By the usual measure of what constitutes success in public policy, there hasn't been much for the Saskatchewan Party government to celebrate when it comes to the controversial liberation therapy clinical trials for multiple sclerosis patients.
But the recently announced federal government involvement in MS trials could change that, if for no other reason than it alleviates the heat Premier Brad Wall's government has taken for raising hopes and expectations that an answer for MS sufferers in Canada would be coming soon.
Wall's government should welcome the reprieve.
As word came down last week that the federal Conservative government would fund clinical trials for the treatment, it was also learned that the early work started last year in Saskatchewan seemed to have hit a scientific roadblock.
Wall announced last year that his government was committing $5 million for clinical trials on the liberation therapy. The Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation issued a call for proposals that the province insisted would result in clinical trials beginning this year.
However, accompanying last week's federal initiative was news from the Saskatoon-based research team that had made the lone proposal, and from the SHRF and the province that more research was needed before trials like those envisioned by the government could start.
"There is no proposal that would be moving ahead in the short-term," said Health Minister Don McMorris, calling this development a "setback" to the prospects of seeing clinical trials start this year.
He seemed sincerely unaware and caught off-guard by federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's news that Ottawa was proposing a process that was both smaller in scale than Saskatchewan's and conducted in two distinct phases. The first phase will involve a small number of healthy people to test the safety of the procedure. The second involves somewhere between 20 and 300 people to look at the effectiveness of the procedure on those with MS.
That Ottawa appears to be taking a far more measured approach should be taken rightly as a bit of a condemnation of the Wall government for getting ahead of itself last year.
Premier Wall clearly was too far out in front on this issue, eagerly announcing the trials on an open-line radio show without enough consultation or preliminary work being done.
One might even argue that Wall - who seemed to hope that his government's study would conclusively prove the validity of Italian surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni's theory that MS is linked to blocked veins in the neck and spine - was working under a flawed premise that was contradictory to the nature of scientific research.
As reality has set in, it's become increasingly obvious that what the Wall government wanted from this study was too ambitious. That put the researchers and SHRF both in a bind.
In turn, the government was also caught in a bind because it had clearly raised the hopes of MS sufferers - especially those who have travelled abroad for Zamboni's treatment and who are convinced that the treatment works as a longterm solution.
That Saskatchewan's trials are now slowed down by what some will view as nothing more than a bureaucratic process will not endear Wall to some in this crowd.
On the other end of the spectrum, there will be those shaking their heads over the premier's disdain for the scientific process.
But the news out of Ottawa is probably a good thing for not only Wall and his government, but more importantly, for MS sufferers in the long run.
Even though all signs point to Wall getting far ahead of himself, he may have spurred Ottawa into action. And that he was at least willing to champion some hope for MS sufferers at a time when other politicians were unwilling to touch the issue still should be seen as a positive.
hat his enthusiasm - misguided or otherwise - has now produced discussion and better understanding of MS and the liberation therapy is also a positive.
That Wall has got the research ball rolling toward what could be a solution remains a very good thing.