Juno News - Smith fires Hinshaw and AHS Board

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emanuel i hope you're having

00:00:13.680 a great weekend so far let's take a look at what we're going to be talking about on today's show

00:00:17.520 the former chief medical health officer dr dina henshaw has been fired alberta premier

00:00:22.640 danielle smith has also let go of 11 members of the alberta health services board and they've

00:00:27.520 been replaced with one administrator we're also going to be taking a look at alberta ndp leader

00:00:31.520 rachel notley's plans for health care and what daniel smith has to say about that and finally

00:00:35.440 danielle smith has been sanctioned by russia despite claims that she's a pro-russian pro-putin propagandist 0.99

00:00:41.040 all that and more happening now on the alberta roundup you guys have probably heard by now dina

00:00:44.800 henshaw has been removed as the province's chief medical officer of health she's been replaced

00:00:49.040 with dr mark joff who was also involved in alberta health services during the covet 19 pandemic in a

00:00:54.080 statement joff said he was honored to be selected for the new role quote i have always put the needs

00:00:58.960 of my patients first and foremost throughout my career which will continue as i take on this new

00:01:02.960 challenge premier smith hinted at firing henshaw during the united conservative party leadership

00:01:07.200 race as she ran on overhauling alberta health services which he said failed during the covet 19

00:01:12.080 pandemic and in her first press conference as premier on october 11th the premier said she will no

00:01:17.120 longer take advice from henshaw so this announcement was only a matter of time as you guys know under

00:01:22.080 henshaw's leadership the county government implemented vaccine passports ahs officers

00:01:26.480 also visited churches during the coven 19 pandemic to ensure that their rules were being followed those

00:01:31.040 rules included physical distancing and only having a certain number of people in a church at a time

00:01:35.120 churches that did not comply were fined or shut down as you likely remember we talked about one of

00:01:39.440 these cases last week pastor tim stevens was in jail for 21 days for not following rules put in place

00:01:44.160 by alberta health services regarding physical distancing his charges were dropped earlier this month

00:01:48.800 but that wasn't the only major alberta health services announcement this week danielle smith

00:01:53.120 on thursday then announced that she had let go of 11 members of the alberta health services board

00:01:57.680 and they have been replaced with just one administrator dr john cowell will be a full-time

00:02:01.680 administrator of alberta health services going forward he held this role previously for a year

00:02:05.840 under former progressive conservative premier allison redford in a news conference smith said quote

00:02:10.400 he can accelerate the changes that we all need to see take a listen to some of dr cowell's remarks on

00:02:15.440 thursday the advent of the pandemic that everybody predicted was going to come from our h1n1 experience 0.90

00:02:21.360 arrives and of course the system was already at capacity and now it's stressed how does it handle more

00:02:29.520 well all of that is a factor today no question about it but i adhere to the idea that we're in crisis

00:02:36.240 and we need to have urgent action that starts the process of recovery now and i am so grateful

00:02:44.640 with the support i'm getting from this premier and this health minister i've met with the deputy

00:02:49.760 minister everybody is on this page and speaking of healthcare premier smith's office says rachel

00:02:55.840 notley has no realistic plans to address the crisis facing alberta's healthcare sector you guys know

00:03:00.960 that alberta's healthcare has been plagued by long wait times at emergency rooms for ambulances and for

00:03:05.520 surgeries now earlier this month rachel notley told the rural municipalities of alberta that if elected

00:03:10.480 premier she'll return stability to healthcare by undertaking the largest recruitment effort in the

00:03:14.720 province's history to bolster the number of healthcare workers take a listen to her remarks for

00:03:18.720 yourself i mean overall uh alberta has a lower cost of living than a lot of other places we have a

00:03:24.160 beautiful quality of life um and and i think we have room to compete uh effectively for for those uh much

00:03:33.520 needed healthcare professionals but it's going to be hard to do if they're worried that they're going into a

00:03:38.960 healthcare system which may be blown up the day after tomorrow because they don't like the structure

00:03:44.400 of it uh and then led by somebody who is consulting with uh conspiracy theorists outside of you know

00:03:50.880 from from donald trump's office she was of course referring to dr paul alexander at the end there we

00:03:55.440 spoke about him last week he was a health advisor to former republican president donald trump during the

00:03:59.680 early days of the coven 19 pandemic he's against lockdowns and the coven 19 vaccine and he'll be

00:04:05.120 speaking with some members of smith's health advisory board later on but meanwhile becca

00:04:09.760 pollack smith's press secretary said the ndp watched healthcare wait times get longer for four years

00:04:15.360 quote we promised albert and stronger publicly funded health system and we're delivering on that promise

00:04:20.400 including building up our health care workforce we have 1800 more rns working today than under the ndp

00:04:25.680 in 2019 and we have more doctors than ever before including a net gain of 176 physicians in the last 12 months

00:04:33.280 that's our record and we'll be announcing a new action plan to improve access and increase recruitment

00:04:38.400 and retention of health care workers in the coming days and weeks let's move into the controversy of

00:04:43.120 the week some of you probably remember some of the details of this story critics have accused danielle

00:04:47.760 smith of pushing pro-russian pro-putin separatist propaganda but they didn't stop the russians from

00:04:52.960 placing danielle smith on their latest sanctions list she was banned from the country on monday along

00:04:57.520 with former alberta premier ed stalmak and danielle smith's response quote we will be

00:05:02.480 announcing more funding and supports for ukrainian refugees later today my response to europe free

00:05:08.320 yourselves of russian energy alberta is ready to help i'm planning a trip to germany soon to talk

00:05:14.080 about deleveraging russia's hold over european markets for generations of course after an old

00:05:19.440 video resurfaced of danielle smith calling for ukrainian neutrality to end the war critics

00:05:24.400 including ndp mp charlie angus accused her of pushing pro-russian propaganda alberta ndp leader

00:05:30.320 rachel notley also jumped on the bandwagon accusing smith of showing quote horrendous judgment

00:05:34.880 and showing sympathy to an international war criminal and an illegal invasion of ukraine

00:05:40.640 i guess vladimir putin didn't get the memo what we're watching in the weeks to come the alberta

00:05:44.880 parents union is reigniting warnings that a calgary board of education plan to relocate a program for

00:05:49.760 pregnant teens and young moms is unsafe those warnings come after a boy was arrested in relation

00:05:55.360 to a stabbing at the high school pitched for the relocation let's dive into the details here on

00:06:01.200 tuesday calgary police were called to jack james high school and forest lawn in relation to a stabbing

00:06:06.800 a 13 year old boy was arrested that boy did not attend the school but was able to enter the premises

00:06:12.640 nonetheless the alberta parents union has long been warning that the area is not safe for

00:06:16.800 pregnant teens and young moms and they're even more concerned now here's what executive director

00:06:21.760 jeff park told me earlier this week the calgary board of education has insisted that the safety

00:06:26.560 of the teen moms entering jack james high school is their number one priority but just today a 13 0.99

00:06:31.840 year old boy that does not attend jack james was able to enter and stab another student we believe

00:06:37.280 these women when they say this location is not safe and call upon the calgary board of education to

00:06:42.000 do the same the calgary board of education wants to relocate the program because the building it's

00:06:46.240 currently held in the kensington building is very old and requires quite a bit of money in repair work

00:06:51.200 whereas it would be less expensive to give a one-time funding investment to jack james

00:06:55.440 but let's take a look at some statistics here according to data enthusiasts the residential

00:06:59.600 area of forest lawn had 2875 counts of crime from january 2017 to july 2022 that includes 657 counts

00:07:09.280 of non-domestic assault 208 counts of non-domestic violence and 118 counts of street crime in calgary's

00:07:16.960 all crime category forest lawn was surpassed only by beltline and the downtown commercial core the

00:07:22.480 calgary board of education will vote on november 29th on whether to proceed with the relocation

00:07:26.960 plans and i'll be sure to give you an update then okay guys let's move into the alberta politics

00:07:31.120 funniest moment of the week for the first time since 1999 the edmonton downtown business association

00:07:36.720 will not have a giant christmas tree at their holiday light up event and the city of edmonton says it

00:07:41.280 won't step in to provide a tree due to the environmental impact edmonton downtown business

00:07:46.160 association executive director punida mcbryan said the christmas tree typically draws in a lot of

00:07:51.040 residents but that doesn't translate into foot traffic in the city's businesses which is what the

00:07:55.520 event is for the group has rethought the event to fix this oversight which includes other large light

00:08:00.640 installations but no christmas tree meanwhile the city of edmonton has confirmed there won't be a

00:08:04.480 christmas tree it estimated the cost to install a tree and provide public programming at 124 000

00:08:11.680 this is what the city told me the city factored in the cost and the environmental implications of

00:08:16.240 cutting down and transporting a mature natural forest tree and decided to explore other opportunities to

00:08:21.760 bring vibrancy to churchill square that would complement the new holiday light event being planned

00:08:26.240 by the edmonton downtown business association now here's a couple details for you about trees in the

00:08:30.480 past in 2020 the holiday light event had a 77 foot christmas tree with 22 000 led lights last year the

00:08:38.240 christmas tree was 65 feet tall and held more than 14 000 lights there will be no tree this year but

00:08:43.440 there's other large light installations including a life-size bison named brian i have to be honest

00:08:48.480 with you guys i'm pretty devastated about this news i love a good christmas tree it does seem rather

00:08:52.880 unlucky that they're not doing it this year my first christmas in edmonton i went and i looked at some

00:08:57.280 of the photos from years past and it does seem like it was something to behold so i'm very disappointed

00:09:01.920 about that that being said if you know where i can see a good christmas tree in edmonton this year

00:09:06.000 or other christmas light shows are happening please let me know that's all i have for you

00:09:09.520 guys today as always you can find me on facebook twitter and instagram let me know what you liked

00:09:13.040 about the show let me know what you think i missed and let me know where i can find some

00:09:16.240 christmas lights as always please visit donate.tnc.news to show us your appreciation have a great week and god bless

00:09:27.280 thank you

Juno News - November 19, 2022

Smith fires Hinshaw and AHS Board

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