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Despite the fraudulent announcements made on a regular basis about new continuing care "spaces" the government has actually reduced the number of long-term care beds since 2008, and plans to keep doing so. Where new long-term care facilities have been built, aging public facilities have been replaced with private ones at public expense. Instead of taking up its social responsibility to provide the level of care which frail seniors need, the government continues to hatch schemes based on the outlook that seniors who are in acute care hospitals waiting for placement are "bed blockers." The "problem" is considered to be fixed if the senior is no longer in an acute care bed. Whether they are receiving the care they need doesn't enter the equation. The latest announcement is about adult day programs, better access to a nurse hotline and a Destination Home program to send seniors home as fast as possible. Minister of Health Fred Horne claimed this would have a "huge" impact on occupancy rates in acute care hospitals. Bruce West, executive director of the Alberta Continuing Care Association, recently told the Edmonton Journal that in the push to empty hospital beds, patients with severe illnesses or palliative conditions are being sent to supported living facilities that are not equipped or staffed to offer the necessary level of care. Public funding for a long-term care bed is about $156 a day per patient, $105 a day for supportive living 4 and as little as $80 a day for supportive living 3, he stated. Most "spaces" being built are supportive living 3, with funding less than half that provided for already inadequate long-term care. Clearly, the " huge" impact can only be made by denying people the care they need and which is theirs by right. In another pre-election ploy, the government made a bogus announcement that it would provide a grant of $2.4 million to upgrade publicly funded seniors lodges. Lodges are maintained by the municipalities with almost no provincial funding. This "grant" is not going to make a dent in the serious need for repairs and renovations needed to provide even a minimal level of comfort and safety to their residents. It amounts to about $235 for each of the 9,000 lodge units. To add insult to injury, this is not even new funding, but part of the 2011-2012 budget allocations. The Public Interest Alberta Seniors' Task Force points out that the covert "part two" of the plan for a new Alberta Health Act includes eliminating the Nursing Home Act which provides the only guarantee of staffing levels in Alberta nursing homes, both as concerns minimum hours of care per day and the participation of registered nurses in care.[1] The government has actually paid nursing homes to be downgraded to assisted living or renamed nursing homes to circumvent the Act. The Task Force points out that measures such as these have robbed vulnerable seniors of the skilled care they require. The entire long-term care strategy of the government is designed to serve the interests of the insurance and long-term care monopolies. Funding withdrawn from social programs goes to pay the rich and to hand over increasing amounts of the wealth produced by the working class to the owners of capital. Seniors and health care workers together with workers from all sectors are determined to hold the government to account and are building the campaign for free, publicly funded, quality long-term care. All out to block the anti-social offensive of the
Redford Tories! The right to health care and the right of seniors to
live in dignity must be provided with a guarantee, including free, high
quality long-term care! Note 1. Information on the Seniors' Task Force is available at http://pialberta.org/action-areas/seniors
Alberta Emergency Workers Continue to Demand Improved Response Times and Working ConditionsA survey of Calgary paramedics and emergency medical technicians conducted by their union, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), has confirmed that ambulance services continue to face critical problems and lack of resources. HSSA President Elisabeth Ballermann stated: "Alberta's Emergency Medical System (EMS) is experiencing critical problems that are widespread. On the heels of a survey of our members in Edmonton last November, we conducted a survey of Emergency Medical Services personnel in Metro Calgary, Rural/non Metro areas and Inter-Facility transfers. What we discovered was that the low morale due to lack of resources (of both staff and equipment), poor management practices and backups in the rest of the health care system, which our Edmonton members experience was shared by their co-workers across the province." The main issues raised by paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in the surveys are lack of respect and failure by Alberta Health Services (AHS) managers to address the front-line issue they raise. New management practices that have been implemented since AHS took over EMS operations in 2009 are causing serious communication problems and giving rise to mistreatment of EMS staff. Another serious issue raised was the inadequate training AHS is providing for dispatchers which is putting both EMS workers and patients at risk. Ballerman emphasized the critical nature of the work EMS workers perform: "These men and women are health care professionals who perform sophisticated procedures that keep people alive." Calgarians must support the demands of the EMS workers and their union for immediate action to improve response times and working conditions. Demanding action now to resolve this situation is giving notice to the Redford government that they are duty bound to take up their social responsibility and resolve this situation in manner that favours both patients and the EMS workers dedicated to their well being. Demanding action now from the Alberta government is critical as the first bill tabled in this session of the Legislature following the introduction of the budget was Bill 1, the Results-Based Budgeting Act. The goal of results based-budgeting is geared at finding the minimum level of funding necessary to keep public services or social programs operating. This shows that the goal of the Alberta government is to continue dealing with EMS and all public services on the basis of cost reduction. as opposed to the need for a properly funded human-centred health care system. In 2011, EMS dispatch responded to close to 380,000 ground and air ambulance calls, 70 per cent of which were 911 emergency calls, while the rest were patient transfers between health care facilities. Emergency ambulance services are not even included as a fundamental part of the publicly-funded health care system and, with the exception of seniors, people are billed for an ambulance trip. Further, publicly-delivered ambulance services are not available in 29 service areas across the province where for-profit companies are contracted instead. Rapid-response, high quality ambulance service is a right. The government's anti-social outlook which considers both patients and the dedicated workers who provide first response emergency medical treatment as a cost is clashing with the need for free, publicly funded and delivered, high quality, rapid response emergency services.
Hardisty Care Centre Workers Defend their RightsWorkers at the Hardisty Care Centre in Edmonton were set to go on strike at 1:40 pm on Saturday, March 10, when the government halted the strike by appointing a Disputes Inquiry Board (DIB). The workers at the Hardisty nursing home are fighting for a first collective agreement and are represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). Workers rallied outside the Hardisty Care Centre at 1:40 pm when their strike had been set to begin. They were joined by families of residents and other AUPE members.
AUPE President Guy Smith called the decision to deny Hardisty Care Centre employees the legal right to strike "an assault on employees' legal rights." "Human Services Minister Dave Hancock is taking sides in this legal dispute, and he's putting a BC-based company's bottom line ahead of the interest of more than 100 long-term care employees," said Smith. Smith pointed out that the decision by the Human Services Minister (formerly the Labour Minister) protects the employer, because the interests of the Hardisty staff would be better served by going on strike and forcing the employer to pay the workers the rates for which they have been funded. "Employees at Hardisty Care Centre are paid 20 per cent less than the provincial standard. They are funded by Alberta Health Services to pay that standard to staff, but they pay less and pocket the remainder," said Smith. "That's not right." According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Human Services, the appointment of the DIB would allow more time for negotiations. This completely negates the reality that the problem has nothing to do with "lack of time." The problem is that the employer refuses to engage in good faith bargaining. The employer has rejected a mediator's report which the workers accepted and stubbornly insists on its "right" to stuff its pockets with public funds intended for staff wages and benefits. The Alberta Labour Code permits the Minister of Labour to appoint a DIB and stop a pending strike. If a board is established before a strike or lockout begins, the strike or lockout becomes illegal until at least 10 days after the board has issued its recommendations. The authority to use this power is entirely arbitrary and at the discretion of the minister. The minister can also arbitrarily extend the period in which a strike or lockout is illegal. It can be used to delay a strike if this is in the employer's interest. It can buy time for an employer to advertise for scab labour. In the case of the Hardisty Nursing Home, the appointment of a Disputes Inquiry Board appears to be a crass move by the Tories not only to come to the aid of the employer, but to silence the workers. The Conservative party in power is using its arbitrary powers to stop a strike on the eve of an election that would further expose the reality of its push for private health care. The fight of the Hardisty workers shows the reality that the government is serving private interests at the expense of the public good and the rights of the workers. If the government was actually concerned about the residents of Hardisty, it would require the owners of Hardisty to pay their staff according to the industry standard or lose its funding. It would stop paying the rich at the expense of the residents and the workers who care for them. TML denounces this latest attack on the right of workers to decide on wages, benefits and working conditions acceptable to themselves. The dedicated health care workers have a right to wages and working conditions that are commensurate with the important work they do, and their right to fight for these conditions must be recognized and provided with a guarantee.
Defend Public Education! Alberta Charter Schools:
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Referring to a recent announcement by the
Health
Minister that a review of EMS is being initiated by the Alberta
government, Ballermann said: "The review of EMS that Minister Horne
announced earlier this week is welcomed. We know that it will confirm
what we have been saying for some time
now. But launching a review is in no way an acceptable excuse for no
action now. Waiting for the results of a review will do nothing to help
the Albertan suffering from a heart attack get to the Emergency more
quickly....Minutes lost mean that patients will spend much more time in
recovery, if they are fortunate
enough to make it to the hospital." 
The Hardisty
Care Centre is owned by the private,
for-profit company Park Place Seniors Living Inc. which
operates
nursing homes, assisted living and retirement homes in Alberta and BC.
Hardisty has 180 residents and a staff of 100 which includes registered
nurses, licensed practical nurses and
personal care attendants. 
With utmost hypocrisy,
the human services
spokesman claimed the government had acted to "protect its citizens,
especially the elderly." He stated that "the threat of a strike or a
lockout, anything that means change for elderly people can create
adverse health effects. We can't stand by and let that
happen." This from a government that has actually cut the number of
long-term care beds and is planning to deregulate "accommodation fees"
paid by patients, to allow the private, for-profit
companies to further enrich themselves on the backs of frail seniors. 
On February 14, Alberta Education
Minister Thomas
Lukaszuk unveiled the first new 
Shares of Viterra, Canada's largest private
grain
handling company, jumped 24 per cent on March 9 on rumours of a
possible
takeover. The 
It is important to note that AIMCO's Viterra
shares are part of a $71 billion portfolio that AIMCO invests
globally
on behalf of Alberta public sector pension plans and provincial
endowment funds. The pension funds are to serve the retirement income
needs of nearly 300,000 active and retired Alberta
public sector employees. In 2009, these funds paid out nearly $1.3
billion in pension payments, refunds and transfers to other plans. The
government endowment funds that AIMCO manages are used for health care,
education, other social programs and infrastructure. This means that a
major increase in the value
of the AIMCO portfolio due to a Viterra takeover will concomitantly
mean more government funds potentially available for pensions and
social programs and hence diminished pressure on the government to
claim more added value from the monopolies, especially the energy
monopolies. 
