Bernard Lord and the PCs are on the Right Track.

Last week, Premier Bernard Lord announced a comprehensive Cabinet shuffle and several new portfolios were created in order to further the five main initiatives of the current government. Upon hearing of a new independent Department of Wellness, many supporters of small government cringed. However, one only has to look at the statistics to ascertain the logic in the plan. New Brunswick is the least healthy province in Canada and frankly, it’s costing us. Obesity, smoking, and the attendant lack of physical exercise are the greatest health risks facing our province, and those are the problems that are going to be tackled by the new Department.

41% of New Brunswickers are overweight, the highest rate in the country, and the figure is only increasing. For instance, 30 years ago a survey was taken of 9000 students in Saint John public schools. Only 30 were found to have high blood pressure. A repeat of the study is currently being conducted, and researchers expect to find as many as 700 youths with high blood pressure. If that does not tell you that obesity is a pandemic in this province, what will? Current estimates speculate that over 750 people die of obesity in this province each year. Most of these deaths are attributed to cardiovascular problems. New Brunswick’s high smoking rate (15% above the national average) only contributes to the dilemma as smoking is one of the six major causes of heart disease. Of course, smoking is the biggest factor in lung cancer, which kills over a thousand New Brunswickers each year.

The fact of the matter is the much vaunted public health care system in this province and country as a whole is collapsing. British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta are all moving towards health care reform, with access to private care central to the plans of all three. Why is that? Simply put, the system is falling apart due to the accumulating stress of out of control obesity and smoking rates. For example, a local man has had several operations but keeps coming back for the same procedure because his damaged bones cannot heal properly due to his two packs a day smoking habit. Furthermore a report last week outlined the danger that baby boomers pose to the health system. It warns that the abhorrent smoking and obesity rates amongst the late middle aged have the potential to ruin public health care in Canada.

So how much does obesity and smoking cost New Brunswick each year? The most conservative estimate, the estimate that takes into account only direct cases of obesity as a killer, is about $55 million per annum. If you consider all of the direct and indirectly related deaths from obesity each year, the cost goes up to $72 million yearly, or about 5.6% of New Brunswick’s total health budget. The indirect costs of obesity in such things as productivity are also staggering, even eye opening. Obesity probably costs New Brunswick some 100,000 work days, 160,000 physician visits, 225,000 bed days, and 600,000 restricted activity days annually. Health problems credited to smoking cost our provincial health care system about $120 million a year, and employers some $218 million yearly.

Obviously, the Progressive Conservatives realize that the most pressing health challenges to New Brunswick need to be addressed. The Department of Wellness is a part of a strategy to promote healthy lifestyles. If the smoking rate can be drastically cut, and if people can be encouraged to eat right and exercise, the taxpayers of New Brunswick may not have to subsidize an over bloated, inefficient, and continuously more expensive public health system.