Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

The federal government is not the only player in Canada's justice system. Wagner also criticized the "chronic underfunding [of the courts] on the part of the provinces and territories."

The feds appoint judges. But they can only appoint what the provinces pay for and how much they make. A lot of lawyers have to take a pay cut to be a judge. The funding is the issue there. And criminal law is 75% in provincial courts anyway. Family court is 50-50.

The federal competence issue for managing judges is not how many - it's who.

I'm not schooled in the legal and court system so I can only go on information that I can find but the federal Judges Act says that the salaries and related are paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for judges appointed by the feds.

Payment of Salaries, Allowances, Annuities and Other Amounts
Marginal note:Amounts payable out of C.R.F.

53 (1) The salaries, allowances and annuities payable under this Act and the amounts payable under sections 46.1, 51 and 52.15 shall be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

If I'm wrong in reading and understanding what I have found I will gladly accept being educated on funding for the federal Judges.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Not sure how you avoid that unless you financially inventivize people to staff rural areas. Or hire locals.

That’s certainly going to happen … most people prefer urban living. Not all though. I grew up rural, lived the first 20 years of my adult life in Calgary and the last 20 back in a rural setting by choice. I hate urban life. So if financial motivation is equal there are some who would choose rural over urban. The big problem will flat out be underfunding. Rural funding per capita will always fall way short of urban funding per capita, regardless of need. It always boils down to where the votes are. Rural taxpayers have always received less bang for their buck than urban taxpayers, and more so under UCP governance. Having lived on both sides of the fence it’s really obvious. Rural taxpayers are second class citizens. Yet they continue to drink the conservative partisan kool-aid and fail to hold their MLAs responsible for this shortcoming. So I guess they get what they deserve, but it sucks if you’re someone who prefers rural living.

[Ford Prefect]

Things are on the verge of vigilanteism in rural areas. I know this as a fact. It’s already starting to a small degree. That’s a whole other can of worms. I don’t support vigilanteism, but people inevitably take things into their own hands when things get bad enough and nothing is being done about it.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Things are on the verge of vigilanteism in rural areas. I know this as a fact. It’s already starting to a small degree. That’s a whole other can of worms. I don’t support vigilanteism, but people inevitably take things into their own hands when things get bad enough and nothing is being done about it.

What is the context of this "vigilanteism"?

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by you&me

What is the context of this "vigilanteism"?

Guns. Chasing or confronting criminals and keeping them in place until authorities arrive. These events aren’t hitting the news, but they’re happening.

[CliffFletcher]

The difficulty with attracting doctors and other professionals to rural Canada today is that unlike a few decades ago, they tend to be married to other professionals. It’s one thing to ask a doctor to pick up stakes and move with their non-working spouse to a small town. It’s much harder to convince a doctor to pick up stakes with their accountant or HR manager spouse and find a job for them as well.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by you&me

What is the context of this "vigilanteism"?

Criminals break into your home, it will take 40 minutes for the police to show up.

Sounds crazy, but I know dozens of my neighbors have had their houses, shops broken into. Almost more annoyingly, people also show up with trucks full of garbage and dump them in your ditch.

You really need a first responder mentality, I keep my first aid up to date knowing that if there is an accident on the farm it could be an hour before anyone in my family gets care.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Criminals break into your home, it will take 40 minutes for the police to show up.

Sounds crazy, but I know dozens of my neighbors have had their houses, shops broken into. Almost more annoyingly, people also show up with trucks full of garbage and dump them in your ditch.

You really need a first responder mentality, I keep my first aid up to date knowing that if there is an accident on the farm it could be an hour before anyone in my family gets care.

You’re smart, and more farmers and rural people should learn first aid or better. My sister had a bad farming accident last fall. She shattered both her lower legs. Over 80 fractures including two protruding bone fractures..one was a femur. It took over two hours for an ambulance. Often people will load up an injured person, call 9-1-1 and try and meet an ambulance enroute. But with injuries like hers she couldn’t be moved. She could have bled out in the harvest field. In that scenario had her husband had first aid he could have at least helped control the bleeding better, which was the biggest immediate threat.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The difficulty with attracting doctors and other professionals to rural Canada today is that unlike a few decades ago, they tend to be married to other professionals. It’s one thing to ask a doctor to pick up stakes and move with their non-working spouse to a small town. It’s much harder to convince a doctor to pick up stakes with their accountant or HR manager spouse and find a job for them as well.

heck even depending on the study , up to 20 or 25% of docs are married to another doc (up to 40% to another health professional)


that's ok if both are GPs or have a rural suitable speciality, AND they want to work together AND the town is in a position to let both take holidays at the same time etc,

[Slava]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Criminals break into your home, it will take 40 minutes for the police to show up.

Sounds crazy, but I know dozens of my neighbors have had their houses, shops broken into. Almost more annoyingly, people also show up with trucks full of garbage and dump them in your ditch.

You really need a first responder mentality, I keep my first aid up to date knowing that if there is an accident on the farm it could be an hour before anyone in my family gets care.

Yeah, but what’s the alternative? It would be ideal to have incredibly fast response times to each corner of the province, but it’s not really feasible.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

rural funding per capita will always fall way short of urban funding per capita, regardless of need.

Is there any evidence of this? I'd be very surprised if that was true, especially if you adjust for rural populations receiving care in city hospitals (eg realistically every small town isn't going to have a cancer centre).

[Ford Prefect]

^Slava…One reasonable solution is private security. Operators in the energy and farming sector have money. I know of a group of farmers who are considering pooling resources and doing just that. There would need to be well-defined parameters, and I would hope there wouodc be some degree of gvt funding support. If nothing else at least tax breaks. It’s going to take outside the box solutions like that I think though.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Slava

Yeah, but what’s the alternative? It would be ideal to have incredibly fast response times to each corner of the province, but it’s not really feasible.

Lots of folks would like amnesty for protecting their household. Obviously that is a dangerous precedent. As it stands now, you are in for a world of hurt trying to stop anyone.

But you're right it is kind of a hopeless situation.

Basically, a locked gate and cameras is all you can do. Hope the RCMP care enough to follow up. More often than not what happen is they steal a truck, and then drive 200 km hitting up every farm in sight. It is easy pickings.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Guns. Chasing or confronting criminals and keeping them in place until authorities arrive. These events aren’t hitting the news, but they’re happening.

Yes, I also know that stuff like this is happening. Unfortunately, sometimes people are incorrect about who is a criminal and who isn’t. People get involved very dangerous situations, that they aren’t trained for…

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Is there any evidence of this? I'd be very surprised if that was true, especially if you adjust for rural populations receiving care in city hospitals (eg realistically every small town isn't going to have a cancer centre).

I’ll try and find some data on that, but it’s hard to define. To your point about rural residents utilizing urban services for example, that works both ways. My wife works in an ER dept about an hour outside of Calgary. They’re seeing a significant increase in the number or urban residents showing up in the ER because the wait times in Calgary make it quicker to drive out here. It’s often not an ER type issue even…they come out here because they can’t find a family physician so they come out here. Or what about highway infrastructure. That’s used by everyone, not just local residents. Etc., etc.

As far hard per capita funding though, I know I’ve seen data but I don’t recall where. I’ll see what I can find, but even with data like that it doesn’t account for a full accounting.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Is there any evidence of this? I'd be very surprised if that was true, especially if you adjust for rural populations receiving care in city hospitals (eg realistically every small town isn't going to have a cancer centre).

Realistically you have to go to the city for any level of care above stitches and Tylenol. If you're really in trouble it's useful for a helicopter pad. Otherwise, you just drive to the nearest city.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Realistically you have to go to the city for any level of care above stitches and Tylenol. If you're really in trouble it's useful for a helicopter pad. Otherwise, you just drive to the nearest city.

Yeah, so maybe enough care is delivered in cities that the funding is there.

Realistically though at anything close to equal services rural would be way more expensive. I know that's true for education, since a small rural high school still has a boiler and a roof and a principal just like a big urban one, but probably has 1/4 as many students.

I always have a hard time with rural funding complaints given that farmers effectively pay minimal provincial property tax, while literally every other type of real estate owner does.

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

You’re smart, and more farmers and rural people should learn first aid or better. My sister had a bad farming accident last fall. She shattered both her lower legs. Over 80 fractures including two protruding bone fractures..one was a femur. It took over two hours for an ambulance. Often people will load up an injured person, call 9-1-1 and try and meet an ambulance enroute. But with injuries like hers she couldn’t be moved. She could have bled out in the harvest field. In that scenario had her husband had first aid he could have at least helped control the bleeding better, which was the biggest immediate threat.

That's awful. Harvest time is always tough, everyone's in a rush to get it in the bin and accidents can, and sadly do happen.

I hope your sister is alright. Can't imagine it's easy to come back from that sort of injury. Best to her and your family.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Yeah, so maybe enough care is delivered in cities that the funding is there.

Realistically though at anything close to equal services rural would be way more expensive. I know that's true for education, since a small rural high school still has a boiler and a roof and a principal just like a big urban one, but probably has 1/4 as many students.

I always have a hard time with rural funding complaints given that farmers effectively pay minimal provincial property tax, while literally every other type of real estate owner does.

Is this the bolded true? do you have a source for this?

[TheIronMaiden]

The social benefits of farming are negligible, I reckon we can tax them at their raw property value.

All jokes aside, the taxes are low if you sit on it and farm, but then again the margin of profit is low, if you sell the land or subdivide, the taxes are just as high as anything, infact often times much higher because when the land was purchased in the 60s it was worth a 1/4 of what it is now, so you need to pay taxes for the rate of increase. I wish farming was a get out of tax free card, but alas, no one is free from death or taxes.