The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Can Smith solve Alberta’s healthcare crisis？

00:00:00.160 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.

00:00:04.240 I hope that you guys are having a good weekend so far and maybe just staying inside.

00:00:09.020 I'm pretty much on lockdown, my vehicle is not working, it is not starting, so I probably won't

00:00:14.480 be going anywhere for a couple days, maybe even a couple weeks at this rate. Taking a look at what

00:00:19.060 we're going to be talking about on today's show. Does Alberta Premier Daniel Smith actually want

00:00:23.420 to be the health minister? Edmonton police are warning of gang activity in homeless encampments

00:00:28.100 and Alberta is preparing for a possible drought this spring. All that and more happening now

00:00:33.120 on the Alberta Roundup. Taking a look at our first story here, the policies of the federal

00:00:47.080 government have put the dream of a good life in Canada and Alberta at risk. At least that's what

00:00:52.560 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith thinks. Take a listen to her comments.

00:00:55.760 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Environment Minister Stephen Gibault. At a time when Albertans

00:01:01.820 and Canadians are still struggling with an affordability crisis, they are pursuing policies

00:01:06.280 that will increase costs and put paychecks at risk. At the beginning of 2024, when we should

00:01:11.860 be looking forward with optimism, we're talking about imploding our economy, banning cars, registering

00:01:17.300 plastics and paying into the carbon tax instead. Well, not all of us. Alberta is fighting back

00:01:23.460 and we need to fight back, all because of the dangerous ideas of Minister Stephen Gibault.

00:01:29.020 Premier Smith said that Ottawa and Alberta could have a collaborative relationship, but not with

00:01:34.680 the policies that Ottawa is currently enacting, like its carbon tax, and not so long as Environment

00:01:40.260 Minister Stephen Gibault remains in place. She said that Alberta will continue to fight against

00:01:45.280 these policies. Moving into our next story here, does Alberta Premier Daniel Smith actually want to be

00:01:50.820 the health minister? Take a listen for yourself. I always worry when I make a joke because people

00:01:55.640 take me so seriously when I joke around, but I have joked in the past that the job I really wanted to have

00:02:01.040 was health minister because there's so many reasons for it. Number one is it is the core business of a

00:02:08.940 provincial government to deliver health care and to deliver it well. Under our constitution, it falls to the

00:02:16.220 provinces. Under the way that we've structured our finances, we've got the federal government being a

00:02:20.680 major player in it. It is the biggest budget item. And if it's not working well, it touches every one

00:02:25.980 of us. If you can't get the care you need or your loved one can't or your aging parents can't, it affects

00:02:31.480 so much of your life. So it is the one thing that we have to do well. The Premier was of course joking.

00:02:36.000 She made those comments in an interview with Bruce McAllister as they looked ahead to her

00:02:40.360 government's plans for 2024. We know that the UCP has been taking health care very seriously

00:02:46.280 as we are all plagued with long wait times for surgeries, ambulances, and emergency rooms. But

00:02:52.640 Danielle Smith says the answer likely isn't throwing more money at the health care system. She said if the

00:02:58.160 government continues to throw more money at it and wait times are not reduced, then money likely isn't

00:03:04.040 the issue. It's a restructuring problem. And she said that as long as the government continues to

00:03:08.720 throw money at health care, that money has to be taken from something else. So she is looking for 0.91

00:03:13.520 more innovative ideas. Another story that has been bubbling up in Alberta in recent months, Edmonton

00:03:19.320 Chief of Police Dale McPhee said that one of the reasons homeless encampments are so unsafe is that

00:03:25.000 there's a lot of gang activity going on at these sites. McPhee said, quote, we know that they're in

00:03:31.240 there. Those encampments, as they are today, for the reasons of fire, for the reasons of health,

00:03:36.040 for the reasons of drugs, for the reasons of gangs, and for the reasons of inclement weather,

00:03:40.760 are not safe, period, and stop. The chief said gangs are taking advantage of the city's most vulnerable.

00:03:47.020 And at times when homeless encampments have been burned out and left empty, police come in to find

00:03:51.500 gang symbols still there. McPhee also said the police have heard reports of gangs controlling

00:03:56.860 city-operated water fountains and charging homeless people to use them. But police haven't caught anyone

00:04:02.320 doing that yet. Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said that as long as there's

00:04:06.320 space in city shelters for the city's most vulnerable, the police are allowed to clear

00:04:11.840 the homeless encampments. So we've increased shelter space in Edmonton. So that gives somebody

00:04:17.220 a starting point to get off the street into an environment where they can then get connected

00:04:21.920 to their options. The second option is building out our recovery communities. And we've, we've built

00:04:28.480 two of them. We opened the one in, uh, in Red Deer and in Lethbridge last year. While we're on this

00:04:34.740 topic, Alberta Seniors Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said there's still room at

00:04:41.060 shelters across the city for the city's most vulnerable during this cold snap. And he chastised

00:04:47.220 Edmonton Mayor Anne-Marie Sohi for suggesting otherwise. In a statement, Nixon said, quote,

00:04:52.540 we have more than enough room for every homeless person in the city of Edmonton to have a warm,

00:04:57.680 safe place to stay. It is completely inappropriate and dangerous for the mayor or anyone to suggest

00:05:03.060 Edmonton is out of capacity in our social services sector or our emergency shelter systems. Anyone

00:05:09.240 needing shelter space will be kept care of. Nixon wasn't the only Alberta minister on defense this week.

00:05:15.120 Health minister Adriana LaGrange took issue with a column by Don Braid of the Calgary Herald saying

00:05:21.520 his interpretation of the state of Alberta's healthcare system was misleading. In the column,

00:05:26.820 Braid reminded Albertans that Premier Smith and Alberta health services administrator, Dr. John

00:05:31.860 Cowell had promised that surgical wait times would be within clinically acceptable standards within a

00:05:38.060 year. Braid wrote, quote, Cowell's promise about surgery wait times always seemed extravagant.

00:05:43.600 10 months on, it looks ridiculous. He said that a month after the promise was made,

00:05:48.100 the provincial average wait time for a new knee was 99.6 weeks and now the most recent figures from

00:05:54.300 October show an average wait time of 101.8 weeks. LaGrange shot back saying the column and its headline

00:06:01.440 were misleading and relied on an incorrect use of data. She said, quote, it makes the critical error of

00:06:08.200 interpreting data representing the 90th percentile of surgical wait times as the median. She said the wait

00:06:13.920 times are as follows. The provincial wide knee replacement wait time is at a median 26.3 weeks, down from

00:06:20.780 44.4 weeks in October. LaGrange also said that EMS response times have improved since 2022. They've

00:06:27.960 improved 29% in metro and urban areas, 18% in small communities, and 11% in rural communities.

00:06:35.020 Moving into our controversy of the week, Alberta's use of acetaminophen imported from Turkey

00:06:39.860 increased the risk of life-threatening illness in neonatal patients. According to provincial

00:06:45.020 government documents, which detailed some of the issues that plagued Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's

00:06:50.400 $75 million deal for children's medication last winter while there was a shortage. This story is an

00:06:57.480 exclusive from the Globe and Mail, who received the documents through an access to information request.

00:07:02.080 Those documents contained emails with health officials from Alberta Health and Alberta Health

00:07:07.660 Services. The documents show that the imported medication was thicker than medication typically

00:07:13.300 used by Alberta Health Services and in some cases clogged tubes. Those tubes then had to be flushed with

00:07:19.780 water. Officials determined that because more water was being used, it increased the risk of a

00:07:25.100 complication called necrotizing enterocolitis, which inflames the intestines of an infant. Staff were

00:07:31.240 subsequently ordered to stop using the product in neonatal intensive care units, according to a

00:07:36.480 spokesperson at Alberta Health Services. It's unclear exactly how long the medication was being used

00:07:42.160 in neonatal care. In an October 23 email to the health minister's chief of staff, Isaac Van Dyne,

00:07:48.680 an executive associate with AHS said, neonatal patients with very low body weight have fragile and

00:07:54.200 incompletely developed intestines, which cannot accommodate large boluses of fluid administration for

00:07:59.360 medication. The volume issues from the Atabay acetaminophen was determined to possibly increase

00:08:05.000 the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, a potentially fatal injury to the intestines in these tiny patients.

00:08:12.500 Alberta Health declined the Globe and Mail's request for comment. A spokesperson for Alberta Health

00:08:16.780 Services said that no patient fell ill or developed necrotizing enterocolitis as a result of taking the

00:08:23.780 Atabay medication. The Globe also found that children often refused to take the medication because they

00:08:29.420 would gag while attempting to take it and because it had a more bitter taste than medicine typically used

00:08:34.660 in North America. The deal between Atabay Pharmaceuticals and the United Conservative Party

00:08:38.760 government has been quite the source of criticism because of its large cost and also because it was

00:08:44.100 plagued with delays. The province initially procured 5 million bottles of children's acetaminophen and

00:08:50.240 ibuprofen and only after the crisis have subsided, 1.5 million bottles touched down on Alberta soil.

00:08:56.960 And finally, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, Alberta is preparing for a possible

00:09:01.300 drought this spring. In a letter sent to municipalities last month, Environment and Protected Areas Minister

00:09:06.780 Rebecca Schultz advised municipalities that a drought was possible and that they need to take precautions

00:09:12.420 now. Those actions include monitoring water levels, developing a water shortage plan, and reviewing their

00:09:19.100 municipal water license so they are aware of any conditions that could limit their ability to

00:09:23.560 withdraw water. She also made a video to inform Alberta residents what was going on. Take a listen

00:09:28.600 to that now. With not enough snow and rain, many reservoirs in southern Alberta are below capacity

00:09:33.480 and some communities are already facing challenges. Across Canada, more than 72% of the country is

00:09:39.900 experiencing drought conditions. That includes 81% of Canada's agricultural landscapes. And with El Nino

00:09:46.300 occurring worldwide, we're seeing a very warm and dry winter across our country. Unfortunately, there's a

00:09:51.760 high risk that conditions could worsen this year. In order to be fully prepared, Alberta is taking

00:09:56.760 action. We have stood up a drought command team and a first draft of a 2024 drought emergency plan

00:10:02.240 has been completed and is now being refined. The province is meeting with water license holders,

00:10:07.360 major water users, municipalities and other partners to develop water conservation plans and water sharing

00:10:12.900 agreements. In the coming weeks, we will also be awarding a contract for drought modeling to help

00:10:17.840 us maximize the province's water supply. And Alberta is striking a drought advisory committee that will

00:10:23.040 be announced shortly. This phenomenon referred to as El Nino brings with it less precipitation and warmer

00:10:29.160 temperatures all around. It is of course a bit ironic that I'm delivering this news to you guys this

00:10:33.480 weekend, probably the coldest of the year, at least I'm hoping so. And before we sign off for the day,

00:10:38.300 taking a look at some of your comments from previous episodes. All these comments are from my episode

00:10:43.560 posted two weeks ago, my interview with Jeff Park, the director of the Alberta Parents Union, in which

00:10:50.000 we talked about a medicine high school, which was teaching students how to smoke crack safely, if

00:10:56.600 that's even possible. Of course it's not. And you guys called that out. User Puckhard said,

00:11:01.520 thank you for covering this story. This should be a national news story. I completely agree. I'm not

00:11:06.960 surprised that it isn't. Mainstream media doesn't seem to pick up on these types of stories too

00:11:11.940 often. There's also just so many crazy headlines nowadays. I feel like we've all kind of become

00:11:16.440 numb to them. Like you'll read something so crazy in the news and you'll just keep scrolling and you

00:11:21.660 won't even think twice about it nowadays because in a world where men can be women and women can be

00:11:26.880 men, nothing is really that surprising anymore. User the original JP said, I feel like there is an

00:11:32.920 obvious joke about the safest way to smoke rock. It's having a dad in the Oval Office,

00:11:37.340 but drug addiction is not a joke. Very clever. I enjoyed that one quite a bit, but I also love

00:11:43.780 American politics. So I appreciate that reference. And finally, user Daryl Coat said, no surprise,

00:11:50.220 kids are performing subpar these days. Homeschooling is the way to go if you care about your children's

00:11:55.240 future, that is. Otherwise, carry on. I just want to push back on this comment a teeny bit. I agree.

00:12:00.000 homeschooling is a great option and I know a lot of families that do it, but there is some other

00:12:05.280 great options. I myself attended a private Christian school. It was a much costlier option

00:12:10.840 than homeschooling, I would say. I know that not every family can afford it, but I think I will look

00:12:15.900 to do something similar for my kids if I can, just because I had a really great experience and I still

00:12:21.140 have so many close friends from grade school. I don't know how common that is, but I have like 15

00:12:25.440 really good friends from elementary school. We're just lifelong friends. I enjoy seeing them every

00:12:30.260 time I visit Ontario. So I just want to push back on that comment a little bit because I do think

00:12:34.820 there are some other good options. And you know, I think I turned out okay. The jury might still be

00:12:38.980 out on that one, but that's what I'm going to look to do one day for my kids. All right, guys,

00:12:43.020 that's all we have time for today. I would suggest maybe just, you know, staying in this weekend,

00:12:46.640 stay warm. I don't know if it's normal for Albertans to go out in like negative 30 weather.

00:12:50.360 It's not normal for me. I'm going to stay home. If you have nothing to do, there's probably an

00:12:54.380 Alberta roundup episode or two that you've missed. You can go back and watch those or

00:12:57.720 watch some of our other great content. And if you have time and you think of it,

00:13:01.340 you can always support our work over at donate.tnc.news. Have a great weekend. God bless.

00:13:06.580 And I'll see you guys next week.

00:13:20.360 Bye.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - January 13, 2024

Can Smith solve Alberta’s healthcare crisis？

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