FACT CHECK: McFadyen's plan does not fund promise to hire nurses & doctors or to save Lake Winnipeg

The McFadyen Economic Strategy released today is not practical and threatens both front-line health care and the effort to save Lake Winnipeg.

Even though McFadyen promised 1,700 more nurses and 250 more doctors just yesterday, the plan he released today doesn’t allocate any new money to actually hire them. His plan says investments in front-line health care would be funded from cuts to RHA administration. Unfortunately 1,700 more nurses and 250 doctors would add $216 million annually to the budget which exceeds the entire $111 million administrative budget for all the RHAs combined.

The only significant saving identified in McFadyen’s plan is cutting the $350 million investment in City of Winnipeg wastewater treatment, an investment that Hugh McFadyen and his entire caucus voted unanimously to support just two months ago (the investment is required by the Save Lake Winnipeg Act).

Analysis:
• Annual cost of hiring 1,700 more nurses:
$74,000/year x 1,700 = $125,800,000.00
• Annual cost of hiring 250 more doctors:
$362,000/year x 250 = $90,500,000.00
• Total Cost of McFadyen’s commitment to hire nurses and doctors:
$216,300,000.00
• Annual funding to all RHAs combined:
$3,260,000,000.00
• Share of RHA budgets spent on administration according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information: 3.4%
• Administrative budgets of all RHAs combined:
$110,840,000.000