Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by timun

So in summary, y'all have licences to practice but never use them because you get the benefits of being a licenced professional either way.

Why do your companies pay the dues if you never actually stamp anything? Because they want your clients to have the impression that you know what the #### you're doing.

This is at the heart of why the "tech" industry wants unfettered use of the title "software engineer": because they want to use the good-will associated with the professional title "engineer", to give the impression that they know what the #### they're doing, but they don't want people to have to actually go to the trouble of getting licenced. It's the exact same reason chiropractors and naturopaths lobbied to be able to use the title "doctor": to ride on the coattails of actual medical doctors to legitimize what they do.

I've known many engineers who never stamp anything and think APEGA's dues are a "scam", and to them I always say: if you "don't want to have to pay the twats" at APEGA for a licence, don't! See what happens. You'll quickly figure out the worth of the licence...

And that's why APEGA has to vociferously defend the exclusive use of "engineer". To let anyone use it just cheapens it, and the public will get bamboozled by unqualified people pretending they know WTF they're doing.

I don’t have clients and one of the people on my team isn’t an engineer. I could have them stop paying for it without any recourse. But I’d prefer to keep it to keep doors open if some other company I may want to work for might want it.

[FlameOn]

UCP to simultaneous replace the both the ethics commissioner and chief electoral officer. They're setting things up to seize power, but they'll tell you nothing to see here.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...ief-electoral/

Non paywall version:
https://archive.ph/mthRY

[FlameOn]

Ethics commissioner that found that Danielle Smith blatantly violated conflict of interest ethics regulations for trying to influence a ongoing criminal investigations at the behest of Calgary pastor anti-vaxxer Artur Pawlowski dismissed by Danielle Smith. Totally normal, nothing wrong there.

[Fuzz]

Ms. Smith said she has been told she could only attend Stampede hospitality suites for 20 minutes at a time, and that it has been “questioned” whether she can keep ribbon skirts as gifts. She also said: “I can’t do dishes in my husband’s restaurant, even though I’m volunteering to do that. So I just have to say that here I think that there are some tweaks we may need.”

How about this then...you are ONLY allowed to do dishes in your husband's restaurant.


Unreal that this is even an issue for a premier. Thanks, voters. Could have left her in the goddamned caboose, but no, you had to give her the top job.

[Ozy_Flame]

Also, looks like the decentralization / privatization of Alberta healthcare is about to get underway. Hold on to your butts. The UCP wanted it to fail and this is what's coming next:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1722002254960504987

https://twitter.com/user/status/1721978385662886385

https://twitter.com/user/status/1721996002687909905

[Fuzz]

It seems absolutely insane that Conservatives spent a decade creating the AHS hydra, and now they are ready to splay and sever it. It's like a money shredding cycle on max spin. More insane is that people keep voting for this.

[Faust]

Alberta government report on safe consumption ‘pseudoscience,’ says medical journal


https://globalnews.ca/news/10076375/...dical-journal/

[Muta]

#### the UCP. These dangerous, uneducated, grifting rednecks need to be run out of the province. They're going to do severe damage to healthcare (moreso than they already have). I hope tons of people move into this province before 2027 and bring their centrist political positions with them and help drive these losers out of power once and for all.

[Izzle]

Ahahaha.... Moderate Conservatives will expect different when they cast their vote for PP federally. Absolute joke.

[Yoho]

I think decentralizing is a great idea. Not sure about the privatization.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I think decentralizing is a great idea. Not sure about the privatization.

Was consolidation a good idea in the 2000's, or do you think that was a major mistake by the PC's that just needs to be undone?

[BlackArcher101]

Can't wait to see who is appointed to the Integration Council and 13 Advisory Councils. 13!!!!

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Can't wait to see who is appointed to the Integration Council and 13 Advisory Councils. 13!!!!

Theo, David Parker, Craig Chandler..etc etc

[aaronck]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I think decentralizing is a great idea. Not sure about the privatization.

Noted- I'm sure you have just as much healthcare experience as the people making these decisions within the UCP. Maybe you can head one of the new proposed boards?

[puffnstuff]

Think I will wander back in time to read about the UCP health care promises they made before being elected

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by timun

So in summary, y'all have licences to practice but never use them because you get the benefits of being a licenced professional either way.

Why do your companies pay the dues if you never actually stamp anything? Because they want your clients to have the impression that you know what the #### you're doing.

This is at the heart of why the "tech" industry wants unfettered use of the title "software engineer": because they want to use the good-will associated with the professional title "engineer", to give the impression that they know what the #### they're doing, but they don't want people to have to actually go to the trouble of getting licenced. It's the exact same reason chiropractors and naturopaths lobbied to be able to use the title "doctor": to ride on the coattails of actual medical doctors to legitimize what they do.

I've known many engineers who never stamp anything and think APEGA's dues are a "scam", and to them I always say: if you "don't want to have to pay the twats" at APEGA for a licence, don't! See what happens. You'll quickly figure out the worth of the licence...

And that's why APEGA has to vociferously defend the exclusive use of "engineer". To let anyone use it just cheapens it, and the public will get bamboozled by unqualified people pretending they know WTF they're doing.

What’s APEGA charge for a Koolaide refill these days? $400?

APEGA works very hard to protect all of this to keep their office of people administering the whole thing getting paid. If you actually lodge a professional complaint against someone you quickly find out that entire purpose is totally secondary and quite disappointing.

[Ferarri]

https://calgary.citynews.ca/2023/11/...entralize-ucp/

My fav part of the article and nicely sums up the UCP and their base:

As for what decentralization could really do to improve the system, health law expert Lorian Hardcastle says the province appears to be taking a route not since the 1990s.

“The concern is that there really isn’t the evidence base to support this, and hopefully the government has thought through these issues and has satisfactory answers for Albertans,” she said.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Was consolidation a good idea in the 2000's, or do you think that was a major mistake by the PC's that just needs to be undone?

Seems like a typical corporate re-org. First was 9 separate boards, then it was one super- board, now it's 4 pillars. Different ways to slice the same cake.

The fault lines between parallel organizations is always an issue and will be for this approach. The same patient could conceivably be under care by multiple pillars simultaneously. Is that what the integration board is meant to address?

Not sure how this ensures any better regional focus. 13 regional advisory boards will be providing input to each of the 4 pillars? Seems like that could get noisy.

[Robbob]

I wonder if we are getting to the point of trying to do a recall. I don't think it would be hard to get 40% signatures in some of those close ridings in Calgary. Probably only need around 15k signatures. Probably hard to get 6 seats to change the balance of power though.

[BlackArcher101]

Anyone got the link to that recent AHS study that the cons paid for? I'd like to compare that vs what we are getting.