“We’re talking about some 16, 17, 18 year olds, English language learners and other adult learners who are trying to get their lives on track,” Blakeman says. “Any adult learner eligible for Learner Support Income, which includes young people at the Terra Centre for Pregnant and Parenting Teens and students attending Metro College and NorQuest College, has already learned or is about to discover that the money they were expecting won’t arrive until late September…weeks too late to pay September’s rent or this semester’s tuition. Landlords are under no obligation to forgive the government’s tardiness, and one student has already been threatened with eviction when she tried to explain her predicament.”

Fortunately, the Terra Centre has picked up the government’s slack to ensure that the adult learners at the Centre are taken care of, and NorQuest is allowing students to start classes and pay their tuition when the money finally arrives.

But not all adult learners affected by the delay, including 16 and 17 year olds, are Terra Centre clients, nor will they all be attending NorQuest. An unknown number of students could still find their education delayed by up to a year, while others risk homelessness when their assistance doesn’t arrive in time to pay the rent due September 1st.

“The government has done nothing but inform the various social support agencies about the delay and encourage these agencies to keep people from phoning and inquiring about their income supports. How’s that for compassion?” Blakeman asks. “The government falls behind, and students pay the price.”

Blakeman says that an Alberta Liberal administration would have made sure that new software was tested well in advance of the school year to avoid delays like this or put a short-term support system in place while Alberta Works fixed the problems.

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Protecting human health and our lakes, rivers and wildlife requires independent, more accurate monitoring and enforcement. That means equipment and qualified specialists on the ground, with the tools, funding and enforcement powers necessary to do the job. Disincentives for polluters must have real teeth to encourage responsible development and restore our international reputation. This government’s decision to cut our environment department by $17.5 million this year speaks volumes about its priorities and its irrational fixation on public relations at the expense of real solutions.

Albertans want to be proud of our oil sands development. We’re leading the way in providing energy to the world; now we need to take the next step, by leading the way in real environmental protection. Human health, the economy and the environment are inextricably linked, and would be the top priorities of a David Swann government.

Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition
Communications Department
1-866-633-4214

MacDonald notes that only the Sustainability Fund, an Alberta Liberal idea, has prevented the financial picture from getting even worse. However, he worries that the Tories will start using it in the next few months as a re-election fund to shore up their flagging electoral support.

“The Alberta government forecasts that they will collect $34 billion in revenue this year,” MacDonald says. “That should be enough money to fully fund the programs Albertans care about most – public education, public health care, emergency services, infrastructure and the social safety net. If the government would reduce the size of cabinet and commit to value-for-money audits on privatized road maintenance contracts, information technology contracts, and the farm fuel benefit – just to name a few multi-million expenditures – we’d be much closer to a balanced budget.”

MacDonald says Alberta should diversify its export market for oil and gas, venturing beyond the US by selling our products to meet the Pacific Rim’s energy demands.

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For some reason, Alberta is weakening, rather than strengthening, privacy protection, while other provinces are moving in the opposite direction. Refusing to honour the wishes of Albertans to have their records “masked,” or kept confidential, is an example.

“The Stelmach administration’s legislation says that a health care provider need only consider a patient’s wishes with regard to how much of their personal health information can be shared with other doctors, nurses or other custodians of this kind of information,” Blakeman notes.  “‘Consider,’ not ‘obey.’ The office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has pointed out that there’s no guarantee that all health care providers will necessarily follow the wishes of their patients when it comes to masking and keeping their information private.”

Blakeman says that patients being treated for sensitive illnesses or conditions such as sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, gambling addictions and so on have good reason for limiting knowledge of their disease to their primary physician.

“Unfortunately, the Stelmach administration’s plan doesn’t provide nearly enough protection for personal privacy,” Blakeman says. “With this legislation, a privately paid test required as part of a job application will now be included in a person’s health record. Previously, only health procedures paid through the public system were included.”

“These loopholes could expose Albertans to all kinds of unpleasant consequences,” Blakeman continues. “Shunning, difficulty finding work, damage to relationships…people still have a right to privacy as far as I’m concerned, for all kinds of reasons.” Increasingly, people will simply refuse to provide information since they can’t control who else will see that information, which defeats the purpose of electronic health records in the first place.”

Blakeman says that an Alberta Liberal administration would close these privacy loopholes and protect personal, private health records from wide dissemination.

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Minister of Municipal Affairs
#104 Legislature Building
10800-97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Dear Hon. Goudreau,

I am writing in regards to the petition requesting a dissolution study that was submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs by the Village of Rycroft in September 2009.  In October 2009, Minister Danyluk found the petition sufficient under the Municipal Governance Act and approved a dissolution study. 

Since your appointment as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, the dissolution study has been taken off the table and replaced with an inspection.  We have been approached by the residents of the Village of Rycroft who are very concerned that their petition has not been awarded due course.  It is my understanding that under section 130(2) of the MGA, with a sufficient number of signatures, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is obligated to perform a dissolution study, which enables the residents of the community to vote on its recommendations.

It is my understanding that your predecessor, Hon. Danyluk had previously agreed to complete the dissolution study. The residents of Rycroft would like to know the grounds for your reversal of Hon Danyluk’s decision, to now mandate an “inspection” when their petition seems to satisfy the requirements necessary for it to be a “study”.  I recognize that this issue is of great importance to the residents of Rycroft who have expended significant time and effort to compile the dissolution study petition, and I look forward to your response on its status.

Sincerely,

Bridget Pastoor
MLA Lethbridge East

The Stelmach administration’s own ERCB standards dictate that oil companies must capture a minimum portion (between 20 percent and 50 percent, increasing over time) of polluting particles from the tailings ponds they create, among other requirements. Suncor has submitted a reclamation plan that will meet ERCB guidelines, proving the targets can be met. Imperial Oil and Syncrude can’t meet these requirements, but the Stelmach administration has allowed the ERCB to approve their reclamation plans anyway.

“In effect, Suncor is being penalized for following the rules while these other companies get a free pass,” Swann says. “Since the technology and the will to start cleaning up Alberta’s toxic tailings ponds exists, why doesn’t the Premier require Imperial Oil and Syncrude to lease or buy Suncor’s technology and methods, or penalize non-compliant companies when they don’t meet ERCB targets? What’s the incentive for some companies to follow the rules when this Premier allows other companies to break them?”

Swann is disappointed that the Premier is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on public relations campaigns when he could be taking real action to protect the environment.

“Why even create these standards for reclaiming tailings ponds when the Premier isn’t willing to enforce them? He had a golden opportunity to start repairing Alberta’s image, and dropped the ball yet again. This Tory administration’s policies are painting a huge target on Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and the anti-Alberta campaigns are only going to get worse if the Premier keeps allowing decisions like this,” Swann warns. “Let’s have some action instead of advertising.”

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The loss of nearly 450 nurses was revealed in the 2009/10 Alberta Health Services (AHS) Consolidated Financial Statements. Ironically, AHS’ 2010 Business Plan admits that “many…vacancies will need to be filled in 2010/11 in order to maintain service levels.” (AHS Business Plan, page 13.) Under the new contract with the United Nurses of Alberta, the Stelmach administration will hire 70 percent of new nursing graduates – or about 1260 out of 1800 nursing graduates per year.

“At first, I could barely believe what I was reading. But the evidence is clear: Ed Stelmach’s administration laid off 448 nurses, left countless vacancies unfilled, and now admit they’re going to have to hire hundreds of nurses to keep the system going,” Taft says. “If this situation weren’t so serious, I’d think our own government were playing head games with Albertans. How does any of this make sense?”

Taft points out another troubling aspect of the severance numbers.

“448 nurses jumped at the first opportunity to leave,” Taft says. “Given mismanagement like this, who can blame them? Morale in our public health care system has dropped into the basement, and spending over $23 million to lay off nurses desperately needed by the system is just another example of the backwards thinking that’s undermining public health care.”

An Alberta Liberal administration would have reassigned these nurses to any number of positions that desperately need to be staffed, such as emergency rooms and cancer care.

Relevant excerpts of AHS Business Plan and Consolidated Financial Statements

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But one year later, the panel has yet to provide the report – a report that’s even more urgently needed in the wake of the Stelmach administration’s cruel $26.5 million cut from the child intervention portion of the Children and Youth Services budget. When I raised the issue during budget debates in the Legislature, the Minister made no mention of the panel’s report and refused to answer several questions on the issue.

Vulnerable children remain at risk – and in fact the Stelmach administration’s lack of attention is increasing the risk even more. For the sake of the countless children in the province’s care, I urge the Premier and the Minister of Children and Youth Services to expedite the release of the child intervention review panel report and to follow up immediately with action to provide a safer, more nurturing environment for at-risk children and youth.

Office of the Official Opposition
Communications Department
1-866-633-4214

How some bonuses are calculated

• In 2005, a maximum six percent bonus was granted for decreasing the number of claims where time lost from work exceeded six months.
• In 2007, a maximum eight percent bonus was granted for decreasing the number of claims where time lost from work exceeded three months.
• Bonuses were paid to increase the number of expedited surgical procedures.
• Bonuses were paid to sign up companies into improperly monitored safety programs. While millions in rebates were provided to these companies ($71 million in 2009), the government failed to ensure they met all Occupational Health and Safety laws.
• Finally, bonuses were paid to WCB employees for crafting polite “fit to work” letters to injured workers. These letters, of course, often terminated benefits to injured workers.
“This bonus policy completely distorts the objectivity of the WCB,” MacDonald says. “They have a financial interest in reducing benefits to injured workers. How can they be objective about whether or not an injured worker needs benefits when the WCB is offering them bonuses worth thousands of dollars if they reduce the number of Albertans claiming compensation?”

We demand that the Minister of Employment and Immigration, who is responsible for the Workers’ Compensation Act:

• immediately stop the million-dollar bonus scheme;
• identify claim files of injured workers cut off from benefits as a result of this bonus scheme and review their files;
• pay premium rebates only to employers who comply with all safety laws.
MacDonald notes that the WCB’s board of directors voted to remove references to the bonus scheme from their 2009 corporate objectives and performance measures.

“The decision to hide this tells me that the WCB feels a degree of shame about this program, as they should,” MacDonald says. “This bonus program shows that the government is not interested in treating injured workers fairly. The Minister must do the right thing and halt the bonus scheme immediately.”

Attached: Charts showing how WCB bonus system has impacted time-lost claims and Partners in Injury Reduction enrolment
Sample goal sharing letters

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