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Province-wide Opinion Section.
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High speed rail not feasible
| To the provincial government…. Forget spending our tax dollars on high speed rail. Upgrade the highways with the money. Four lanes each way from Calgary to Edmonton would be a good start. Highway 2 is becoming a nightmare to drive. Too many transport trucks and too many impatient drivers in cars. Four lanes to Ft. Mac and four lanes on #3 to the B.C. border. Get rid of the deathtrap range road intersections. Put in proper interchanges. Rest stops every 60 kilometers far enough off the highway to keep people safe. There are not enough people in this province to support high speed rail. The government will end up spending billions on a project that will never make enough revenue to pay the interest on the debt, let alone the construction costs. The taxpayers of the future will be saddled with a debt that will take decades to pay off. Andy Hansen |
Where is the Alberta Advantage ?
| Where is the Alberta Advantage when it comes to electricity rates? According to energyhub.org September 2023 figures the average residential cost of electricity in Canada, based on an average consumption of 1,000 kWh, including both fixed and variable rates, is $0.192 / 1,000 kWh. The Canadian average total cost for 1,000 kWh of electricity is 19 cents per kWh. The highest rate is in the Northwest Territories at 41 cents / kWh. The lowest rate is in Quebec at 7.8 cents / kWh. B.C. – 11.4, Saskatchewan – 19.9 and Ontario – 14.1. Albertans pay 25.8 cents / kWh. Alberta has a unique electrical market in Canada. The Alberta electricity grid was privatized by a previous conservative government looking to pay off our provincial debt. Do the high electricity rates that people in Alberta pay indicate how well that decision has worked out for the Alberta taxpayer? Jeff Toffin Calgary |
Where’s the emergency?
| The Federal Liberals are on notice that their appeal of the Emergencies Act may not be guaranteed because their bizarre violation of the Charter and overreach should never have reached the conclusion that was exploited. “The stand-up guy”, Justin Trudeau dispatches Chrystia Freeland to do the dirty work of announcing the court of appeal application which is unlikely to occur because it was deemed unlawful but not unconstitutional. The Supremes are not likely to agree with the absurdity and lame reason for appeal of the Emergencies Act. Infamous Liberal lawyers Lametti and Mendicino openly discussed employing tanks which had to be an eye-opener to Canadians who were not bedazzled. This is a victory ruling for anyone who opposed mandatory MRNA injections, and this ruling vindicates those who opposed the subject vaccinations. Freezing of bank accounts was an overreach and went too far. In summary, one egotistical individual refused to speak with the Freedom Convoy where this atrocity could have been averted but being narcissist, Justin Trudeau made the wrong decision afresh. The PM chose to call their bluff and lost big-time. Having witnessed the sins of the past, the Liberal party violated and disregarded Canada’s “Charter of Rights.” This calls for extremely severe punishment by the law including those involved and particularly the Prime Minister. R Yaschuk |
Alberta Health Services – A ship without a rudder?
| As we drift towards May 23 and Alberta’s provincial election, we should all wonder – what will happen with our provincial health delivery system, Alberta Health Services? Other Provinces have copied the single system model and despite interventions and interference in governance and management, AHS is beginning to achieve outcomes it is meant to achieve. But now, the largest healthcare organization in Canada has had no Board and the prior management were shown the door over six months ago. This has happened twice in the 15-year life of AHS, each time disbanding the Board and placing the entire operation under the governance of an individual. Regardless of the quality of the chosen administrator, it is hard to imagine a $14.5 Billion organization, with over 100,000 employees and 10,000 doctors that has no governance body. So, what might happen? Four options emerge: going back to individual hospital boards and management, such as existed from 1971 to 1995; going back to regionalization, when there were at first 17 then 9 RHAs and 3 Provincial Boards (1995 – 2008); keep AHS, with changes; or, try something completely different with a provincial health and social services super board, and with sub-Boards in primary & community care, acute care, long-term care, and population health. Except in selected areas, AHS is not the highest performing health system in Canada, and it could be. Given what we pay, it should be. While there may be options for where we go from here, it seems common sense to not structurally disrupt the system we have unless and until there is a strong, evidence-based reason to do so. When Governments are elected, the health system is often a target for disruptive change. Each time that happens, it takes a generation to recover from the fallout. Dr Tom Noseworthy Calgary |
Travel Hostages in Canada
| I am writing to you and I would like to make Public the totally unacceptable handling of Passport renewals by the government. My grandchildren’s passports 11yrs and 7yrs old, were sent into the passport office for renewal in August/2022. They have still not been processed as of January 13th/2023. A period of over 5 MONTHS! Calls to the passport office are useless. (192 in line). Then after waiting to get to number one, to be told there is a backlog of renewals for any passport submitted before October/2022. But after October, renewals are done in 6 weeks. Help! We need to make public the outrageous handling of this department policy’s. Our family is being held travel hostages. Also all the government issued ID for these children is being held by this department. This has to be made public and someone in the government department has to be held accountable. Please help! Stephen Wort Leduc, AB |
Not Good Enough?
| The Certificate to Canadian Pharmacy Practice (CCPP) is a new bridging program introduced in April 2021 for internationally educated pharmacy graduates (IEPGs) as a mandatory requirement to get an entry-to-practice by Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP). The CCPP program is claimed to be designed to build upon and further develop the knowledge and skills of internationally educated pharmacy graduates (IEPGs) to be “competent” and “confident” practitioners to enter into pharmacy practice in Alberta but unfortunately, it is not much of a benefit for the IEPGs who have already written and passed the PEBC qualifying exams because most of the course content is redundant and is merely a repetition of the material that the PEBC passers have already gone through and have rigorously been trained on before writing their PEBC qualifying exams. It is as if we are being told that just because we’re IEPGs we’re not good enough even if we have gotten the entry to practice permit from PEBC. ACP can’t trust our abilities, maybe we just passed by fluke. So please go read again and attend the classes (which will teach and test you guys on the exact same things that you have already been tested on), you will be held captive in an almost a year-long bridging program for us to develop some trust in you that you’re capable of serving our pharmacies and communities. This program is halting international pharmacists to enter pharmacy practice and all this is happening at a time when the province is in a dire need of pharmacists and where 92% of pharmacy professionals are at risk of burnout due to work overload and inadequate staffing according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Pharmacists Association. In my opinion, ACP and the University of Alberta need to modify this program and shorten its course and make it similar to bridging programs offered elsewhere in Canada where they are offered over the course of 3 to 6 months only. Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals, they have prescribing authority in Alberta, we need to take steps to make the licensing process more efficient & concise for international pharmacists to join the workforce and support patient care in the best ways possible. Amna Farooq Calgary |