The Saskatchewan government says it is considering buying access to surgical procedures in British Columbia.

The issue has sparked a flurry of debate as politicians in both provinces weigh in on the merits of such a scheme.

B.C.'s health minister, Kevin Falcon, confirmed Wednesday that officials are negotiating to bring 400 patients to the province for surgery over the next two years.

Saskatchewan's minister, Don McMorris, acknowledged Thursday that sending patients out-of-province was one option being considered for reducing a backlog of surgical procedures.

McMorris told reporters that discussions with B.C. were preliminary. He said a working group is looking at how to achieve a goal of a maximum wait for surgery of three months.

"If we can ensure that they have their surgery done within three months and if it was — just hypothetically — not necessarily in this province and there was a bit of a premium that had to be paid, now I don't know what that is and that would all have to be talked about, but we're not ruling it out at this point," McMorris said.

Opposition politicians in Saskatchewan are asking pointed questions about how any arrangement with another province would work.

"The two-tier thing is the first thing you think of," Judy Junor, the NDP health critic in Saskatchewan, said Thursday. She wondered whether the costs of travel would make the out-of-province option only available to people who could afford to pay the expenses.

Junor added that if travel costs were covered by the province, it would make that option very expensive for taxpayers.

"There's again even a higher premium that we're paying to out-of-province places to do the surgeries for us," Junor said, "when we could again be investing that money in our own surgery centres."

McMorris said decisions about who would pay different costs have not yet been addressed.

He added that his preference is to have surgeries done in Saskatchewan, where possible.

He said a working group has been assembled, including medical professionals and patients, to examine options.

McMorris said he wants to begin implementing a surgery wait-times reduction strategy in April 2010.