The Canadian family gathered in Ottawa the other day with Papa Justin.
The matter at hand wasn’t a celebration. Rather it was a meeting to decide the increase in allowance for health care from Papa Justin to each of his 13 kids.
Three of them still manage territories under his supervision, while the other 10 are supposed to be self-sufficient in their provinces.
The issue was about how much more Papa Justin would give them for health care spending in their provinces. Secondly, the kids wanted total control over where they spent the extra money but Papa Justin wanted to make sure that money isn’t spent on frivolous things.
Now we have to remember, when the kids left home their ancestors set down their responsibilities in a document called the constitution.
Under the constitution, health care is among the matters where the kids and their provinces have exclusive control.
Papa Justin’s ancestors only got involved with an allowance for health care when the kids whined they couldn’t afford the payments and asked for help.
Their ancestors, being fair, had provided money to make sure all kids had the same standards of health care.
The argument at the gathering of the clan in Ottawa simmered for months.
Papa Justin has been paying 22 per cent of all health care costs. The kids wanted him to start paying 35 per cent. That would have meant nearly doubling their health care allowance overnight.
Where the money was supposed to come from wasn’t their concern.
The argument had divided the family between Papa and the kids. You’d think the night before the allowance meeting they would have had dinner together like in the old days.
No Sirree! The kids met separately from Papa Justin to figure out how best to gang up on him.
When they did meet, things were a bit awkward when Daughter Danielle of Alberta wasn’t polite enough to shake hands properly with Papa.
Papa was determined to get his way. At the meeting, he increased his share of the health care costs by two per cent to 20 per cent with promise of more over five years.
His was a take-it-or-leave-it offer. They took it with little grumbling.
It wasn’t what they wanted but none of them turned it down. It’s a lot easier to take what’s offered instead of paying the full shot yourself.
The kids got control of spending half the new money, with half being spent where Papa Justin wants. Each kid gets a different deal for this half.
And the kids had to promise to promise not to spend it on other stuff.
It would be nice to give this story a fairy tale ending like they lived happily ever after but that’s not realistic.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
