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
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Alberta Politics: After six years of exemplary service as Alberta Health Services CEO, Kenney Government sacks Verna Yiu
Verna Yiu led Alberta Health Services through the darkest hours of the pandemic with grace and a steady hand. The 20-year-plus veteran of public health care administration is the kind of leader whose name invariably appears in print in close proximity to the word “respected.” So why wouldn’t the Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Churches big and little weigh in: religious COVID-19 vaccination exemptions aren’t going to be easy to get
Unfortunately for Canadian anti-vaxxers, it takes time and a certain amount of ingenuity to establish a new religion, which has considerably complicated the task of getting religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine requirements. This factoid came to mind during Alberta’s daily COVID-19 update yesterday, when Alberta Health Services President and CEO
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 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: 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: 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: 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: Rachel Notley and the NDP can thank their lucky stars they didn’t eke out a victory last April
I don’t imagine running Alberta is much fun right now. I’m afraid, though, I can’t summon up much sympathy for Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party. Be careful what you wish for, goes the ancient proverb, you just might get it. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during his rambling presentation
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ernst & Young review of Alberta Health Services gives UCP cover to do lots, flexibility to do little
We’re not closing any rural hospitals, have you got that? Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro strove to make that point perfectly clear at his news conference in Edmonton yesterday on how Ernst & Young, the multinational management consulting firm based in London, England, thinks Alberta Health Services could save nearly
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative mismanagement of health care, which we’re about to see return to Alberta, is a feature, not a bug
Last Thursday, Tyler Shandro advised Albertans that the promised United Conservative Party review of Alberta Health Services is rolling ahead. Well, he did once tell us that things tend to happen in due course. This is pretty much the first we’ve heard from Alberta’s baby-faced health minister since he famously demonstrated
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Here’s a bet: Alberta Health Services review announced yesterday will cost more than any savings it finds
Tyler Shandro was pretty bold yesterday when he put out a Government of Alberta news release announcing the United Conservative Party Government’s promised review of Alberta Health Services. Mr. Shandro is the baby-faced MLA for Calgary-Acadia who was made minister of health by Premier Jason Kenney. He is a lawyer
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brian Jean vows to lead Alberta back into the health care wilderness where we wandered with Ralph Klein
PHOTOS: Calgary General Hospital at the moment it was blown to smithereens in November 1992 by Ralph Klein’s conservative government (Photo: City of Calgary). Below: Outgoing Wildrose leader and United Conservative Party leadership candidate Brian Jean, former Alberta Health Services CEO Vickie Kaminski and current AHS CEO Verna Yiu. Outgoing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Genial and in control, Alberta premier fields questions about B.C. politics with aplomb at hospital announcement
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Health Minister and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman announce a new hospital on Edmonton’s south side. Alberta Health services CEO Verna Yiu is visible on the right. Below: Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, controversial B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman and some of the crowd at the hospital
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AHS extends Dynalife medical lab services contract for five years
PHOTOS: Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Below: Former Alberta Health Services CEO Vickie Kaminski and current CEO Verna Yiu. Alberta’s health care community was abuzz this morning with word Alberta Health Services has renewed its contract with…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On the War of the WRP, Saskatchewan’s Great Wall and the mysterious appeal of Alberta Health Services
PHOTOS: A meeting of the Opposition Wildrose Caucus gets under way with Leader Brian Jean and Leader Lite Derek Fildebrandt explaining their differences to each other. Actual Alberta politicians of the right may not appear exactly as illustrated. Then …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Dr. Verna Yiu named Alberta Health Services CEO No. 8 in 8 years – can she fix what 7 couldn’t?
PHOTOS: Dr. Verna Yiu, who was officially named yesterday as the eighth president and CEO of Alberta Health Services in as many years. Below: AHS Board Chair Linda Hughes and Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Sooner or later, you’d think Alberta…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A mystery that won’t go away: Why do Alberta patients still face such long waits for lung surgery?
A horse with a silver blaze, curried mutton and a dog that did nothing in the night-time helped Sherlock Holmes get to the bottom of a mysterious death. Will it take a legendary detective to uncover the problem with lung surgeries in Alberta? Below: Dr. Verna Yiu; Dr. Raj Sherman;
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: cindy ady not seeking re-election, hector goudreau demoted, and raj sherman tweets about university intimidation.
Alberta's politicians are preparing for the next election. Less than 48 hours after the Progressive Conservatives filled their slate of 87 candidates, three-term Calgary-Shaw MLA Cindy Ady announced on her website that she will not be seeking re-election. Ms. Ady served as Tourism minister from 2008 until 2011. Here is
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