Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

You don’t care about the rest of Canada? Fygm I guess.

So your solution is what? Raise healthcare workers wages in Alberta high enough to draw from other provinces, leaving them shorter than they already are?

It’s too bad we couldn’t control our population growth to a certain degree, but, alas, the is simply nothing that can be done. Best we try and #### over other provinces within Canada.

Well, we ran around advertising for people to come and live here, and it worked! Unfortunately, we had no plan for how to handle the people who came here, and seemingly no idea of how to provide services to the citizens.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

You don’t care about the rest of Canada? Fygm I guess.

So your solution is what? Raise healthcare workers wages in Alberta high enough to draw from other provinces, leaving them shorter than they already are?

It’s too bad we couldn’t control our population growth to a certain degree, but, alas, the is simply nothing that can be done. Best we try and #### over other provinces within Canada.

hahahahahahaha. Is that the new conservative BS? "Don't fix anything, it might break Canada."

The Alberta Advantage used to mean that people could move here for higher wages and a better quality of life. That was the entire point. Now you are spinning it as a negative?

It's too bad Alberta is calling and people showed up. The UCP did that on purpose and now are trying to pretend to be victims so that their sympathizers an show up and keep the grift going.

[Doctorfever]

So the campaign to attract healthcare workers and skilled workers to Alberta to fill the shortage is something you don’t agree with?

Fuzz was just saying how he didn’t care about the rest of Canada. Now we do?

[Cain]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

So your solution is what? Raise healthcare workers wages in Alberta high enough to draw from other provinces, leaving them shorter than they already are?

I don't think that the government is all that worried about this. And yes, it is a problem in all provinces, but it also doesn't absolve the Albertan government of inaction, or worse, action that ends up creating even more problems like below.

https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/...le-health-care

The Government of Alberta just announced legislation to allow anyone to purchase any diagnostic screening and testing services they wish, including MRIs, CT scans, full-body scans, and blood work, without a doctor’s order.

On the surface, the plan “increases choice.” In reality, it will drain critical staff from hospitals, widen existing massive wait-time disparities, and create two-tiered health care.

Government says this will add capacity, reduce wait times, and increase access. But the rate-limiting step isn’t buildings or machinery — it’s people.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Cain

I don't think that the government is all that worried about this. And yes, it is a problem in all provinces, but it also doesn't absolve the Albertan government of inaction, or worse, action that ends up creating even more problems like below.

https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/...le-health-care

So we just need to draw more healthcare worker to Alberta?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

So the campaign to attract healthcare workers and skilled workers to Alberta to fill the shortage is something you don’t agree with?

Fuzz was just saying how he didn’t care about the rest of Canada. Now we do?

Work on your reading comprehension. Then maybe yo can figure out how to fix health care, but do it in that order please.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

So the campaign to attract healthcare workers and skilled workers to Alberta to fill the shortage is something you don’t agree with?

Fuzz was just saying how he didn’t care about the rest of Canada. Now we do?

Do what? Are you actually proposing a solution or are you just running in circles making excuses and trying to manufacture some kind of 'gotcha' moment?

Fuzz said pretty plainly that he is not interested in the piles of excuses coming out of conservative supporters. At the same time you are promoting the lie that the government had no idea that our population was going to grow after they paid for billboards telling people to move to Alberta.

This whole sequence is a perfect example of culture war nonsense that pits people against each other over nonsense instead of addressing real issues.

[Cain]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

So we just need to draw more healthcare worker to Alberta?

I don't recall saying there was a single, simple solution. Did you read the article?

But yes, drawing more healthcare workers to Alberta is certainly something we need in the big scheme of things. Whether that means paying more to recruit from elsewhere, or expanding our med schools, I'm not sure...not an expert. But it is clear from the people who are familiar with the system that the UCP are not making choices that have public benefit in mind.

[RandyHolt]

I think it actually is a simple solution that's obvious to everyone, but no one wants to take the necessary steps to implement it:

- We have a hugely increased and aging population
- We need more hospitals and operating rooms built across the country
- We need more Family Doctors to keep unnecessary patients out of the hospitals
- We need increased Doctors, Nurses, Porters, Cleaners and administrative staff to run the hospital facilities
- We need to expand the nursing programs and medical programs at our existing universities to train more doctors and nurses
- The limiting factor on all of this revenue, so we need a 5% PST in Alberta, and we need to increase personal taxes across the board for everyone
- Corporate taxes can also be increased to 11% from the 8% they're currently at, but this won't generate nearly enough.
- We also need to increase minimum wage which increases tax revenue and puts businesses on the hook for increased labor costs
- We need immigration policies that only allow those with the desired skills to enter (including students who are required to take programs only in Canada's desired areas)
- These areas likely include housing/construction and medical fields, which should all be reasonably well paying jobs

Anyone running on remotely this platform in Alberta will get decimated at the polls, so we'll continue to enjoy a lower level of service that's funded mostly by Oil and Gas revenues and wealthy individuals.

[Fuzz]

Also, more senior care spaces, home care, and aging in place programs. A lot of the socialist countries have this stuff figured out. Keeping seniors in hospitals because there is nowhere for them to go has to be one of the dumbest most wasteful things we do. Who knows, now that the boomers will finally need this stuff I wouldn't be surprised if we start shovelling money their way.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

It’s happening in every province under every government. Your wife would have had the same experience in Manitoba, Ontario, or Quebec. Alberta actually has shorter wait times than most provinces.

https://www.iedm.org/canadians-are-w...mergency-room/

The root problem is demographics and under-capacity. We’ve seen this coming for decades, but no party in any province has been able to address it, because the electorate hates every possible remedy (higher taxes, means-testing, private insurance, etc).

This deserves all kinds of thanks and quotes.
The partisans have their pep rallies but the reality is high spending, low spending, run by the unions, fighting the unions…. Canada has seen it all and it has not lead to different results.
Heaven help a political leader who wants anything different.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by calf

The whole process was ridiculous though. We used to be able to book everyone online and either go to a pharmacy or public health. Because we have kids we:
a) Had to call 811 (1 hr+ wait on election day, which was another 1.5hr wait thanks to those jokers - good thing UCP policies created so much uncertainty in my line of work that I got laid off and had the time to wait and get angry)
b) Book the kids appointment together, then my wife and I separately
c) There was no way to get the kids and adults vaccinated the same day/same time, even when we showed up and saw it wasn't busy at all. Other families were trying to do the same.

My family has had a fun time with this as well:

a) Attempt to book flu and COVID shot together, couldn't at the time (lines were down)
b) Attempt to get COVID shot during flu shot, no available doses on site
c) Manage to book in COVID shot a month out for all 4 of us (2 kids, 2 adults)
d) Get called back weeks later to be told kids can't be done that day at that site, so need to re-book, but not during that call
e) Book one kid a week earlier at same location, one a week earlier across the city at a different location

Should be the simplest thing in the world to book for, but nooooooooooooo

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

This deserves all kinds of thanks and quotes.
The partisans have their pep rallies but the reality is high spending, low spending, run by the unions, fighting the unions…. Canada has seen it all and it has not lead to different results.
Heaven help a political leader who wants anything different.

OK, since you bring it up, which province has made a solid honest attempt with a real long term plan based on high spending to fix the structural failings of the past and found that even that didn't make a difference? I'd like to see the analysis on how that went for them but I'm struggling to identify the province.

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

So the campaign to attract healthcare workers and skilled workers to Alberta to fill the shortage is something you don’t agree with?

Fuzz was just saying how he didn’t care about the rest of Canada. Now we do?

Alberta is Calling (was and is, it's still going) supposed to bring in these skilled workers. That's not what happened. What happened is that a lot of upper middle class, or rich people came in from other parts of Canada, primarily Ontario and BC, and they bought or opened chain stores and franchises, as well as doubling up on services that we already had here. They then cut costs through TFA or other programs, which hurt low income and younger job seekers.

Alberta is Calling isn't collecting health workers, because of the UCPs War on Health, it didn't bring in EMS workers because of the UCPs War on 911, it didn't bring in law enforcement officers, because of the UCPs War on the RCMP, it didn't bring in teachers because of the UCPs War on Education, it didn't bring in energy workers because of the UCPs War on Green Energy, it didn't bring in social service workers, because of the UCPs War on Poor People.

It brought in the owners of a new Pizza 73, with workers who are on a temporary visa getting treated like a slave, because 'no Canadian wanted to do the job'.

Meanwhile the next generation will be worse off that the previous, and those nearing retirement better get used to Soylent Green. We are the richest province but are somehow running a $6.5 billion deficit, with a massive decrease in effective public service.

Of course, as always, I will take back everything I said if they will let me in on the grift. I can be bought.

[Fuzz]

The bill wherin the UCP attempts to thread the needle of allowing the things they want petitions to apply to and how they happen, but also block the stuff they hate, through presumably neutral sounding legislation. Also, the hilarious section at the end where they desperately try to find ways of preventing another Conservative party from ever being named so in Alberta(page 43). It's hilariously pathetic.


You don't actually need to read this monstrosity, just scroll through it to see the extent of the "needed" changes and the absolute dogs breakfast of edits additions, removals...


This is what desperation by the incompetent looks like.


https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_f...3_bill-014.pdf

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

*snippety doo-dah*

Of course, as always, I will take back everything I said if they will let me in on the grift. I can be bought.

In terms of our votes, they should always be for sale. Everyone should be able to be bought. It means that they actually have to think about and work for us.

Now all we need is to identify the Healthcare Mecca or Utopia so that we can learn from their model!

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I don't care about the rest of Canada and their failures and challenges.

Which is why you don’t understand that the health care capacity crisis is systemic across Canada. It’s structural. Wait times in Alberta didn’t improve under the NDP.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

No surprise Cliff "let's not do anything ever" Fletcher has to chime in with his usual conclusion.

There are several things Canadian governments (federal and provincial) could do to address the capacity crisis. But I’m not optimistic our politicians and electorate have the stomach for the systemic reforms, fierce political struggles, and higher taxes that will be necessary.

Do you ever get tired of being miserable and furious? Ever stop to think “I’ve raged about the provincial government for 12 hours so far this week - maybe that’s enough. Maybe pushing into 15+ hours is just making me more miserable.”

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Also, more senior care spaces, home care, and aging in place programs. A lot of the socialist countries have this stuff figured out. Keeping seniors in hospitals because there is nowhere for them to go has to be one of the dumbest most wasteful things we do. Who knows, now that the boomers will finally need this stuff I wouldn't be surprised if we start shovelling money their way.

Which countries? Denmark, Sweden, and Norway all allow private health insurance to fund primary care. They also have 20-25 per cent sales tax.

I’d be all for changing the Canada Health Act to adopt Scandinavian policies around private health insurance. And I’d be okay with the federal government raising the GST to 10 per cent. But neither of those things will happen without ferocious political struggles at the federal level.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The bill wherin the UCP attempts to thread the needle of allowing the things they want petitions to apply to and how they happen, but also block the stuff they hate, through presumably neutral sounding legislation. Also, the hilarious section at the end where they desperately try to find ways of preventing another Conservative party from ever being named so in Alberta(page 43). It's hilariously pathetic.


You don't actually need to read this monstrosity, just scroll through it to see the extent of the "needed" changes and the absolute dogs breakfast of edits additions, removals...


This is what desperation by the incompetent looks like.


https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_f...3_bill-014.pdf

If I'm reading this correctly (and I probably messed the reading up because legal documents make my eyes glaze over), they now have to refer the recalls to a Minister to confirm they are legitimate. That's a heavy handed way to kill off any petitions you don't like.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

If I'm reading this correctly (and I probably messed the reading up because legal documents make my eyes glaze over), they now have to refer the recalls to a Minister to confirm they are legitimate. That's a heavy handed way to kill off any petitions you don't like.

I read that too, as well as additional requirements for ID when getting signatures, and scrapping a bit where any petitions can't go against the Constitution ((4) An initiative petition proposal must not contravene sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.)