Plans hatched in secret despite government’s obligation to share information with health union in wake of Supreme Court of Canada decision on Bill 29.

The B.C. government and its six health authorities today announced a new bureaucracy whose sweeping mandate includes centralizing a number of health services and may prompt a new wave of privatization.

But even though these plans have been in the works for the last eight months, government representatives chose not to disclose them to health unions until this week, despite repeated requests for the information during talks on the implementation of last June’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on Bill 29.

The failure of the B.C. government to consult with health unions on issues that affect their members’ collective bargaining rights was central to the ruling which struck down key sections of the 2002 law.

Bill 29 rewrote health care collective agreements and resulted in the layoff of thousands of workers (mostly women) to make way for privatization.

In its decision, the Court established collective bargaining as a right protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  As a result of this decision, there is an obligation by government to engage in meaningful consultations and good faith negotiations.

The secrecy leading up to today’s announcement shows that the B.C. government has learned little from the Court or from 5 years of failed privatization experiments.

The new Health Authority Shared Services organization – run by the health ministry and B.C.’s six health authorities – is targeting payroll, information technology, purchasing and other services for centralization and possible privatization.  The result could be the transfer of confidential employee information to private corporations.