Protecting human health and our lakes, rivers and wildlife requires independent, more accurate monitoring and enforcement. That means equipment and qualified specialists on the ground, with the tools, funding and enforcement powers necessary to do the job. Disincentives for polluters must have real teeth to encourage responsible development and restore our international reputation. This government’s decision to cut our environment department by $17.5 million this year speaks volumes about its priorities and its irrational fixation on public relations at the expense of real solutions.

Albertans want to be proud of our oil sands development. We’re leading the way in providing energy to the world; now we need to take the next step, by leading the way in real environmental protection. Human health, the economy and the environment are inextricably linked, and would be the top priorities of a David Swann government.

Vote-splitting among progressive parties results in right-wing governments that don’t represent the majority of Albertans. It’s time for a new approach.

Our members voted in favour of closer “cooperation with other progressive political parties.” We respect our members and the principles of democracy and are doing what they asked us to do.

Any agreement on specific methods of cooperation will have to be approved by a vote of the party’s membership. This won’t be a back-room deal.

I am not so concened about right and left politics. I care more about right and wrong politics. How can we better reflect Albertans’ values and hopes for Alberta? That is what we should be giving our energy to.

I’m prepared to set aside our differences with other parties in search of a better way of governing this province. There’s a better way for us and for our children! Let’s work at it together.

Let’s Talk!

In Alberta, only the provincial Auditor General can access the specific information of expenses. The general public cannot. Unfortunately, the Alberta Conservative government has stated that the issue is not on the agenda and goes so far to say that there is no need for this information to be public knowledge.

As a commitment to the issue of financial accountability I will be posting the monthly statement of expenses for my constituency – Calgary Mountainview – in the coming weeks. This information will be available directly on my website for constituents and all Albertans to review.

What the resolution actually says, is not very specific. The contentious part of the resolution that laid out specific instructions was removed following an amendment by one of our longtime Liberal members. The resulting amended resolution was clearly more palatable to the majority of our members in attendance and this is what we will be working with in the coming weeks and months as we prepare for the election.

This is clearly a COOPERATION resolution calling for us to work with progressive parties and voters, including progressive Tories who are leaving the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta in droves, seeking an alternative.

We ARE that alternative. We ARE the ONLY centrist party in Alberta with policies in place and a structure out there in all 83 ridings across the province. It only makes sense that we would be the party to extend a hand and offer to work together.

It’s often said that I’m not a typical politician. I would like to suggest to you that this makes me the ideal person to introduce a new way of doing politics in Alberta, as urged by the resolution this weekend. It is a less confrontational kind of politics, one that puts the interests of the citizens of this province ahead of narrow partisan interests.

The Alberta Liberal Party under my leadership will work in earnest and with the full and open involvement of our membership, to bring people together so that we can form a new kind of government for this province, one we can all be proud of. This is what cooperation means and this is what any good government does.

As always, your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

David
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Leader of the Official Opposition, I have the duty and privilege of rising today to respond to yesterday’s budget.

Mr. Speaker, I am frankly astounded by the haphazard nature of this budget, with massive spending increases in certain areas offset by drastic cuts in others. Far from striking a balance, this budget throws Alberta wildly off-balance, with no plan for sustainable spending and our province’s future prosperity in jeopardy.

This is a balancing act, all right, but it’s like a high-wire performance: a big show for the audience with potentially catastrophic consequences. Only it’s like the Minister of Finance is sitting safely on the sidelines, poking Albertans out onto the high wire without a net.

Over and over again during my time as Leader of the Official Opposition, I’ve stated my belief that Alberta is in dire need of a government that understands the importance of planning for the long term. Albertans have told me that they share that view. But clearly this Tory administration has no concept of what a long-term plan entails.

Why else would they lurch from budget to budget, shifting priorities on the fly, commissioning studies only to abandon them, ignoring the advice of the Auditor General, passing a law to make deficit spending illegal only to repeal that law as soon as oil and gas prices collapsed? Is it a spending problem, or is it really a competence problem in this administration? We believe this budget confirms that it’s definitely a competence problem.

Both as a physician and an Officer of Health, I took a careful, comprehensive approach to assessing problems, coming up with solutions, and following up to be sure that my solutions were working, amending as necessary.

For example, if a patient came into my office with a headache, I couldn’t just give him a pill and send him away. I needed to know his medical history, what other medications he might be taking, any other health issues, any problems at work or home, and so on. Once deciding upon a course of action, I monitored the patient’s progress and made changes to his treatment as necessary.

The same common-sense approach can and should be applied to policy problems. The state of public health care, the condition of our economy, social issues such as homelessness and child care – all of these issues require responsible leaders to consider the big picture, without the baggage of ideology or personal prejudice.

Comprehensive analysis, full assessment, action, monitoring and amending: that’s the approach a responsible government would take to the big issues of the day. Instead, we have ad hoc policy designed to address partisan political problems, while many equally important issues get swept under the rug.

The Cuts
The cut to children’s services, for example, is a scandal, and the decision to slash nearly forty million dollars from a crucial program is beneath contempt, especially when the amount being cut is the same as the amount being devoted to subsidizing the dying horse racing industry.

Mr. Speaker, Albertans care about children a heck of a lot more than they care about horse racing, and I am profoundly disappointed by the lack of empathy and shortsightedness displayed by this administration’s decision, especially given the news stories of troubled foster families this past week.

Yesterday I talked about the impact this administration’s cuts have had on Alberta’s students, the next generation of engineers, tradesmen, scientists, doctors, artists – the leaders and builders of tomorrow. Over $200 million cut from Advanced Education and Technology, creating even higher student debt and imperiling access to postsecondary education.

If there’s one investment that could lead to creating a sustainable economy for Alberta, it’s education, but this administration, with typical shortsightedness, just made it even harder for countless Albertans to achieve their full potential. The consequences of this decision will affect Alberta’s prosperity for a long, long time, and it certainly makes it no easier to address our critical shortage of health care professionals. That two billion dollars added to the health care budget won’t help much without new doctors and other professionals to make the system work.

Clearly the heartfelt but logical appeal of University of Calgary medical students Rithesh Ram and Natalie Liu, whose letter I read in this house yesterday, fell on deaf ears. Student debt, already crippling, is going to rise even higher, and I don’t see how the Minister of Advanced Education is going to deny any of the proposed tuition increases given these cuts. High youth unemployment, declining Registured Education Savings Plan values, a frozen minimum wage – all of these factors, combined with this administration’s cuts to advanced education, make this is a terrible time to be a postsecondary student in Alberta.

Slashing income supports in an economic recession shows not only a lack of compassion for Albertans struggling to cope, but again reinforces this administration’s reputation for shortsightedness. You predict that the unemployment picture is not going to improve, in the near term, so why cut benefits? They’re going to be needed, especially since employment tends to lag behind general economic growth; it takes time to recover lost jobs. In the meantime, Alberta families will struggle to cope.

The choices made by this administration reveal a “flavour of the month” mentality. You have recognized, correctly, that Albertans are concerned about health care. But rather than address the complex problems of management and resource allocation, you have decided to take the easy road and throw money, tons of it, at the problem.

Health Care Increase
I can’t imagine how the Minister of Finance wrapped his head around this administration’s incredible two billion dollar increase in health care spending. In fact, there was a comment on Twitter that I thought was quite funny and revealing; I’m paraphrasing here, but it said something like, “Mr. Premier, when your Finance Minister is in tears while reading the budget, that’s not a good sign.”

You know, if I’d called upon this government to increase the health budget by two billion dollars, the heckling from that side of the assembly might very well have brought the house down around our heads. And yet here we have an ideologically conservative administration, or at least, certainly, an ideologically conservative Minister (or so he tries to appear), telling Albertans that their prescription for saving health care is throwing dump trucks full of money at the system.

As an MD, I can tell you that yes, the system needs money, but what it needs most is competent management. Given this administration’s disastrous record with public health care, why should anyone believe that this huge increase in the system’s budget will actually lead to better results?

This administration’s own throne speech, delivered just days ago, admitted that Alberta receives far less value per dollar spent on health care than other provinces. Now we’ll receive even less value per dollar, because I don’t trust this administration to use those extra resources efficiently. In fact, by cutting child intervention services and income supports, you will foster situations that lead to bad health outcomes for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Albertans – and they’ll wind up in health care, costing the health system more in the long run.

I find it incredibly ironic that two years ago this very administration was trying to tell Albertans that health care spending was out of control. Oscar Wilde might not have been a big fan of consistency, but I think most Albertans want a government that isn’t constantly sending out mixed messages.

A few months ago, this administration claimed that they could find two billion dollars in savings through greater efficiency. You seem to have come up about $700 million short, and you certainly haven’t found any appreciable efficiencies in health care – not when, as I explained yesterday, there are cases of keeping patients in intensive care for days at a cost of thousands of dollars rather than shelling out less than a hundred dollars for antibiotics.

Or cases like that of a former colleague, forced to wait too long for what would have been a relatively inexpensive gall bladder treatment that eventually resulted in a serious, life-threatening infection, costing the system thousands of additional dollars and, more importantly, resulting in a vastly less desirable health outcome for my friend.

Stories from Albertans
Yesterday, in my response to the Throne Speech, I shared some stories from the many Albertans who have contacted us with stories of how they’re trying to cope with this administration’s mistakes.

I shared those stories because I think it’s important that we all remember that the decisions we make as elected representatives have real impacts on real people – our neighbours, our fellow citizens, the people we have been entrusted to serve. When we fail them, we fail in our primary reason for being in this Assembly.

I hope that at least a few of the government Members will take those stories to heart, because we all share some responsibility for them.

Here’s one that I didn’t bring up yesterday:

“After 10 years of billions of dollars in surplus, we now find ourselves facing a 4 billion dollar deficit…

(Of course it’s even larger now.)

…WHERE DID THE MONEY GO??? I live on a disability pension, I don’t have a lot of money to throw around, I have MS and upon occasion I need a Chiropractor and need some adjustments but Mr. Liepert saw fit to delist the treatments and now I cannot afford to go to a Chiropractor. I have no balance and fall frequently and require adjustments often.

Also, I cannot afford my prescriptions because [the Minister of Health] raised the price of the Plus for Blue Cross from $44.00 per month to $82.00 per month. Doctor appointments are over a month wait to see them. The more you can do please do and more power to you because we need help.”

And another:

“I asked for Hospital Beds. Not a 250 million dollar a year ambulance transition. In April this year AHS took over EMS services throughout Alberta at a cost of 250 million a year forever, after refusing to release publicly, the findings of the EMS Discovery project in the “former” Peace and Palliser Health Regions. What is our Health Minister trying to Hide? I wrote my local [government] MLA and received this response from her in writing. She stated ‘I am unable to share these findings with you’ and that ‘the findings of the EMS discovery projects cannot be released publicly.’ Disgusting — Very George Bush style of governance. This was a great selling feature to tax payers. For example, in Calgary where EMS operations were close to 30 million a year, this was [not] supposed to be passed on down to us. Then why is it that I am facing a 4.8% property tax increase? This system is clearly not working.”

Conclusion
Believe me, these stories represent just the tip of the iceberg; to paraphrase Shakespeare, this is surely the winter of Albertan discontent. This budget uses a boatload of cash to wallpaper over some problems, while failing to address fundamental issues of poor governance, mismanagement, and failure to consider the long-term implications of habitual moment-to-moment decision-making.

I believe that as a society we must do our best to live within our means so that future generations won’t be compromised. As our First Nations citizens might say, we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. This budget borrows very heavily indeed from the next generation of Albertans. I only wish I could believe that this administration had the skills to put the loan to best use.

Clearly, Mr. Speaker, we are dealing no longer with merely a financial problem, but with a competence problem.

There’s a better way.

The Liberal Caucus has appealed last week’s order by the Legislature Assembly Office to take down the site, as I consider it our job as Alberta’s Official Opposition to help Albertans speak out on the issues of concern and to amplify their voices. I believe passionately in the power of voices united.

What we’ve heard is very concerning. I’ve included a few quotes from stories we’ve received below.

We’re not asking for Ron Liepert to be removed as MLA, only as Health Minister. This is an issue of policy, not personality.

With the recent announcement of an impending cabinet shuffle, we will soon find out if Ed is listening.

Albertans deserve better – and will get it if they persist.

David

Visit liepertmustgo.ca

Excerpts taken from liepertmustgo.ca:

“I am a medical Resident who works in Calgary. I have seen firsthand the devastation the health reforms and mismanagement […] While on ICU, we had a patient who had been waiting for transfer to the ward for so long that he was actually ready for discharge from ICU. Only he needed 3 additional days of ORAL antibiotics. We tried to give him a script for the drugs, but being homeless, he could not afford to fill the prescription. The inpatient pharmacy is now restricted in terms of giving meds to patients at discharge (ie. they can dispense one day’s worth, but not more – because of budget cuts). So this gentleman, with no medical bed (only an ICU bed) was required to stay in ICU for 3 additional days, because the hospital would not give him $25 of antibiotics (The Math: 3x $2000/day ICU stay = $6000 cost, because we can’t give him $25 of free antibiotics)”

“My mother (68 years old) was on the waiting list for a routine colonoscopy for two years before she was called for an appointment. The terrible thing about this situation was that she was diagnosed with colon cancer before she was able to get the colonoscopy.”

“I used to work as an RN in Alberta. I saw more and more RNs on my unit being replaced by LPNs. It was getting so dangerous for the patients that I had to leave; I couldn’t work in an environment where money was more important than patient safety and their lives. The LPNs were nowhere near knowledgeable or competent enough to deal with the high acuity of the patients. None of them were

This is good news for political revival in Alberta!

David

The update claimed $430 million in savings, but noted $575 million in new expenditures. It also notes that over half the Stelmach administration’s cuts are to core public services, which are vital to Alberta’s prosperity and social fabric.

A responsible government wouldn’t use its own wasteful spending as an excuse to cut core public services such as education, children’s services and health care. For Lloyd Snelgrove to claim that government has been at the public trough for ten years is true, but his administration is punishing the wrong people.

The Alberta Liberal cost savings plan takes a different approach, saving $577 million by reducing the size of cabinet, eliminating the Public Affairs Bureau, and cutting wasteful spending such as subsidies for horseracing and grants to golf courses.

If this administration were really serious about cost savings, they would take a long, hard look in the mirror and cut back on the fat. But it’s been a long time since Alberta has enjoyed that kind of leadership, and we won’t get it back until Albertans choose a different government.

David

Call the Alberta Liberal Caucus’ toll free number: 1-888-886-2834,

Or, visit www.bill50.ca

To tell us your views on Bill 50, the importance of genuine public consultation, or rising electricity costs. Record a question you’d like us to ask the Premier or his cabinet on your behalf. We’ll ask some of those questions in the Legislature, so that Premier Stelmach and his cabinet understand that Albertans have a say in the issues that affect them.

Thousands of high-risk Albertans who should be inoculated against H1N1 have not had access to the potentially life-saving vaccine. After days of six-hour line-ups and inconsistent messages from both the Premier and the Health minister, the Stelmach administration abruptly shut down all of the immunization clinics on Halloween night.

The first duty of a responsible government is to protect its citizens. The Premier’s incoherent response to a serious public health problem is putting our entire population at risk.  Mr. Liepert has shown he’s not up to the challenge, and if he can’t handle a province wide flu clinic, how can he manage a complex province wide health system? He should be replaced immediately.

Aside from antagonizing oil and gas companies with his ever-changing royalty regimes – with another re-jigging reportedly coming in October – and using his ministers as “bad cops” to slash public sector jobs, the Premier has done nothing to address the serious challenges facing Alberta:

·         Record deficit – $7 billion and climbing, plus a $1.1 billion health deficit accumulated since the Premier’s administration merged the health regions

·         Highest unemployment rate in 13 years – 7.4 percent, representing over 157,000 unemployed Albertans, up more than double from last year

·         102 percent increase in bankruptcies

·         ER wait times: median of 16.6 hours in Calgary’s three hospitals as of February 2008; averages between 22.6 and 27.8 hours at Edmonton hospitals as of March 2009; Stelmach administration has stopped publishing statistics on ER wait times since then

·         Rent supplements for Albertans at risk of homelessness have run out

·         Home foreclosures have more than doubled in just two years, from 2,510 in 06-07 to 5,300 today

If I were Premier, I’d immediately stop the wasteful spending on public relations, hospitality, severance packages and bonuses and redundant MLA committees. I’d take action on oil and gas royalties to bring the fairness and stability needed to help industry recover.  I’d forge a common sense plan to tackle the deficit and fix public health care. We’ve had enough panels and committees and studies; it’s time for action, action that’s grounded in an honest analysis of our situation, the best advice from real experts, and the long-term public interest of all Albertans. Instead, the Premier is paralyzed by indecision.

David

Please let me know what you think!

Senior’s longterm care

Accountable government