In the first unauthorized information leak of December, Alberta’s NDP Opposition revealed yesterday Alberta Health Services case modelling projects about 775 Albertans will be in hospital with COVID-19 in just two weeks. More than 160 of them will be in intensive care units, further straining the overstressed provincial health system’s
Continue readingTag: Alberta Health Services
Alberta Politics: With pandemic respiratory disease rampaging virtually unchecked in Alberta, Calgary faces oxygen rationing
In a development that is surely emblematic of the unchecked progress of the novel coronavirus under the United Conservative Party Government of Premier Jason Kenney, Albertans learned yesterday we are now having to ration oxygen in Calgary. Oxygen! No fines were handed out when unmasked anti-maskers packed together defiantly to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It was good luck not good management that saved us from COVID-19 last spring; bad management is killing us now
Sunday was Alberta’s deadliest pandemic day to date. Twenty people died from COVID-19. There were 860 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total of active cases to 10,031. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). And one gets the feeling, given the Kenney Government’s determinedly lackadaisical response to the pandemic,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Overwhelmed by new cases, Alberta outsources contact tracing to people testing positive for COVID-19
Overwhelmed by a rising tide of new daily COVID-19 cases – “about 800” were reported yesterday by Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw – Alberta Health Services has announced it will no longer notify most close contacts of Albertans who test positive for the disease. Starting today, if you
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities
Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sundre hospital renamed to honour MP Myron Thompson, long-time foe of equality for same-sex couples
“They’re trying to take away our culture, they’re trying to take away our history,” Donald Trump complained back in 2017 about activists who call for the removal statues of Confederate and colonialist heroes. Mr. Trump’s supporters have been loudly making their agreement known ever since, including here in Alberta where
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Math is hard, but not so hard you can’t spot the holes in Tyler Shandro’s cost-saving shell game
Math, apparently, remains hard. Except, perhaps, calculus of a political sort. The real Mr. Shandro (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). On its face, Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s claim that firing 11,000 low-paid public sector health care employees will save about $600 million makes little sense. Others have done the same calculation and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP government announces massive health care layoffs at hastily called news conference
If you think this morning was a crazy moment for Health Minister Tyler Shandro to announce a major restructuring of public health care in Alberta, including the layoffs of 11,000 public health care workers, right in the middle of the most serious health care crisis in 100 years, you’re right.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The COVID-19 emergency may not be over, but your hospital parking fee holiday is
It was a big deal back in April when the government of Alberta suspended hospital parking fees for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Tyler Shandro was Johnny on the Spot, telling media reporters that “health-care workers and the general public should not have to worry about paying
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thanks to a public-spirited leaker, a risky health-care privatization scheme is exposed
Panicky sounding United Conservative Party “issues managers” were frantically insisting yesterday everything is copacetic and above board with secret plans to build a $200-million private orthopedic surgical hospital in Edmonton. No way will this result in two-tier health care, they contended, often shrilly calling anyone who suggested otherwise a liar,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AHS to Pincher Creek docs: We made a mistake, we gave it to you, now we won’t take it back … and you can’t quit!
Physicians in Pincher Creek who gave three months’ notice they were withdrawing from hospital service in response to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s War on Doctors were told they had to show up for August on-call duty anyway in letters Tuesday from a top official of Alberta Health Services’ South
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Frustration grows as Tyler Shandro’s promised $2-per-hour top-up for health care aides fails to appear, again
More than a month has passed since Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro promised the government would pay the province’s health care aides a $2-per-hour coronavirus-crisis top-up — and there’s still no sign of the money. On April 20, Mr. Shandro announced the temporary raise for health care aides. He said
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If COVID-19 proves anything, it’s that Ernst & Young was out to lunch when it recommended privatizing Carewest and Capital Care
Does anyone remember the $2-million “review” of Alberta Health Services by Ernst & Young launched a year ago by the United Conservative Party Government? Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Alberta Health Services President and CEO Verna Yiu were both on hand to ensure we understood it was an important matter
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hinterland Who’s Who: Hear the haunting call of the wild Deep South Alberta UCP MLA …
With friends like Drew Barnes, does the United Conservative Party really need enemies in these troubles times? The right-wing Frankenparty may have won the 2019 provincial election convincingly soon after it was cobbled together from the fringy Wildrose Party and the old Progressive Conservatives by former Harper Government cabinet minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the huge gap in COVID-19 cases between Edmonton and Calgary bad luck or bad management?
So far, Alberta’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a tale of two cities. It may not have been quite the best of times, the worst of times, but Edmonton’s certainly done well and Calgary’s not done so well at all. That state of affairs extends into the larger
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta safety inspection of Cargill slaughterhouse done by FaceTime, with no actual inspector on site
Alberta Labour’s occupational health and safety inspector didn’t actually visit the Cargill Inc. meatpacking plant in High River when the ministry inspected its COVID-19 safety measures on April 15. Instead, the Labour Ministry inspector watched with FaceTime as three employees conducted “a virtual plant inspection.” United Food and Commercial Workers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hard to believe keeping meatpacking and oilsands plants running hasn’t contributed to COVID-19 spread
If you listened carefully to yesterday’s COVID-19 briefing in Edmonton, it was difficult to avoid the conclusion the Kenney Government’s reluctance to regulate certain industries has contributed to the spread of the disease, and not just inside this province. Particularly interesting was Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw’s carefully
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta spends up to $20K touting medical mask giveaway on Facebook to build social license for pipelines
The Alberta Government spent between $14,000 and $20,000 on Facebook advertisements promoting Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement Alberta would donate 750,000 N95 medical masks and other personal protective equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C., political blogger Dave Cournoyer revealed in a tweet yesterday afternoon. The heaviest promotion was in Ontario, Mr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney offers medical equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; pitches national solidarity on resource development
One hates to play the skunk at a tea party, but somebody needs to ask the question a lot of Albertans must be thinking. To wit, if less than a week ago we barely had enough N95 medical masks for Alberta’s hard-pressed nurses, doctors and other front-line health care workers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill Morneau’s COVID-19 response: This economic and health crisis is no time for timidity or hesitation
According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for a federal finance minister to keep front of mind in calamitous circumstances like the present ones. Economist Jim Stanford (Photo:
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