A large majority of Albertans support the idea of the government providing universal access to free birth control, suggests a new poll from a Calgary-based public relations firm.
ThinkHQ, an Alberta public and government relations and opinion research firm, provided the poll to CBC. It found that 74 per cent of Albertans surveyed approve of the idea of free prescription birth control while only 18 per cent disapprove.
British Columbia will soon become the first jurisdiction in Canada to make prescription birth control free to its residents. Starting April 1, the province will cover the cost of oral hormone pills (commonly known as “the pill”), injections, implants, IUDs, and the morning-after pill.
Marc Henry, ThinkHQ president, said the support shown in the poll results are surprising.
“Getting three-quarters of a population to agree with any piece of public policy these days, it is a bit astounding. It’s very popular in Alberta,” Henry said.
He added that approval of the idea largely crosses all demographics and regions of the province.
Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said earlier in March that if elected premier, her government would also cover contraceptives. She said it will save Albertans money, help prevent unintended pregnancies, and ensure women have more control over their lives and economic futures.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said contraception is available to Albertans who are enrolled in government-sponsored drug and supplemental health benefits.
“The vast majority of prescription drugs are covered under private plans,” Smith said.
Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, agreed that it is unusual to see the kind of consensus demonstrated by the poll among a diverse population.
“Some people think of this as an issue affecting only half of the population, but of course it affects families, people that are trying to … have access to medication,” she said.
She added that people can use birth control to treat a variety of health conditions and that it can often be quite expensive. Most birth control pills cost $20 a month while an IUD can cost around $500.
Albertans are expected to go to the polls in May — Williams said that recent polling shows that health care and affordability are the most important issues to voters in the province.
“If those continue to be the important issues, it will be a question of which party, which leader, which vision is seen as most credible and effective at achieving that vision.”
The poll surveyed more than 1,100 people online. The sample is weighted to reflect the gender, age, and location make-up of the Alberta population, and has a margin of error of close to three per cent, 19 times out of 20.
An Alberta NDP government would balance the books while using a fixed amount of resource revenues for general revenues to rescue the province from a boom-bust roller-coaster, party Leader Rachel Notley said Friday.
Addressing reporters in what’s expected to be the decisive battleground of Calgary, where the NDP is headquartering its efforts, Notley said she would consult Albertans on what to do with the rainy-day, $18.6-billion Alberta Heritage Trust Fund, among a raft of recommendations in a report authored by former ATB chief economist Todd Hirsch.
The NDP leader said her party would operate in the black, though there was no mention of creating a provincial sales tax (PST), widely seen as political kryptonite ahead of a provincial election scheduled for May 29.
“I want to be clear that Albertans can expect a balanced budget,” said Notley, adding the blueprint would end boom-and-bust budgeting chaos.
“For too long Albertans have been on a resource revenue roller-coaster. Governments have spent resource revenues as fast as it came in only to drastically pull back spending when prices went down. It’s time to get Alberta off that roller-coaster, and this report provides the path on how we can get there.”
The report produced from consulting 37 different stakeholder groups and individuals also states her government wouldn’t exceed a debt-to-GDP ratio of 30 per cent, a figure currently at 9.9 per cent.
She said that ratio would only be a worst-case scenario, even if it would still be lower than that of many countries.
The blueprint’s most important concept is fixing the amount of resource revenues earmarked for budgeting purposes, a move that would “completely detach the government from the volatility of oil prices,” said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe.
“I think Hirsch has done an excellent job . . . it could easily be adapted to any political party. It’s just a hard-headed look at the finances of the province.”
He said the approach shows there’s no need to implement a PST.
When the NDP took power in 2015, Alberta’s debt was $11.9 billion, a number that soared to $85.9 billion by the time the party was voted out in 2019 during a time of low energy prices.
Much of the UCP attacks on the NDP have centred on the party’s alleged economic mismanagement during its last tenure that they say drove up the debt, drove away businesses, raised taxes and cost 183,000 jobs.
All Canadians pay into the Canada Pension Plan, and all Canadians deserve a safe retirement.
But if Danielle Smith gets her way, you’ll be robbed of your future. She wants to scrap your hard-earned CPP savings and start a new Alberta pension.
She’ll do it without a solid plan to replace lost earnings and bolster Alberta’s economy. Rachel Notley and your NDP are fighting back, but we need your help.
Sign if you want Smith to keep her hands off your savings, and your future.
Alberta’s United Conservative Party-led government was challenged Monday on why affordability programs like the gas tax holiday, utility rebates and targeted cost of living measures are scheduled to end by July.
“These programs all start expiring right after the polls close,” Notley said. “I’ve seen jugs of milk last longer.
“No more affordability cheques, no more gas tax relief, no more rebates and Albertans will have to start paying off their deferred electricity bills,” the Opposition leader added.
Premier Danielle Smith said she did not want the provincial inflationary support to “have an implication” on the election, with it slated for May 29.
“The payments will go on until June 30,” the premier responded. “We will continue to look and hear from our constituents… and ask Albertans whether or not we continue to have the pressures.
“As we all know, leading into a winter season when you have electric charges, higher home heating bills, higher cost of gas and diesel charges, that’s why we targeted winter.”
Matt Jones, affordability and utilities minister, said the province has provided an estimated $900 of relief per household through the Affordability Action Plan and further targeted relief to families with children, seniors and vulnerable Albertans.
“We will continue to assess inflation and cost of living and provide support to Albertans,” Jones added.
When asked why only families with children received some targeted payments, Jones said, “families with children face higher fuel, energy and fuel costs.”
“We wanted to make sure they got those benefits,” he said.
According to Jones, to date, 1.8 million Albertans have enrolled and received affordability payments, and two million homeowners will qualify for electricity rebates until April.
From January to June, Jones says the fuel tax relief will save most drivers between $200 and $400.
“Albertans are seeing significant cost reductions and savings and inflation has eased more in our province than every other province in Canada,” he added.
‘THE MONEY IS ALREADY SPOKEN FOR’
Notley claimed the reason the cost of living support will end in June and not continue long-term is “the money is already spoken for” in the proposal formerly referred to as RStar.
That plan, developed by an industry group, would enable companies to use taxpayer-funded royalty breaks to fulfill their legal obligations to clean up old oil wells. Legal experts, energy economists and the province’s own internal analysts have criticized the scheme.
Smith didn’t directly address the implication, instead saying if Notley was concerned about the increasing cost of living, she would oppose further federal carbon tax increases.
Independent MLA Thomas Dang, representing Edmonton South, asked why the province isn’t taking action on addressing rising non-refundable childcare waiting fees, which he says can be as much as $700.
“Why are these operators allowed to charge excessive waiting fees?” he probed.
Mickey Amery, children’s services minister, said fees imposed by operators, whether for-profit or non-profit, are closely monitored by the government.
“I am pleased to announce daycare in this province has decreased to an average of $22-a-day and we are slated to get to a $15-a-day daycare fee within this year,” Amery said.
“We will not waver when it comes to protecting all operators in this province, and we will continue to respect parental choice and make it accessible for all.”
An Alberta NDP government would balance the books while using a fixed amount of resource revenues for general revenues to rescue the province from a boom-bust roller-coaster, party Leader Rachel Notley said Friday.
Addressing reporters in what’s expected to be the decisive battleground of Calgary, where the NDP is headquartering its efforts, Notley said she would consult Albertans on what to do with the rainy-day, $18.6-billion Alberta Heritage Trust Fund, among a raft of recommendations in a report authored by former ATB chief economist Todd Hirsch.
The NDP leader said her party would operate in the black, though there was no mention of creating a provincial sales tax (PST), widely seen as political kryptonite ahead of a provincial election scheduled for May 29.
“I want to be clear that Albertans can expect a balanced budget,” said Notley, adding the blueprint would end boom-and-bust budgeting chaos.
“For too long Albertans have been on a resource revenue roller-coaster. Governments have spent resource revenues as fast as it came in only to drastically pull back spending when prices went down. It’s time to get Alberta off that roller-coaster, and this report provides the path on how we can get there.”
The report produced from consulting 37 different stakeholder groups and individuals also states her government wouldn’t exceed a debt-to-GDP ratio of 30 per cent, a figure currently at 9.9 per cent.
She said that ratio would only be a worst-case scenario, even if it would still be lower than that of many countries.
The blueprint’s most important concept is fixing the amount of resource revenues earmarked for budgeting purposes, a move that would “completely detach the government from the volatility of oil prices,” said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe.
“I think Hirsch has done an excellent job . . . it could easily be adapted to any political party. It’s just a hard-headed look at the finances of the province.”
He said the approach shows there’s no need to implement a PST.
When the NDP took power in 2015, Alberta’s debt was $11.9 billion, a number that soared to $85.9 billion by the time the party was voted out in 2019 during a time of low energy prices.
Much of the UCP attacks on the NDP have centred on the party’s alleged economic mismanagement during its last tenure that they say drove up the debt, drove away businesses, raised taxes and cost 183,000 jobs.
Or at least it used to, until actions taken by the UCP government.
Shortly after the 2019 election, the UCP under Premier Kenney introduced Bill 22 with no consultation. The legislation dramatically restructured how public pensions were governed, affecting the retirement security of hundreds of thousands of Albertans. With one piece of legislation, joint governance was dismantled, and all public sector plans were prevented from leaving AIMCo, irrespective of the investment managers’ performance. These actions made Alberta an outlier relative to other provinces.
Premier, Danielle Smith issued a mandate letter to her Finance Minister. Her direction was crystal clear: step up your efforts to leave the CPP.
Albertans have paid into CPP all their working lives. The value of any one individuals’ pension is a function of how long they worked, and how much they earned. The CPP doesn’t belong to any government, it belongs to the individuals who worked for it.
The message from working people is clear: they are concerned about their retirement security, and they want more done. They want better pensions.
The problem we are trying to solve is therefore simple: what can the Government of Alberta do to support good pensions and protect retirement security? What can we do to help the private sector create good workplace pensions for Albertans? What can we do to help attract and retain talent for Alberta employers?
There’s a lot of talk these days about an increased role for private health-care clinics in Canada, sparked in part by Premier Doug Ford’s plans to significantly increase the number of Ontario surgeries done in for-profit clinics.
Despite promises from Ford and others that it will streamline services and solve the issue of long wait times, health-care professionals that CBC News interviewed say there are nuances and that such happy outcomes are not borne out by the data.
In fact, data from B.C. and from other countries suggests private, for-profit surgery clinics will likely increase the true cost to taxpayers and could worsen wait times in Ontario hospitals.
What does a ‘private system’ even mean?
To start, it’s important to understand that every doctor is a private contractor. They bill for their services. And that figure — along with nursing staff, overhead and other costs — factors into the final bill.
“Privatization is such a broad term that it’s basically useless,” according to Dr. Melanie Bechard, a pediatrician at CHEO in Ottawa and president of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
“I honestly wouldn’t know how to address questions about privatization without first asking if you mean financing or delivery.”
The distinction here is private, for-profit care, which means clinics that are often owned by companies who focus on bottom line earnings.
‘Privatization is such a broad term that it’s basically useless,’ according to Dr. Melanie Bechard, a pediatrician at CHEO in Ottawa and president of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. (Christian Fleury)
Do private procedures cost less?
For example, data obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows that knee replacement surgery in a public hospital, paid by the province, costs about $10,000. The same surgery in a private clinic can reportedly cost patients up to $28,000.
When the province pays for the knee replacement surgery in a for-profit clinic, the amount is kept secret, due to confidentiality agreements.
Andrew Longhust, a health policy researcher at Simon Fraser University in B.C., says the lack of transparency makes it challenging to understand the real costs.
“Governments are often reluctant or will actively fight the disclosure of that information and so will the clinics themselves,” he said. Clinics, Longhurst added, often provide contracts with unspecific additional costs that are not easily visible or broken down, so the profit margin remains a mystery to patients and taxpayers.
“I think what’s important for people to understand is that the government is very fond of saying, ‘Well, it’s cheaper in for-profit facilities.’ But a lot of it has not undergone any independent scrutiny.”
That lack of transparency, Longhurst said, has led some health authorities to reverse course when the costs of doing some procedures in private clinics proved to be too high.
In 2011, the Vancouver Island Health Authority dropped plans to outsource MRI scans because they were more expensive in the private, for-profit sector. More recently, Fraser Health, one of B.C.’s health authorities, purchased two private MRI outpatient clinics, bringing them back into the public system as part of the strategy to cut health-care wait times.
In 2014, Quebec ended contracts with two private surgical centres for cataract and other surgeries because the costs per case were lower in the public system.
Does privatization reduce wait times?
Proponents of a for-profit system argue it lowers wait times for procedures. When the Ontario government announced on Feb. 21 that it was moving some surgeries to private, for-profit centres, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said she hoped it would help ease high wait times for some procedures. However, the latest data from the CIHI paints a more nuanced picture of those delays.
It showed that Ontario, which wants to follow the lead of other provinces, actually had the shortest waiting times in Canada for hip and knee replacement surgeries in 2021/2022 — 73 per cent of Ontario patients received knee replacement surgery within six months.
By comparison, patients in provinces outsourcing surgeries to for-profit clinics waited longer. In British Columbia, only 70 per cent of patients received knee replacements within six months, while in Alberta, it was 53 per cent and in Quebec, 48 per cent.
Only in cataract surgery did Ontario lag behind, with 60 per cent of surgeries being done within the 16-week benchmark.
Do we need more clinics?
On Jan. 13, Ontario Premier Doug Ford held up the privately funded Shouldice Clinic for hernia procedures north of Toronto — which performs thousands of OHIP-funded operations — as a model to emulate and expanded.
“We need to have facilities like that to take the burden off the hospitals,” he said.
However, sitting recently in a closed operating theatre – the result of budget cuts — Dr. David Urbach, surgical chief at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, says Ontario doesn’t need more clinics.
“You can do operations in this operating room. You don’t need to open those new facilities.”
Public hospitals, according to Urbach, are funded to do a specific number of surgeries per year, and provincial governments could pay to schedule more surgeries at night or on the weekends. But when there are two parallel and competing systems, a bigger problem emerges: staffing.
“We need people,” said Urbach. “The bottleneck right now is particularly nursing care.”
Both for-profit centres and hospitals recruit from the same limited pool of health-care professionals, but three years of pandemic fatigue and limited salary increases has led to an exodus from the public system.
A doctor or nurse that leaves a hospital to work at a for-profit facility for more money, can, in fact, worsen the broader problems plaguing our health-care system, says Urbach.
Fewer health professionals in public hospitals means longer wait times for surgeries, diagnostics and other procedures.
“We can use all of these hospitals if we had the people,” said Urbach.
Are patient outcomes better in private clinics?
Ultimately, it’s about best outcomes. And studies of the U.K. and U.S, have shown that for-profit care is linked to slightly higher death rates.
In one study, which tracked seven years of outsourcing between 2013 and 2020 from Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) to the private sector, researchers found that every one per cent increase in private for-profit services corresponded to deaths going up by 0.38 per cent per 100,000 people. Based on that data, the researchers believe for-profit care could have been responsible for 557 additional deaths from 2014 to 2019.
All of these issues, according to Bechard, lead to the most important basic question.
“When we’re looking at private financing in our system, in multiple examples, it tends to have worse patient outcomes and tends to have more financial inefficiencies. So why would we be looking to expand that in our existing health-care system?”
Alberta’s place in the Canada Pension Plan needs to be ratified with legislation to protect it from “rogue political risk,” says NDP Leader Rachel Notley.
Notley pledged on Thursday that she would do just that if she’s returned to the premier’s seat in the May election, as Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservatives continue to toy with the idea of pulling out of the CPP to start a provincial pension plan.
“Seemingly from Day 1, the current government sought to hijack public pensions and mused about pulling out of the (CPP) despite widespread polling showing everyday Albertans and businesses alike don’t support that kind of dangerous move,” Notley said from the Triwood Community Centre in northwest Calgary, where she and other Opposition MLAs met with a group of seniors.
Notley said an NDP government would enshrine the province’s participation in the CPP in law, preventing any future Alberta government from leaving the federal plan. She says the CPP is tough to change, requiring seven provinces to sign on for any amendment.
“That means any change to CPP is immune from rogue political risk. But if Danielle Smith gets her way, political risk skyrockets,” said Notley. “Smith and her UCP cabinet could change benefit levels or the retirement age in one cabinet meeting behind closed doors. That is an unacceptable level of risk for Albertans when their retirement security is what’s at stake.”
The Edmonton Public School Board says classrooms are bursting at the seams, and a new report backs that up — saying not enough schools are being built to keep up with enrolment. The school division is predicting within a decade, it will have more students that spaces. Sarah Komadina has more.
Between 2010 and 2022, enrolment in Edmonton Public Schools grew by more than 25,000 students — a utilization rate increase of about 12 per cent, according to the EPSB’s ten-year plan last year.
The EPSB believes if enrolment and capital funding stay constant at its current utilization rate, there will be 34,000 more students than spaces in the system in 10 years.
The school board said on Wednesday even if they use every space available, they will still be short 6,200 student spaces.
Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said Edmonton Public is living in the reality of what it means not to be adequately funded.
“When we shift to thinking in 10-years, when we look at our enrolment growth we are looking at 140,000 kids that we are welcoming in to our division in 2032,” Estabrooks said.
“Obviously we expect our enrolment to continue to increase.”
While enrolment growth is occurring in all areas of the city, the division said it is greater in suburban neighbourhoods in southwest, southeast and west Edmonton — and has been for some time now as affordable, family friendly neighbourhoods have grown rapidly in those areas.
In 2020, Edmonton Public entered three schools into a lottery system. This meant kids who neighbour these schools may not be able to attend their designated facility and have to travel much further away.
For example, new students in the attendance area for Lillian Osborne High School in the southwest Terwillegar area have, in some cases, actually ended up attending Strathcona High School, the designated overflow school close to Whyte Avenue. That’s after the school closed its doors to Grade 10 students living outside the boundary in 2016 due to enrolment pressures.
Now, there are seven schools included in the lottery, including two new ones in south Edmonton:
Shauna May Seneca (new)
Jan Reimer (new)
Lilian Osborne High School
David Thomas King
Dr. Lila Fahlman
Dr. Margaret Ann Armour
Svend Hansen
EPSB said the lottery process only impacts new resident students from the attendance area at these schools.
Students who are currently enrolled in one of the schools can still attend. Each grade will be limited to a certain number of spaces in planned classes, to ensure enrolment does not exceed the available space.
Shauna May Seneca (new)
Jan Reimer (new)
Lilian Osborne High School
David Thomas King
Dr. Lila Fahlman
Dr. Margaret Ann Armour
Svend Hansen
EPSB said the lottery process only impacts new resident students from the attendance area at these schools.
Students who are currently enrolled in one of the schools can still attend. Each grade will be limited to a certain number of spaces in planned classes, to ensure enrolment does not exceed the available space.
“It’s not ideal, we are continuing to have to put kids on busses to attend schools outside their community schools.”
Edmonton Public Schools said the province has committed funding to building a new K-9 school in Edgemont, in the city’s far west end.
There is also design funding for a 7-12 school in the Glenridding neighbourhood in the deep southwest. Two schools are being added to the province’s school planning program project list. One is being added to the pre-planning program project list.
Estabrooks said she appreciates the commitment but it’s still not enough to address the growing need.
“We are out of space — not just running out of space — we are out of space, in particular high school space.”
