder about morale, like just the, the timing of this change

Corey:

that is loaded with concern, loaded with conversation, with argument.

Corey:

You would think that in some of these professions, the overall

Corey:

morale will, will be impacted

Nathan:

by this.

Nathan:

Yes.

Nathan:

Absolutely.

Corey:

At a time where it's, where it's pretty tough to be a healthcare worker.

Nathan:

Absolutely.

Nathan:

I don't think there's been a tougher time than No, no.

Nathan:

And has government, has faith in the government ever been lower?

Nathan:

Probably not.

Nathan:

Probably not.

Nathan:

So they're asking for a large scale grain salt here.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

, you know?

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And we'll see.

Nathan:

I think in theory this is a, a bill that has a potential to

Nathan:

make things better for everyone.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Except the, it'll probably make things worse for the colleges, but

Nathan:

they brought that on themselves.

Nathan:

Sure.

Nathan:

So, and the

Corey:

other part, you know, just for our listeners, this is

Corey:

a, what, a 272 page document?

Corey:

Something like that.

Corey:

Like

Nathan:

it's a monster Bill itself.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

It is huge.

Nathan:

And, uh, yeah, it's, I mean, they passed it in like just a little over a month.

Nathan:

So, does anyone read these things?

Nathan:

? I was just

Corey:

gonna say, you and I, you and I were focused on,

Corey:

just on this specific issue.

Corey:

There's more to the bill than just stuff with the colleges, but, and a

Corey:

lot of people's concerns is also around the potential for privatization, which

Corey:

is a, a whole separate episode maybe.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

. Um, but yeah, just to think about having to sit down and read all 272

Corey:

pages and then like, make sense of it and feel comfortable and confident

Corey:

with the material and, and then vote

Nathan:

on it.

Nathan:

I.

Nathan:

, you know what I was thinking would be a good thing.

Nathan:

This would be a good Jo, uh, job for, uh, chatbot, right?

Nathan:

Get chat g p t in here and say, chatbot, read this 237 page document

Nathan:

cuz it's, it's written in legalese.

Nathan:

Right?

Nathan:

Translate it to English and summarize it in one page, please.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

. Corey: You know what I mean?

Nathan:

Great

Nathan:

idea.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Maybe chat bot can help us here.

Nathan:

chat bot if you're listening, get to work.

Nathan:

. I think we can leave it there.

Nathan:

Corey, what do you Yeah,

Corey:

I think so too.

Corey:

I mean, we've, um, covered a lot here.

Corey:

Mm-hmm.

Corey:

picking up quite a bit of time and, uh, and there's just, there's, we could

Corey:

break it down for a long time and I think a lot of it has to be left to

Nathan:

we'll see.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And I re I realize this is a little bit out of our, our normal wheelhouse

Nathan:

as far as, you know, this is much more into regulatory affairs than we get.

Nathan:

But we both thought it was important to cover this because the impact.

Nathan:

will eventually be felt at the level of the, the individual

Nathan:

who's stuck in the machine.

Nathan:

So that's why it's important for us to keep track of these

Corey:

things.

Corey:

Oh yeah.

Corey:

We, you and I have been, have been critical of regulatory bodies since

Corey:

we started this and before, and uh, this is the first time we've seen

Corey:

it actually moved into legislation.

Corey:

So

Nathan:

it's, it's big.

Nathan:

It is.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

So we'll see what happens.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Nathan:

That's all we got.

Nathan:

Thanks for your input, co-host Corey, and, uh, you as well.

Nathan:

Of course.

Nathan:

We will see everybody next time.

Nathan:

Yep.

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