The teapot tempest over the native of Alberta Health Services' $1.3-billion deficit is a funny thing to learn in how promotion in politics can be a mixed blessing.

It is highly amusing and interesting to learn most of the red ink was spilled by the new province-wide superboard that was required to make things highly efficient and less vulnerable to deficits than the bad old regional health authorities.

In proclaiming his Government's new five-year plan, new Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky may well be right that developing a real base level scenario of funding, and forming targets for growth of six per cent annually for the first three years, and 4.5 per cent a year for next two years, signifies that the government has a better chance of grabbing its targets.

However, what he fails to face about those figures is that they explicitly admit that health bills will unavoidable boost at a faster pace than overall spending on account of an aging population and continuing advances in medical science.

In 2004, when the former Calgary Health Authority leased private space and contracted the Health Resource Centre for operating rooms, beds and staff, the health region paid 10 per cent more for hip and knee surgeries than they would if the operations had happened in public hospitals.