The federal government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announced on Thursday that it will be investing $2.6 million in a Wait Time Guarantee pilot project for children in need of surgery.

Ed Komarnicki, MP for Souris-Moose Mountain, stated that "it is clear that the Prime Minister is looking at wait time guarantees, starting with children."

The 15-month pilot project, which begins January, will include the development of the first pan-Canadian wait times information system to measure the burden of waiting times for children who need surgery.

It will also include the development of a pan-Canadian clinical recourse plan for children whose surgical wait times fall beyond the clinical access guidelines that were proposed by the National Child and Youth Health Coalition and endorsed by the Pediatric Surgical Chiefs of Canada.

"The government is hoping to set up an information system that will connect across the country," said Komarnicki. "Then the next step will be to develop a treatment plan for those children on unacceptable wait times. Ultimately the idea is to have an acceptable wait time."

The initial focus of the project will be on six key surgical areas: cardiac, cancer, neurology, sight, spinal deformity, and dental treatment requiring anesthesia. Within one year, one of these areas will be chosen to test a guarantee that will include recourse for patients who are waiting too long.

The project, which is the fourth such wait time guarantee initiative announced to date by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, will be conducted in partnership with Canada's 16 pediatric academic health science centres under the leadership of the Pediatric Surgical Chiefs of Canada and The Hospital for Sick Children.

Marga Cugnet, Vice President of Primary and Integrated Care for the Sun Country Health Region, commented that this project will not affect the region, and noted the waiting list for children in need of surgery in the region is relatively short, but that the province is doing an overview of surgical wait times which may affect the health region in the future.