The Alberta NDP is taking early aim at the UCP’s upcoming 2023 budget, set to be tabled next week, saying it’s lacking in supports for a struggling health-care system and rampant affordability issues, while Premier Danielle Smith boasts of the plan’s coming investments to tackle those problems.
“The UCP has spent the last four years cutting programs and increasing costs on Alberta families. They’ve cut funding to health care, to economic diversification, while increasing taxes, fees and tuition, and allowing utilities and car insurance to skyrocket,” said Ganley.
The UCP has announced sizable contributions to health care set to come through the 2023 budget in the last couple of weeks, including what Smith touted as a record-breaking boost to mental health and addictions, expanding that ministry’s budget to $275 million, and more than $2 billion to improve primary health care.
Ganley also criticized the government’s attempts to ease inflation-related pains for Albertans via affordability payments, planning for a provincial police force, among other issues ahead of the budget presentation.
“The cost of living is the highest it’s been in 40 years. Yet, under their plan. Alberta has the slowest wage growth in the country. There are fewer businesses open today than when the UCP took office, even as Ontario, B.C. and Quebec have seen growth post-pandemic,” she said.
Meanwhile, Smith boasted of a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking investments in the province’s technology and innovation sector, citing a report from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association that said Alberta attracted $729 million in investments in 2022.
“That’s extraordinary,” said Smith. “I think it’s up 20 per cent while the rest of the country is down. We’re finally punching at the weight that we should from a business attraction point of view.”
Smith’s government is set to table its first budget on Tuesday.
The Alberta NDP has put forth a plan they say would connect one million Albertans to a family doctor.
Announced Wednesday by party leader Rachel Notley, the plan is said to be a critical step in ending the “chaos in hospitals and ambulances caused by the UCP.”
“Our vision for primary care is called Family Health Teams (FHT),” Notley said. “Our goal is for one million more Albertans to be able to see their family doctor and a Family Health Team within a day or two, close to home.”
A Family Health Team, the party describes, could include multiple family doctors, as well as nurse practitioners, registered and licensed practical nurses, mental health therapists, pharmacists, social workers, dietitians, community paramedics, community health navigators, physiotherapists, midwives, speech language therapists, and others.
The NDP says access would be immediate.
At the reveal today, Dr. Alana Luft and Dr. Tomi Mitchell, both of Calgary, joined Notley.
“I am glad that Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP have set out a vision to transform primary care where family doctors and other team members can provide better support to patients for early treatment and preventative care,” said Dr. Luft. “If patients have access to accurate information, timely screening, regular check-ins with a provider who knows them, then we have a better chance of keeping people healthy and addressing issues early.”
Added Dr. Mitchell: “As a team, we can provide comprehensive, community based, holistic care that promotes the prevention of disease and the optimization of health outcomes. The path forward is actually quite simple: Proactively support the science-based research that patients do best under a team-based healthcare system. And invest now, in the public health system, and the long term positive impacts will be felt for generations.”
The NDP plan calls for a transition fund to immediately begin hiring 1,500 non-physician team members into existing clinics, while work happens to open 10 Family Health Clinics across Alberta.
All FHTs will have integrated mental health professionals, supported by the Alberta NDP’s commitment to insure five sessions for every Albertan under the provincial insurance plan.
“Today we lay out the initial building blocks of what we intend to be the largest and most ambitious healthcare recruitment campaign Alberta has ever seen,” Notley added. “Part of our offer to professionals will be stable and rewarding workplaces where you can focus on providing healthcare and spend less time on paperwork and administration.”
The transitional funding would cost $600 million divided over four years, plus a one-time capital investment of $60 million, $75 million in annual operating, and $5 million annually for Indigenous consultations and early program proposals.
Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta, makes a speech during the official opening of the Suncor Fort Hills near Fort McKay, Alberta, Canada, on Monday, September 10, 2018. Photographer: Ben Nelms/Bloomberg
CALGARY — Alberta’s Opposition NDP is promising more access to a family doctor by creating health teams.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley says if her party forms government after the spring election, its goal would be for a million or more Albertans to be able to see their family doctor within a day or two near where they live.
Notley says the government would create family health teams, which include a doctor working alongside related specialists such as mental health therapists, dietitians, physiotherapists, licensed practical nurses and midwives.
The plan would be for patients to see some of these related specialists during some visits, allowing the physician more time to see more patients and spend less time on paperwork.
There would be a transition fund to immediately begin hiring 1,500 non-physician team members into existing clinics, while work continues to open 10 family health clinics.
Both the NDP and the United Conservative Party government are working on ways to end family physician shortages, particularly outside major urban centres, which are causing domino effects of jammed hospital emergency wards.
Notley says an NDP government would recruit the necessary staff by luring back health professionals who may have quit or retired but may be willing to return to practices that promise more stable hours, a reduced workload and less red tape.
“When you walk into a family health clinic, you will have immediate access to a range of primary-care professionals who will help you respond to a problem, manage a chronic condition and generally support you in maintaining good physical and mental health,” Notley told reporters Wednesday in Calgary.
“This means less waiting, less running around to referrals, and less repeating of your story to one new person after another.”
Notley noted similar programs are already running successfully in two clinics, one in Calgary and the other in Taber in southern Alberta.
Alberta Health spokesman Scott Johnston said the government has a number of recruiting plans to ease the physician shortage.
He said the government is boosting recruitment of internationally trained doctors and nurses while adding bridging spaces and a new bursary to help cover costs for internationally educated nurses.
There will be 2,500 new seats in training programs for health-care professionals and expansions are planned to Alberta’s two medical schools with satellite programs to train more physicians for rural practice.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2023
Kathleen Ganley speaks during a news conference in Vancouver on Friday, Sept. 15, 2017. The energy critic says there should be public consultations, in regards to a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies fulfilling legal commitments to clean up old wells. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Alberta’s New Democrat Opposition wants public consultations on a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies to fulfil legal commitments to clean up old wells, a major proponent of which has been working directly in Premier Danielle Smith’s office for months.
“The fox has entered the henhouse,” said energy critic Kathleen Ganley.
Ganley said that it appears the United Conservative government has already made up its mind to bring in the RStar program, despite criticism from an array of outside experts, rural municipalities and internal government analysts.
“All indications are the government has made their decision,” Ganley said. “There should be public consultations.”
Under RStar, companies would earn valuable credits for remediating old wells even though the obligation to clean up a well is part of the licence to drill it. That credit could be sold or applied against revenue earned from new production to reduce provincial royalties.
Alberta Energy spokesman Scott Johnston confirmed RStar remains on the agenda.
“Alberta Energy has been actively working on options for a reclamation incentive pilot program,” he said in an email.
“This work will continue over the coming weeks. Once this work is completed the department will consult with key stakeholders to determine next steps.”
Proponents say RStar or something like it would encourage new drilling, help clean up Alberta’s 170,000 abandoned wells and create jobs. In a letter written by Smith when she was a business lobbyist less than a year ago, she quotes a consultant who says $20 billion in RStar credits would create 366,000 jobs and $8.5 billion in royalties.
Critics, including staff within Alberta Energy, have said RStar would subsidize work that almost all companies do anyway as a legal condition of their drilling licence. They say current high oil prices mean there’s no need for the subsidy, which could cost Alberta $5 billion in lost royalties.
The proposal, however, has been pushed for years by groups including the Sustainable Alberta Energy Network, formerly led by Kris Kinnear. He now works in Smith’s Calgary office as manager of special projects.
His LinkedIn profile suggests he’s been there since October.
Smith’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Polak, refused to explain what Kinnear does or whether he would appear on the province’s Sunshine List, a database of civil servants who earned more than $136,805. In an email, she said disclosure information is posted only on June 30 and Dec. 31.
Kinnear did not respond to a telephone call.
Alberta’s New Democrat Opposition wants public consultations on a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies to fulfil legal commitments to clean up old wells, a major proponent of which has been working directly in Premier Danielle Smith’s office for months.
“The fox has entered the henhouse,” said energy critic Kathleen Ganley.
Ganley said that it appears the United Conservative government has already made up its mind to bring in the RStar program, despite criticism from an array of outside experts, rural municipalities and internal government analysts.
“All indications are the government has made their decision,” Ganley said. “There should be public consultations.”
Under RStar, companies would earn valuable credits for remediating old wells even though the obligation to clean up a well is part of the licence to drill it. That credit could be sold or applied against revenue earned from new production to reduce provincial royalties.
Alberta Energy spokesman Scott Johnston confirmed RStar remains on the agenda.
“Alberta Energy has been actively working on options for a reclamation incentive pilot program,” he said in an email.
“This work will continue over the coming weeks. Once this work is completed the department will consult with key stakeholders to determine next steps.”
Proponents say RStar or something like it would encourage new drilling, help clean up Alberta’s 170,000 abandoned wells and create jobs. In a letter written by Smith when she was a business lobbyist less than a year ago, she quotes a consultant who says $20 billion in RStar credits would create 366,000 jobs and $8.5 billion in royalties.
Critics, including staff within Alberta Energy, have said RStar would subsidize work that almost all companies do anyway as a legal condition of their drilling licence. They say current high oil prices mean there’s no need for the subsidy, which could cost Alberta $5 billion in lost royalties.
