COVID is still killing people in Alberta, but if you’ve been careful about keeping vaccinated and think it might be time for another booster, chances are you’re out of luck. COVID-19 vaccine (Photo: National Advisory Committee on Immunization). Obviously, whatever the United Conservative Party Government wishes, COVID-19 continues to kill
Continue readingTag: Alberta Health Services
Alberta Politics: UCP fires AHS board, names sole administrator, promises big changes fast: No such thing will happen
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith delivered on her long-promised shakeup of Alberta Health Services yesterday, firing the 11 members of the province-wide agency’s Conservative-appointed board and naming John Cowell as its sole administrator. Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Alert readers will recall that Dr. Cowell was appointed
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Gain Danielle Smith, lose Deena Hinshaw—not a fair exchange
On Monday Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, was in effect fired. Thus our new premier, Danielle Smith, kept a campaign promise. We get Danielle Smith, a conspiracy-spouting separatist; we lose Deena Hinshaw, a highly qualified medical professional. What is Alberta coming to. Hinshaw was the only reasonably
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Does being premier of Alberta mean never having to say you’re sorry? Let Danielle Smith explain …
Maybe being premier of Alberta means never having to say you’re sorry! The short-lived shot at Ms. Smith from a twitter account formerly controlled by Jason Kenney’s political staff (Image: Twitter). No sooner was she sworn in Tuesday as Alberta’s 19th premier than Danielle Smith was in hot water for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: After years spent building Alberta Health Services, UCP leadership candidates talk decentralization
Still spinning fairy tales about Alberta Health Services’ leadership conspiring to sabotage the United Conservative Party government, leadership candidate Danielle Smith yesterday published a statement vowing to “decentralize control of health care delivery to local decision makers and health professionals.” UCP leadership frontrunner Danielle Smith, the former leader of the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AHS drops mandatory COVID-19 immunization for health care employees; pressure from UCP widely assumed
Alberta Health Services rescinded its mandatory COVID-19 immunization requirement for all employees yesterday, effective immediately. Alberta Health Services interim CEO Mauro Chies (Photo: Northern Alberta Institute of Technology). In a memorandum emailed to staff, physicians and volunteers, interim CEO Mauro Chies and Senior Medical Officer of Health Laura McDougall made
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith takes UCP leadership campaign down a dark, Trumpian road with her conspiracy theory about AHS
The United Conservative Party leadership campaign took a dark Trumpian turn Monday when candidate Danielle Smith got a big cheer from her supporters at a rally in Airdrie for accusing Alberta Health Services of deliberately sabotaging the Kenney Government during the pandemic by falsely claiming the system was near collapse
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bizarre UCP plan would see Alberta patients and their Alberta docs shipped to B.C. for surgeries, then shipped back
What the hell was the Kenney Government up to last fall when it had the brainstorm to compel Alberta Health Services to ship patients and their surgeons to an apparently under-used surgical facility in British Columbia’s Okanagan? The site of the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna (Photo: Screenshot of
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Female Erasure now Featured in Alberta Health Services
I post this letter written to Alberta Health Services regarding the experience one Albertan woman had in the context of the language being used in a letter to her regarding pap testing. She has given me permission to reprint her letter in hopes that more Albertan women will also write
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Verna Yiu, fired in April as Alberta Health Services CEO, named University of Alberta provost and academic vice-president
It’s safe bet the United Conservative Party Government wasn’t very happy to learn yesterday that Verna Yiu, controversially fired in April as president and chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services, has been named as the next provost and academic vice-president of the University of Alberta. University of Alberta President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Omicrom variant arrives in Alberta – so naturally Jason Kenney is talking about easing COVID restrictions
The first case of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has arrived in Alberta, Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw confirmed yesterday at one of her routine pandemic update news conferences. There was no sign of Premier Jason Kenney, of course, presumably because there was no way to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Weekend Roundup: Vaccine passport’s new QR code won’t work; Mandel quits AHS board; pipeline association folds tent
Astonishingly given its record, Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has actually upgraded its easy-to-forge vaccine passport in jig time! There’s only one problem. It doesn’t work. Alberta Jobs and Something-Something Minister Doug Schweitzer (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). But don’t worry, we’re told by our dependably undependable government, it’ll work “soon.”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative MLA, notorious for ‘Cheezies’ remark, righteously scorched by indignant Edmonton physicians
It’s a wonder Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s inbox didn’t spontaneously combust yesterday when the letter from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association landed in it. Signed by EZMSA President Erika MacIntyre, Vice-President Cheryl Mack, and 10 other physicians, the letter was intended to take UCP MLA Shane Getson to task
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Missing premier reported sighted in Calgary – if it’s really Jason Kenney, he’s got some ’splainin’ to do!
After managing to stay completely off the radar for a two-week vacation that stretched to at least 23 days, there was a credible sounding Jason Kenney sighting in Calgary last night. If the man spotted at a southeast Calgary shawarma restaurant while a dark SUV full of bodyguards idled nearby
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: “Florida North” Shouldn’t be a goal for Alberta.
I’m flabbergasted. You won’t have to isolate or quarantine if you test positive for Covid? I think Dr.Hinshaw has finally given in to the political machinations she’s had to fight against during the UCP’s legendary mishandling of the pandemic in Alberta. No masking required in schools? Or in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In what looks like a classic case of bargaining in bad faith, UCP Government demands additional 3% pay cut from more than 30,000 nurses
Alberta Health Services returned to the bargaining table with Alberta’s more than 30,000 public sector registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses yesterday for the first time since March 2020 with a new demand for a 3-per-cent across-the-board rollback in wages. That’s on top of the more than 100 rollbacks to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Hey Doc, Ya Wanna Work in Alberta?
“Nice business you got here, be a shame if something happened to it.” – Gangster in a B-grade movie Alberta’s doctors are tired. They’ve been fighting covid for over a year while at the same time fighting with the Health Minister, Mr Shandro, who has filled their lives with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mayor in the heart of the oilsands dares Jason Kenney to fire him in fight over declining ambulance service
In case you missed it, while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was trying to pretend the embarrassing rebellion of two COVID-skeptical MLAs in southern Alberta wasn’t happening, another political rebellion against his policies was coming to a boil in the heart of the oilsands. On Tuesday, defiant members of the council
Continue readingAlberta Politics: When it comes to COVID-19, our premier talks like Churchill but walks like Chamberlain
Alberta’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic with Jason Kenney in the driver’s seat are a lot like stand–up comedian Billy Connolly’s iconic routine about union negotiations, only without the profanity and without actually being funny. What’s going to happen tomorrow? Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw at
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