A New Year, A New Sitting of the Legislature

As we gear up for the next sitting in the Legislature, I wanted to share a reminder of bills that were passed in the last sitting. Within a period of six weeks, the government introduced and passed ten bills, all of which you can review, if you’re so inclined, at http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=bills_home.

The most significant, from my point of view, included the following:

Bill 2—Responsible Energy Development, establishing a single regulator for oil and gas
Bill 3—the long-awaited Education Act
Bill 4—Whistleblower Protection, which we, the Liberal party, believe is too weak to be helpful for those wanting to expose mismanagement in government
Bill 5—New Home Buyer Protection Act, which includes proper warranty protection that we fully support, and
Bill 7—Election Accountability Act, which failed to eliminate the unacceptable influence of large donations as well as corporations and unions.

For anyone interested in further information, I’d be pleased to discuss any of the issues arising from these bills.

Economically, the Liberal caucus believes this government has not spent wisely and continues to depend too heavily on resource revenue for government programs and services. As Premier Redford announced just recently, the result again this year is a $6B deficit. The Liberal caucus strongly believes that Albertans truly want stable revenue to pay for our needs using today’s money, and to stop borrowing from our children’s futures.

Election Accountability Amendment Act isn’t strong legislation

The PC government continues to operate on half-measures. The Election Accountability Amendment Act does not fit with the way other provincial governments, and even the federal government, are moving when it comes to election expenses and donations. One would think that all the scandals around illegal or unethical donations would have spurred more accountability, but this is lacking still. The Premier and her PC caucus rejected scores of opposition amendments that would have eliminated corporate and union donations—steps taken by other provinces—and reduced donation limits from the current cap of $15,000—the highest in Canada—to $5000.

My office is available to you to discuss, debate, propose and complain. Please don’t hesitate to employ me to act in your interest, whether in regards to housing, healthcare, financial responsibility or environmental concerns.

Join the Call for a Public Health Inquiry

For two months, I have been calling for an inquiry into problems within the health care system. This session of the legislature it seems like another doctor comes forward complaining of intimidation by Alberta Health Services or the regional board that preceded it.

The government bent already and called a Health Quality Council (HQCA) investigation into cases of compromised ER care and possible cases of delayed cancer care. The HQCA review, which reports directly to the Minister of Health as opposed to the Legislature or people of Alberta, is meant to investigate wait times and issues of patient care but are ill-equipped to investigate the intimidation of healthcare professionals. The reason for this is that the HQCA is unable to subpoena witnesses or financial records and cannot does not provide protection for doctors to reveal details that have been sealed within non-disclosure agreements.

Our health care workers are among the best in the country and deserve an opportunity to testify and make public any intimidation from AHS or from the government they have suffered without fear of retribution.

The Alberta Liberal Caucus and I will continue to call for this inquiry until one is called. We are not the only group who sees this inquiry as the only way to move forward. The Alberta Medical Association, which represents over 6500 doctors and 3500 retired doctors, students and residents, have now called for the same. Just this week, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents 21000 allied health professionals, has also called for a public inquiry.

Please write to or e-mail the Premier (premier@gov.ab.ca) and Health Minister (edmonton.millcreek@assembly.ab.ca) and copy my office (Calgary.mountainview@assembly.ab.ca). It will take letters such as yours to save our health system by calling a public inquiry. Our health workers need to be free from fear and intimidation if they are to be able to deliver the quality of care that Albertans need and deserve.

Legislature Review

The Alberta Liberal Caucus has enjoyed several victories in the legislature this session.

Healthcare dominated the fall session of the legislature, led by our call for a much needed emergency debate on healthcare. The government, continuing to be out of touch with issues of importance to Albertans, limited debate to 75 minutes. It was only after Dr. Sherman was kicked out of the PC caucus for speaking his mind and his proposal of an amendment to Bill 17 that enabled the Liberal Caucus to push for adequate debate. Debate lasted 25 hours, none of which the Premier chose to attend. With Albertans waiting 18 hours in emergency rooms for care, the Premier showed disinterest and contempt towards Albertans accessing the healthcare system and to medical staff who are working diligently to make a broken system function.

The Alberta government backed off from park legislation. The proposed bill put too much power into the hands of the minister. Without rules backed by legislation, the door was left open for more development in Alberta’s parks. Local and national conservation groups have campaigned against Bill 29 since it was tabled on November 4th. They called it one of the worst pieces of conservation legislation to come forward anywhere in Canada.

Our efforts helped kill the bill. The entire Liberal caucus opposed the bill and Tourism, Parks and Recreation Critic Harry Chase presented letter after letter from concerned Albertans who opposed the bill. This public backlash along with continued efforts forced the government’s hand. The bill was withdrawn.

The Alberta Liberal Caucus released two major policies during the fall session. One policy focused on the environment and the other focused on the crisis we are facing in healthcare. The environmental policy provides a strong balance between maintaining Alberta’s natural beauty while not compromising economic development. The health policy provides real world solutions and a concrete plan towards solving the ER crisis and ensuring that Albertans are never put into this situation again.

This contrasts with the government, which has announced and re-announced the same plans, with no real action ever taken. This government has a fixation on central control of all decisions across the province in healthcare delivery. This is a major part of the bottleneck that needs to be opened up to more regional control and decision-making. I am continuing to push for changes that will improve the regional delivery system. I have no confidence that this government understands how to improve the effectiveness of our services, and more and more Albertans and health professionals are saying the same thing. A poll done before Duckett’s dismissal and the ER crisis revealed less than 25% confidence in the government’s ability to manage the healthcare system. It is time for Albertans to become more involved in political change for Alberta. There’s a better way.

I am very interested in hearing your feedback on both the environment and healthcare policies. Please read them here:

Health Policy
Environment Policy

Get in touch with us via e-mail at: calgary.mountainview@assembly.ab.ca
Via phone at 403-216-5445
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The ER Crisis

Recent days in the legislature have focused on health care, and rightly so. We are facing a longstanding crisis in the area of Emergency Rooms. The current system is making the lives of our doctors, nurses, and medical staff extremely stressful. Medical staff has lost confidence in the government and AHS’s ability to run the health system adequately. Obviously this problem does not just affect physicians and medical practitioners. This very real emergency has caused additional injury and even the deaths of Albertans seeking out medical care.

Imagine waiting an average of 18 hours with an injury in emergency to be seen along with a senior experiencing chest pains, a young woman with bleeding, an intoxicated man, and a family grieving the death of a loved one. This is a daily experience for many of our ER’s in the larger centers and cannot be allowed to go on.

We keep hearing that the Health minister has a plan to tackle ER wait times and other crises being faced in the health sector. We never hear any specifics beyond the shell game being played with hospital beds and staff. We hear about 5 year funding commitments but no targets are set to show that this money is delivering results and is being well spent. How can we believe in our health system if the government does not reveal timely, accurate numbers?

We are now in one of the highest usage seasons for our Emergency Rooms. We must provide front-line staff with adequate support to get them through the times of increased stress. This government has failed to properly support frontline medical staff. The Alberta Liberal Caucus has a plan to tackle this issue and solve these problems. Please visit here to view our plan.

Progressive Cooperation

There’s an opportunity in Alberta for real political change. Albertans have lost trust in the Stelmach Conservatives and see a lurch to the Wildrose Alliance as a move from frying pan to fire. As the Conservatives fight I’m suggesting that we talk actively in the sensible center about the best way to achieve a centrist/progressive government in the next election. As the number one choice of progressive voters who want an alternative to the Tories it makes sense for the Alberta Liberals to take the lead with any cooperative venture among progressive and moderate parties.

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!

News from the ALP Convention: Resolution on Cooperation

The biggest news out of this weekend’s Alberta Liberal Party convention and annual general meeting was the passing of a resolution on “Cooperation with Other Political Parties.” I watched with a great deal of interest as both sides of the debate made their points and counterpoints. It was a very passionate and fascinating discussion. Contrary to some media reports, I abstained from the vote, as I wanted this question to be decided by the members of our party. I will follow the wisdom of the majority, who decided in favour of the motion.

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.

Clean Governance Initiative

Today I unveiled an ambitious new plan aimed at improving governance and restoring the confidence of voters in Alberta. The Clean Governance Initiative is a 12 step plan with an aim to make Alberta MLAs more accountable and level the playing field during the course of elections. The initiative includes an independent and binding body determining the salaries and allowances of MLAs rather than MLAs themselves setting their own pay. In addition, all MLA expenses would become publically available online.

I want to encourage ‘whistleblowers’ who expose waste and corruption in government. An Alberta Liberal administration would appoint an independent ombudsman with the power to protect whistleblowers from job loss and other unfair consequences.

Democratic renewal is important to me and I want to regain trust as well as better engage the people in the political process. By offering a $50 tax credit to those who exercise their democratic right we are rewarding proper behavior as a citizen of Alberta. We hope that this incentive will improve voter turnout during provincial elections and entice voters to follow the issues of the campaign as well.

I am very keen to hear your questions and comments about this initiative and democracy in our province. Please do not hesitate to contact my office at Calgary.mountainview@assembly.ab.ca or 403-216-5445 to provide us with feedback on this plan.

Stelmach hurting urban cores by closing schools

During Question Period today, I demanded that Premier Stelmach stop hurting Calgary and Edmonton by forcing school boards to close schools in urban cores.

Municipal governments in Edmonton and Calgary are trying to revitalize their downtown cores – but school closures make it impossible to attract families. Up to 70 schools in Edmonton alone could be on the chopping block thanks to the Stelmach administration’s education cutbacks. And if all the schools under review in Calgary were closed that would be that city’s largest closure of schools ever.

A school is the heart of any neighbourhood, but this administration doesn’t care about the very real possibility of hollowing out the metro cores of our two largest cities. These decisions have far-reaching ramifications, and if we don’t want Edmonton and Calgary to look like Detroit in ten or twenty years, the Premier and the Minister of Education should rethink their position.

I support a thorough review of the way government handles school closures, and demand that plans to close schools cease until that review is complete.

Five years ago, former Education Minister Gene Zwozdesky indicated that the procedure for closing schools should be reviewed. Last month, current Education Minister Dave Hancock again said “We are looking at our school closure regulations.” Why should we believe him, when five years have already gone by since the Tories last made this promise?

Closing down schools also defeats much of the purpose of the Stelmach administration’s own land-use framework to reduce sprawl and encourage development of city cores.

The right hand of this administration doesn’t know what the left is doing. The Premier needs to sort out his contradictory policies so that school boards and municipalities can work together to revitalize our cities.

I encourage parents and community leaders in Edmonton and Calgary’s cores to write or call their MLA, the Minister of Education and the Premier.

We all need to stand up for local schools.

Contact the Premier

Contact Dave Hancock- Minister of Education

My Response to Yesterday’s Budget

Here is the transcript for the speech I delivered in the Legislature this afternoon in response to yesterday’s budget announcement. In it I address: the announced cuts to children’s services, public supports and education; the half hearted attempt to remediate healthcare; and the overall incompetence in financial management and planning being demonstrated by the current government.

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.

Beginning a New Session in Legislature

The Legislative Assembly is set to begin Thursday, February 4th at 3pm. This is an exciting year of opportunities for the Alberta Liberal Caucus. As your MLA, and the Leader of the Official Opposition, I have heard from Albertans across the province that simply want common sense in our government!

We’re looking for a clear plan from the Stelmach administration. Where is a plan for dealing with serious problems in our economy, our energy sector, public services, education and health care?

Here’s what the Official Opposition will be focusing on during this session, as we roll out new policy on economy, healthcare and the environment:

Strengthening the Economy- Albertans have the right to expect responsible planning and disciplined spending, while protecting our basic human services. It’s time that this government was held accountable for decisions that have slowed our economic recovery and threatened our future stability.

I will work hard to see that the diversification of Alberta’s economy and energy plan remains a priority, while focusing on increasing the success of the oil and gas industry in this province on multiple stakeholder levels. The Alberta Liberal Caucus will be following up on Dave Taylor’s well-received policy on the oil and gas industry, launched last week. If you would like to read more about our new oil and gas policy for Alberta, please click here

Revitalizing Healthcare - It’s time to go BACK TO BASICS. Every Albertan deserves a family doctor, and all seniors in this province deserve quality affordable long-term care.

The Lieutenant (Health Minister) has changed, but the General (Mr Stelmach) remains the same. I’m afraid that we will see more serious problems in people’s ability to receive timely care from a health professional – including prevention.

Protecting Social Services – In these difficult economic times it is especially important that social services remain available for our society’s most vulnerable persons. Persons with developmental disability and their care-givers are reasonably upset by threats to reduce basic services, safety and health.

The Alberta Liberal Caucus has long challenged the Alberta government to provide more funding for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) support programs. We deeply disagree with the recent decision to force $6 million in cuts. It demonstrates this government’s willingness to sacrifice vital services for the bottom line.

Defending Education – A large part of my job is bringing forward the issues and concerns of my constituents – I have heard from students, parents, teachers, and trustees from within the constituency and across this province who are all concerned with impending funding cuts to the education system.

Education is the most basic investment we can make in our economic and social wellbeing. All students have the right to receive the best possible education. As Alberta’s Official Opposition, the Alberta Liberal Caucus will continue to challenge the Stelmach Administration to adequately fund the education of Alberta’s children, both K-12 and post-secondary.

In a time when there is so much wasteful government spending, there’s no justification to slash public health care, public education or crucially important programs, like those serving people with developmental disabilities. To read a listing of alternative cuts that an Alberta Liberal government would make, click here. We are interested in your thoughts on our proposal.

I want to hear from you and your ideas on how to make this great province of ours greater for all Albertans. Please contact me at: calgary.mountainview@assembly.ab.ca

David

David Swann: Blog

Dr. David Swann is the elected member of the Alberta Legislature for Calgary Mountain View and the Liberal critic for the Health and Wellness, Human Services, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Aboriginal Relations.

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