The deal will cost taxpayers about $1.6 billion a year as the decision awards doctors 6.95 per cent for inflation, plus a three-per-cent increase this year

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Thanks to the province’s physicians winning a big pay raise from an arbitration decision last week, the cost of doctors’ services in Ontario is going up sharply, by just under 10 per cent in one year. The deal will cost taxpayers about $1.6 billion a year. Good news for doctors, but the benefit for patients is a little more difficult to identify.

Arbitrator William Kaplan’s decision awards doctors 6.95 per cent to make up for past inflation, plus a three-per-cent increase for this year. Some of that money will be targeted to specific areas of health care, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the provincial government are still negotiating the final three years of what will be a four-year deal.

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While the increase rewarded is remarkably high, it pales in comparison to the 22.9 per cent the OMA was seeking. Yes, that’s 22.9 per cent in one year, an amount arbitrator Kaplan said would be “unprecedented.”

There was quite a gulf between the doctors’ ask and the government’s offer of a three-per-cent increase, an amount Kaplan rightly called “unrealistic.” The provincial government further weakened its case for moderation by arguing........

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