Western Standard - CMS： Opposition parties need to step up and stop Trudeau.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good day. What do we got here? It's March 8th. Where's the time going? 2023 Wednesday. Welcome

00:00:41.500 to the Corey Morgan show. I am of course, Corey Morgan. Lots going on today. A little bit different.

00:00:46.760 We usually check in with Dave for the news. We usually have a lot more of me covered stories

00:00:50.180 and things, and I will do some ranting and raving, but I have three guests on today. So, uh, there's

00:00:55.940 not going to be as much time to listen to me because these guests all have far more important

00:01:00.580 things to say so I'll be asking them the questions and it's really good. To start with in a short

00:01:05.740 while I'm going to have Alberta's Chief Firearm Officer Terry Bryant on the show. We're going to

00:01:10.620 talk about Bill 8. That's a bill that the Alberta government has just dropped to the Western Standard

00:01:14.880 got the exclusive on that and it's now the provincial response to the federal firearm

00:01:20.200 legislation. How we can protect Alberta's citizens I guess from federal incursion on that

00:01:25.140 there's limitations and we'll see with that role as a firearms officer what Ms. Bryant plans on 0.99

00:01:31.080 doing about it and then retired paramedic Don Sharp he's going to come on the show he'll be

00:01:35.220 here in person we've had him on before because again we got a lot of reforms that are being

00:01:40.000 proposed or tried I mean we know the ambulance times the EMS response times are just way out

00:01:45.000 of bounds they are not nearly fast enough and I mean you know that's something as critical as it

00:01:49.920 gets. And it sounds like AHS, the Alberta Health Services, is really kind of throwing sand in the

00:01:55.320 gears for attempted reforms and efforts to try and do things to speed this up, as well as, of course,

00:02:00.720 the NDP and others on this issue. So Don lends a lot of experience to that issue, of course,

00:02:05.960 as a paramedic and he's retired, so he can speak out. And he's just, of course, concerned about

00:02:10.400 getting people safe service, emergency service when they need it. This is going on across the

00:02:15.680 whole country. And we need to talk about it here. And then finally, I'll finish the show up with

00:02:20.220 Chelsea Petrovic. She's running, she's the mayor of Claire's Home and running for the nomination 0.97

00:02:24.940 in Livingston McLeod for the UCP. And she's had some questions about vaccination and things that

00:02:29.340 we'll talk about as things go on. So use that comment scroll, guys. Fire some questions my way.

00:02:33.560 I might not get them all to the guests or respond to all of them, but I do see them all and I

00:02:37.920 appreciate it. Good to see all there. Paradoxy, Stewie, Sean, Kevin, all you guys checking in.

00:02:42.500 it reminds me that I'm not just talking to myself like I do when I'm in the car. I'm actually got an

00:02:46.960 audience there and you guys are engaged and you're taking part. Just keep things civil, of course.

00:02:51.460 That's the only thing I ask. You know, we don't have to be at each other's throats. Use Twitter

00:02:55.340 for that. All right, speaking of getting the throat, so I'm going to get on Justin Trudeau's

00:02:59.560 throat a little bit here. Justin Trudeau, he's ragging the puck. He's deking, dodging, and delaying

00:03:05.520 right now with the hope that the public interest in the Chinese Communist Party interference in

00:03:09.760 Canadian elections goes away. And it's been interesting to watch. I mean, it was more broken

00:03:13.740 from a global reporter this morning. Another CSIS leak, two more documents. It's a form of Chinese 1.00

00:03:19.160 water torture. These leaks just keep coming and hitting Trudeau day after day after day after day.

00:03:25.420 So that's fine. We can't let Trudeau get away with burying this. I mean, Trudeau and other

00:03:31.480 defenders of his government keep pointing to a report saying the CCP interference didn't impact

00:03:35.520 the outcome of the election. Thus, we must just let it go. Now, while the impact of the meddling

00:03:39.340 might not have changed which party formed government. It's impacted individual races,

00:03:43.200 and it's certainly impacted Canadian trust in the entire system. We can't let him get away with this

00:03:47.060 and let it go. Trudeau mentioned that there's 1.7 million Chinese Canadians, people of Chinese

00:03:52.500 descent in Canada, but then he devolved into implying any further questions on the CCP

00:03:56.920 battling could bring a racist backlash against those Canadians, and that's a load of hogwash.

00:04:01.620 In fact, you know, that number of Canadians of Chinese descent in Canada is significant,

00:04:05.600 and it's large and they're good citizens and they're the top victims of the ccp meddling in 0.89

00:04:10.480 canada most of those who immigrated from to canada from china did so to escape the authoritarian

00:04:15.840 communist government to their former homeland these canadians shouldn't have to live in fear

00:04:20.160 that the ccp can still impact their lives within this new homeland and they have reasons to be 1.00

00:04:25.040 fearful the integration of the ccp and the canadian society and it goes well beyond our elected 1.00

00:04:29.680 officials they've infiltrated the business community cultural communities and now they're

00:04:34.720 of course meddling with our elections. We're practicing a campaign of intimidation upon

00:04:39.260 Canadians of Chinese descent. Recent reports exposed the presence of as many as five Chinese

00:04:44.580 police stations within Canada. These stations are used to intimidate and influence Chinese Canadians 1.00

00:04:49.180 and Falun Gong adherence on Canadian soil. This is serious stuff. Imagine being a Canadian of 1.00

00:04:54.840 Chinese descent who still has family back in China. You don't want to bring adverse attention

00:04:58.800 to your loved ones back there, of course, and you want to ensure you can keep visiting them.

00:05:02.560 So imagine these Chinese Canadians, these Canadians having issues with their immigration status or a travel visa renewal or a passport renewal.

00:05:10.860 Normally, a person would go to their local Member of Parliament's office for help with these kinds of issues.

00:05:15.320 But with CSIS reporting, as many as 11 MPs that we know of may be compromised by the CCP.

00:05:19.960 How comfortable would these Chinese Canadians feel in entrusting their information to the offices of their MPs? 0.87

00:05:25.860 And what about the innocent MPs?

00:05:27.200 I mean, there's several MPs of Chinese descent that have nothing to do with the Chinese Communist Party.

00:05:33.520 But whether it's fair or not, some people might be questioning their loyalties.

00:05:37.040 These MPs need the air cleared so they don't have to endure further mistrust.

00:05:41.320 I know many people don't have faith in what can be accomplished with a public inquiry.

00:05:44.620 We've seen enough government efforts to whitewash issues and stack inquiries, you know, as it is to make people cynical.

00:05:51.060 But it's still the best tool we've got right now to shed light on this controversy.

00:05:54.460 And the opposition parties need to step up.

00:05:56.560 They can't just keep asking for one.

00:05:57.940 They have to force the issue in Parliament.

00:06:00.200 Trudeau is in a minority government position.

00:06:02.080 He can't stop an inquiry if the other parties get together and invoke it.

00:06:06.620 I mean, sure, Trudeau could declare the vote of confidence issue good for him.

00:06:10.500 Force an election? Really?

00:06:11.920 I mean, even somebody as arrogant and tone-deaf as Trudeau

00:06:15.040 has to understand that dragging Canadians to a sudden election

00:06:17.860 just to avoid a public inquiry into himself would be political suicide.

00:06:22.120 And maybe the rot doesn't run too deeply.

00:06:23.760 Maybe we've already seen the extent of the CCP interference and inquiry wouldn't identify any more issues.

00:06:29.460 I mean, that'd be a great outcome.

00:06:31.060 We could then return to focusing on policy issues and quit dedicating so much time to the interference scandal.

00:06:35.860 Trust in Canada's democratic system has been breached and this distrust can't be left to fester.

00:06:41.020 It undercuts the stability of the entire nation.

00:06:43.560 Trudeau's games and ridiculous suggestions of appointing a special rapporteur must be dismissed.

00:06:48.540 Who's it going to be? Margaret Trudeau? One of his brothers or something?

00:06:50.920 Come on, Justin. Nobody's going to take the conclusions of an appointee of the Prime Minister

00:06:55.320 seriously. It's bad enough already that a former head of the Trudeau Foundation was tasked with

00:06:59.360 watching over the integrity of the elections. Trudeau won't participate. That's a given.

00:07:04.600 The ball is in the court of the opposition party now. They need to do their jobs and force a full

00:07:09.320 public independent inquiry headed by somebody approved by all the parties. And if the opposition

00:07:15.260 parties won't do this, well, then Canada is truly broken. Well, that's where I'm at today, guys.

00:07:22.340 Yeah, those leaks were something else. That fellow, Tom, boy, his name's escaping me, of course,

00:07:27.440 once I get on the live show, but he's with Global. He's been doing fantastic work, and he's been,

00:07:32.740 somebody just keeps leaking it to him bit after bit after bit. The latest one is very damning. I

00:07:38.600 mean, Trudeau was kind of, he was dodging and deking, as I said, but he's saying, I didn't know

00:07:42.060 anything about it, I was never briefed. Well, two documents came forth that showed, no, he was

00:07:46.160 indeed briefed, and the Privy Council was. They were well aware of this issue. They were well

00:07:51.280 aware of the problem, and they chose not to do anything about it. This is damning. This is

00:07:56.660 devastating. This is very, very serious, and I suspect whoever this leak is, whoever it is with

00:08:02.740 CSIS that keeps slow feeding this information to this reporter with Global, I don't think they want

00:08:09.120 to leak any more than they have to. I mean, there's some people that liberal partisans and

00:08:13.720 others saying, you know, this person's committing treason and they should be charged and they should

00:08:17.300 be hunted down. I mean, yes, there's nothing worse than a whistleblower, isn't there, especially when

00:08:20.800 it's exposing your own misdeeds. But I don't think this person wants to blow the whistle any more

00:08:25.820 than they have to by the looks of it. They could have released all of this stuff and probably more

00:08:29.340 right away, but they just want to get enough out there to force this issue to be addressed for

00:08:35.580 somebody to make an inquiry, get into it, find out just what happened. Who knew what, where, how?

00:08:41.480 Pardon me. So we're watching this unfold. And yeah, you know, I think Prime Minister Trudeau

00:08:47.220 hasn't been getting very much sleep lately, because every time they think something's

00:08:52.500 been settled, another leak comes out. And you see, here's some of the cynicism, and I don't blame it.

00:08:59.560 You know, from Karen Mitchell saying, all documents will be blacked out. We know nothing

00:09:02.520 will happen as long as I think you meant Singh supports him. Well, excuse me. I don't know. I

00:09:09.760 don't know. I mean, we've seen so much redacted crap and everything from the government, but

00:09:12.960 yeah, Singh is the problem. He's the one. He's, he's got the power. He's the kingmaker

00:09:18.100 and he can force this to be a real independent inquiry. They can appoint somebody with the

00:09:24.500 power to compel testimony, to compel documents, to say this will be exposed unredacted. It can

00:09:32.140 be done. Now, whether or not it will be done, I mean, again, remains to be seen. And we've seen

00:09:37.480 enough of this garbage that comes from the government. Oh, here's your freedom of information

00:09:41.640 request, you know, and here it comes back. And yeah, it's all black. Like even trying to find 1.00

00:09:44.820 out who spent $6,000 a night to stay in a hotel room. That one came back redacted as well with

00:09:51.980 the Taxpayers Federation. But we've got to keep trying. I mean, the only other option is giving

00:09:54.900 up and I'm not into that. So we keep pushing. We keep trying to find out what's happened and we

00:10:00.740 carry on with it. I see Terry in the lobby. I'm not sure if her video is working yet,

00:10:06.900 but she's going to be coming on as a guest shortly to talk about Bill 8. And I believe

00:10:11.940 she's our chief firearm officer in Alberta. And she's been in Ontario, in Ottawa, speaking to

00:10:18.840 some of the things with the Ottawa bill of C-21, which is, of course, the bill that's looking to

00:10:24.820 control and seize and legalize a great number of firearms that were previously

00:10:28.900 legal in Canada. Perhaps if we could bring Terry in and see if we've got audio of her and we can

00:10:35.460 discuss this. I'm not sure if she can hear me there or not, but we could find out in a moment

00:10:41.000 and we could discuss that because I got a really tight timeline today. So let's see if we can hear

00:10:46.120 from our chief firearms officer, Terry Bryant. Can you hear me? Oh, okay. There, there. I can

00:10:52.980 hear you, Terry. So yeah, we can't see you, but we can hear you and that's most important. How

00:10:58.800 you doing? Oh, I seem to have lost her. Okay. I did, I did hear her speak at one moment

00:11:05.220 there. Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago. These guys

00:11:12.780 are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation

00:11:19.120 in Canada. And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the

00:11:24.000 hands of the wrong people to become a member. It's absolutely worth every penny.

00:11:31.740 Okay, let's try that again. It is one of our sponsors, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:11:36.420 They are a good group standing up for your rights as firearm owners. Check them out, guys. If you

00:11:41.280 value your firearm rights, you must have a membership with those guys to stand up for

00:11:46.740 things. Uh, let's see if we can, uh, uh, well, we can, the mic doesn't seem to be connected.

00:11:54.520 Oh, we got you. I hear you now. Do you hear me, uh, Terry?

00:11:57.300 I'm hearing you fine. I'm seeing you fine. And, uh, uh, all I see, uh, for me on the right side

00:12:06.120 of my screen is a giant blackness, but, uh, um, at least you can hear my voice.

00:12:11.580 Okay. Well, the, the, the most important parts are what you can say, but it was great when we,

00:12:15.140 when we had you in studio that last time. It's much easier to see you, but I appreciate you

00:12:19.520 coming on today. I know that we can get some glitches technically when things are a remote

00:12:23.120 interview like this. So I really appreciate you taking some time to speak to us today when you're

00:12:28.220 on the road like this. Oh, it's my pleasure. So what I do want to get into then is Bill 8 that

00:12:34.620 came out with the provincial government recently. It's sort of, I guess, in response to federal

00:12:39.500 legislation, and it offers some different authority and powers to your role as the

00:12:45.940 chief firearms officer in Alberta. Can you kind of expand on what that's about?

00:12:50.360 Sure. So really, the bill does two things. One is that when our office took over in September of

00:13:00.880 2021, I had a larger mandate than most chief firearms officers because I was supposed to

00:13:08.040 advocate for change something that's explicitly forbidden to many chief firearms officers and

00:13:13.700 that was only in a mandate letter but this puts it actually in legislation so that it's entrenched

00:13:20.220 a stable continuity sort of situation where this will be definitely part of the job of the chief

00:13:27.000 firearms officer of Alberta and then the second thing that it does is provide us with a couple

00:13:35.060 of ways of protecting Albertans in case some of these federal laws that we've been opposing

00:13:43.400 actually end up being passed despite all the evidence indicating they shouldn't be.

00:13:50.440 Okay, so would you be acting, I guess like one of the first things it talks about in the bill is

00:13:54.600 limiting the municipalities and municipal police forces from entering into firearms related funding

00:13:59.920 agreements with the federal government. Would your role be partially maybe a liaison with these

00:14:04.760 municipalities and police forces so they understand where their role is going to be

00:14:08.480 going forward with firearm legislation and enforcement? Well, I think that's probably

00:14:13.660 somewhat outside my role, although just about anything related to firearms ends up being

00:14:20.700 referred to me for at least some opinion. But the point of that part of the law is to ensure that

00:14:27.380 there is some consistency, that you don't have one municipality going along with something and

00:14:33.380 another municipality not going along and people getting a better deal in one place than they get

00:14:38.040 in another place. So this ensures that there is some constituent consistency on the side of the

00:14:44.160 province in terms of however whatever happens with this federal law. Yeah and just to clarify

00:14:51.020 things I mean again you're supportive of people of course safely and legally owning firearms

00:14:55.860 but you know we're not looking to allow people to illegally own or obtain firearms. I mean that

00:15:02.340 still needs to be enforced against and, you know, isn't allowed in general. Like we're seeing a lot

00:15:08.640 of misinformation coming out, unfortunately, with a charged bill like this. And I mean, part of your

00:15:13.680 role as well, of course, is to make sure that we stop the proliferation of illegal firearms in the

00:15:18.820 province as well, right? Well, actually, we do quite a lot of that. So you might recall that last

00:15:26.880 September, we obtained funding to expand our office in order to bring back some of the work

00:15:33.100 that had previously been outsourced to New Brunswick in the past. And part of that expansion

00:15:39.800 will be to create a unit specifically to coordinate with law enforcement on issues related to

00:15:45.640 illegal trafficking, straw purchasing, 3D printing, and so on. And so we're proceeding

00:15:52.760 full speed ahead on that. And I'd also mention that, you know, we do a lot of outreach at gun

00:15:59.080 shows, and that's where we can monitor compliance. And if we see that people don't understand the

00:16:04.020 law, and therefore they're not complying with it, we can explain before it becomes an issue.

00:16:10.900 Yeah, and you mentioned straw purchasing, you know, it's a have you, and some people

00:16:14.580 might not understand what this is. And this concerns me as well. I think most firearm

00:16:17.640 owners are kind of okay with licensing individuals, we want to make sure a person isn't a known

00:16:21.980 criminal or violent person before we allow them to own a firearm. But something that does happen

00:16:27.940 is sometimes a person who has a pal will go out and buy a firearm on behalf of somebody else

00:16:34.360 and bring it to them. And I don't want to see a registry, but this is one of the areas where

00:16:40.320 people say, well, that's why you need a registry. So you know who has the firearm and how they

00:16:43.860 transfer it. How can we deal with straw purchasing without a registry? Well, I think that there are a

00:16:51.340 couple of things that we can do and one is that we oh I see that you've put up a picture of me

00:16:57.840 so so you see I'm a ventriloquist I can talk without moving my lips great work

00:17:04.480 so there are a number of things that we can do so one thing is which we do and which also

00:17:12.040 N-West the which is a specialized law enforcement unit on illegal firearms trafficking one of the

00:17:18.840 we do is educate retailers so that they're aware of the kind of situations that present themselves

00:17:27.880 when somebody's doing straw purchasing so there's certain behavioral cues that they present and so

00:17:34.440 educating people is one thing another thing that we can do is right now there is a since last July

00:17:43.320 there has been a requirement that people who are doing individual to individual transfers of

00:17:50.280 non-restricted firearms obtain a reference number to demonstrate that they have verified

00:17:55.960 that the person's PAL is valid, that it's not an illegal, you know, a counterfeit PAL or a stolen PAL

00:18:03.620 or one that has been revoked but somebody hasn't turned in. And so the way that that in principle

00:18:12.520 is a good idea, but the way they did it made it very hard for a lot of people to comply

00:18:17.020 if you aren't very computer savvy, because most of these transfers happen either in the evening

00:18:22.460 or on the weekends when you can't own this office in Mirabishi that gives the numbers.

00:18:28.260 So what we've arranged to do with the cooperation of the registry is that I now have staff at

00:18:33.720 virtually every gun show along with me, and we are able to call in on their behalf and obtain

00:18:40.380 these reference numbers so that people can be sure that the person they're selling to

00:18:46.320 has a valid PAL, but it's not lost or stolen or somehow otherwise illegitimate.

00:18:51.740 Well, that's great because, yeah, I mean, I'll be going to the big firearms show at

00:18:56.120 the Seven Chiefs Center, for example, in early April.

00:18:58.300 And I mean, there's hundreds and hundreds of vendors there.

00:19:00.360 And these are people who are, you know, aficionados, enjoy their firearms.

00:19:03.520 But as you said, they're not necessarily tech savvy or immersed in that sort of thing.

00:19:07.940 So, I mean, if we can help them along with those sorts of confirmations without being overbearing, that's a good proactive initiative.

00:19:16.100 Well, this is the kind of thing that we want to do, because as I've said a number of times, my whole goal is compliance through credibility, not compulsion.

00:19:25.060 We make things easy for people to do.

00:19:27.240 We don't try and beat them into submission with a club.

00:19:30.140 And, you know, we're a regulatory agency.

00:19:32.720 We're not law enforcement.

00:19:34.300 And so our goal is just to ensure that people have, it's as easy as possible for people to comply.

00:19:42.940 And then that way, law enforcement never has to become involved.

00:19:48.440 They've got more important things to do, triking down people who are actually bad guys.

00:19:53.100 Yeah, so just to kind of pivot a little more before we wrap up, and you're coming to us, I believe, from Ottawa right now.

00:19:59.420 So is part of your role, because it is kind of a newer role for Alberta still.

00:20:02.700 I mean, you've been at it for a while now, but is Eliason then, I guess, to speak on behalf of Albert and firearm owners to Ottawa and in capacities such as that as well?

00:20:12.640 Yes. So that's very much a part of my role.

00:20:15.180 So essentially, I have a dual role.

00:20:17.420 On the one hand, I have to supervise the administration of the Firearms Act, like all the licensing of businesses and ranges and so on and so forth, as it currently exists in the law.

00:20:29.940 But also the second part, which is something that is really only in our case and in Saskatchewan's case, the second part of my role is to advocate to make the law actually make sense.

00:20:45.420 And that's actually probably the bigger problem because most of our laws right now have only a tenuous connection to common sense or public safety values.

00:20:55.880 Yes. And I'm glad you're speaking up to those. Because again, I mean, part of your role also

00:20:59.600 isn't just speaking to firearm owners, but non-firearm owners who don't understand the

00:21:03.960 issue in general. So to be able to reach out, you mentioned Saskatchewan, they've brought in

00:21:08.100 a similar firearm legislation as well. Have you been in much communication with your Saskatchewan

00:21:12.640 counterpart on this? Well, we talk all the time, usually several times a week. And I spoke to

00:21:18.680 cfo freeberg just this morning so um you know it's uh we each have uh different circumstances

00:21:27.400 because the nature of our our provinces are different um and the nature of the law enforcement

00:21:33.520 challenges are different but we share a common um goal of ensuring that uh the public is kept safe

00:21:41.720 and that the law-abiding firearms community doesn't suffer a bunch of needless intrusion

00:21:50.060 from people in Ottawa who don't know what they're doing.

00:21:53.140 Excellent. Well, I appreciate the work you do.

00:21:54.860 I mean, trying to help people in Ottawa who don't know what they're doing

00:21:58.740 understand what they're doing is a big task, and I appreciate your work on that file.

00:22:03.560 And, of course, you're coming on today to talk to us about it a bit.

00:22:06.760 Is there anything more you'd like to add before I let you go?

00:22:08.640 Well, I think one of the key things, you know, when you look at our bill, our bill will enable us to do two things. One is, if the worst comes to worst, and the feds do end up passing this bill, we'll be able to prevent some frauds through the licensing of anybody who's involved in it.

00:22:29.560 And we'll also be able to create a body to provide legitimate, unbiased, solidly, empirically grounded estimates of the value of firearms so that if the feds try and take somebody's gun, that they will be under a lot of pressure to actually pay what it's worth.

00:22:48.920 well i guess we could hope they don't take it in the first place but if if it does come about

00:22:54.120 the compensation has to be somewhat fair so uh thank you very much for coming on to talk to me

00:23:00.040 today i hope we can talk again soon and i really appreciate that such a proactive approach to this

00:23:04.140 issue well thank you i always look forward to chatting with you hori great thanks terry i know

00:23:09.580 all right so that was terry bryant that's alberta's chief firearms officer and you know it's

00:23:14.560 important to talk to her and, and see, like, I really liked this approach. I, this came about

00:23:18.820 from the Kennedy government, just as she said, she's not there to be, uh, an authority figure

00:23:24.200 or crack down or come down on people. It's a, it's trying to bring people up to compliance.

00:23:27.680 I mean, to, to show an analogy, it reminds me of when I owned the restaurant, I had different

00:23:30.940 experiences between inspectors. I had the Alberta, uh, uh, liquor, uh, gaming and liquor who'd be on

00:23:37.860 my case. And those guys were like police officers. They would come in and they would push me around.

00:23:40.680 they were a real pain in the butt. On the other half, and I'm going to segue this into my next

00:23:44.720 guest. Anyways, I had Alberta Health Services with my health inspector, and he was fantastic.

00:23:48.140 And he would get in there, and he would check my temperatures in the coolers, and he would make

00:23:52.640 sure I was compliant. But he looked at his role of making sure he wasn't trying to play gotcha. He

00:23:57.200 wasn't trying to shut me down. He wasn't trying to catch me with things. He was just trying to

00:24:00.560 make sure that I was always operating safely and up to code. It was looking at the matter,

00:24:05.680 not as a policeman, but as just somebody who's actually working with me to help things. And

00:24:09.840 that's what I'm kind of seeing out of the role of the firearms officer coming from Alberta,

00:24:13.460 whereas Ottawa, they're looking to hit us with Alberta. We're just looking to help our law

00:24:18.460 abiding. And Terry said that repeated law abiding firearm owners, which is the vast

00:24:22.360 majority of them. So I really am happy she's working on this and that the province is working

00:24:27.120 in that way. Now, speaking of AHS, though, they aren't always seem to be looking out for our

00:24:33.180 interest. It is a large bureaucracy with a lot of branches and tendrils. And part of it is our

00:24:38.500 EMS system, which we're seeing across the country, is having pressures and a really hard time all

00:24:43.640 over the place. And there's been efforts from the Smith government to speed up our ambulance response

00:24:49.120 time, some common sense fixes, but it sounds like AHS can really get in the way and be a pain. But

00:24:54.020 I'm going to stop babbling on that and bring in, I've got Don Sharp in. He's a retired EMS

00:24:59.100 paramedic. He's been on the show a number of times before now, I believe. And he's in studio with me

00:25:05.420 today to talk about these things. So, hey, Don, good to see you back.

00:25:08.420 Corey, good to see you again. Thanks very much.

00:25:10.040 Oh, I appreciate you coming in in this miserable weather. I think this winter's really hanging in this year.

00:25:14.160 Right? No bugs.

00:25:15.380 Yeah. So, I mean, where to begin? There's so much to cover on this, but...

00:25:19.800 Well, and there's been so much news lately, too. I mean, we've had that dysfunction in EMS article that came out in Alberta Views.

00:25:26.480 We had this recent Lights and Siren report from Michael Korman, published by the Parkland Institute and funded by HSAA, the Union of Paramedics.

00:25:34.920 We've had all this in the news lately about this email from a Foothills ER manager, I guess, to her staff, and somebody leaked it to the opposition and the legislature, and that caused a big brouhaha.

00:25:49.820 I could talk about what's going on in health care for hours, Corey, I could.

00:25:53.600 Yeah, well, one I want to talk about, kind of start with the emails we had a couple weeks ago before we hooked you on.

00:25:57.840 And one of the fixes we want to have, I mean, you've talked about these common sense fixes a lot for a long time, was patient transfer.

00:26:04.160 You know, we're using fully staffed and equipped, you know, paramedical vehicles to move a low, low risk patient from one facility to another as taking people off the street who are specialized and trained for emergency response and tying them up.

00:26:21.400 So, I mean, it sounds like, okay, we're going to allow some other outside provision of these non-emergency transfers and that.

00:26:29.340 But then they put out this notice for the bids that basically put it right out of bounds.

00:26:35.320 It's like AHS is saying, oh, we're opening the door.

00:26:37.420 But here, basically, you've got to provide us with a fully equipped ambulance if you're going to do it.

00:26:40.680 Well, and again, let's look at the basics of this problem is emergency ambulances, the critical care vehicles that look after the sickest patients, staffed by our very best paramedics, they're a finite resource.

00:26:52.480 and to use those vehicles to transport patients who need a cast change or need to go in to get

00:26:58.540 fitted for orthotics, that's like taking a limousine to the grocery store. It's way more

00:27:02.760 vehicle than that person needs. So let's look at alternative transfers. Let's make sure that those

00:27:07.600 critical care vehicles are available for our sickest patients. And isn't that the problem

00:27:11.860 right now is a lot of them are stuck in the hospital hallway, right? And they're not available

00:27:16.120 in the community to respond. So it's, it's real easy for me to see the need for alternative

00:27:22.440 transport. This should have been done years ago. But again, HS dragged its feet. I asked them

00:27:27.040 numerous times to look at this issue and they refused. Well, now they're kind of being forced

00:27:31.060 to. And let's look at, let's remember when we talk about HS and the government, they're two

00:27:35.900 different things. HS is the large bureaucracy that frequently takes instruction from the government

00:27:42.680 or has in the past and gone, yeah, yeah, we'll get on that, right?

00:27:45.760 And then they either do it for six months and ignore it

00:27:47.760 or just refuse to do it altogether.

00:27:49.640 So now they've been instructed by the advisory committee

00:27:51.860 to actually enable alternative transport,

00:27:54.960 which right now, Corey, is happening.

00:27:57.280 There's a paramedical company here in town right now

00:27:59.620 that is taking phone calls from the Foothills Hospital.

00:28:02.760 In fact, they have two trucks staged at the Foothills right now,

00:28:05.540 private operators to move patients out of the Foothills Emerge

00:28:09.240 to places where they need to go, stable, non-emergent patients,

00:28:13.660 And there's also, I know every day, because I talk to these people, I talk to the crews.

00:28:18.600 They're taking calls, they're doing transfers from the Peter Lougheed to the foothills,

00:28:22.340 from cardiac rehab centers to nursing homes.

00:28:25.240 It's happening now, and it's happening with a phone call.

00:28:28.540 Hi, medic, I need an ambulance to move a patient from the PLC to the foothills.

00:28:33.880 Can you do it by 2.30?

00:28:35.040 Yep, no problem, click.

00:28:36.940 So what's AHS's answer?

00:28:39.320 That's the question.

00:28:40.260 From what I understand, hearing about this new request for interest is that AHS is going to try to put a mobile data terminal in every one of these transfer vehicles.

00:28:55.500 These vehicles only have to be staffed or equipped to a minimum standard, I understand, with an AED and a basic first aid kit.

00:29:02.320 They don't have a lot of equipment.

00:29:03.960 They've got a couple of basic providers who are provincially registered.

00:29:07.540 They're trained.

00:29:08.580 They've been hired by a responsible business owner who probably this isn't his main business.

00:29:14.340 Some of them, a lot of them do oil field work, but they have high quality vehicles.

00:29:18.360 They have high quality staff.

00:29:19.760 They're able to start tomorrow moving patients.

00:29:23.720 But AHS is going, we got to go through this whole big rigmarole.

00:29:26.440 We got to make sure we got to check your financial underwear.

00:29:28.860 We got to have a quick pick at your details.

00:29:31.360 And we got to make sure, I mean, I think it's onerous.

00:29:33.800 I think it's irresponsible.

00:29:35.020 and I don't think AHS can put any of these alternative transport vehicles in that fashion

00:29:40.440 on the street until the end of June, and we need them today. We need them today. And those vehicles

00:29:45.740 are there now. I mean, I worked in the oil field for 20 years. They're fine vehicles. They're often,

00:29:51.560 yeah, at this time of year, there's a lot of them sitting on standby, more than equipped enough to

00:29:56.320 just take some of the load off. Every one of these vehicles that takes somebody from hospital to

00:29:59.540 hospital means that you've got some highly trained paramedics are now available somewhere else.

00:30:04.040 So here's the question. Who's enabling these transfers, making them happen? And who's blocking them at AHS? Well, the people who are making it happen are brave unit managers at some of the hospitals who say, look, I have three patients in my eMERGE. I've got a lot of people waiting in the hallway to get into eMERGE. I need these patients taken back to the nursing home right now, not six hours from now, not tomorrow, right now.

00:30:29.440 So I'm going to phone a private company, and they're going to come and get these patients.

00:30:33.060 They're going to move them where they need to go, and they send the bill to Alberta Health, and they get paid.

00:30:37.460 And it's a reasonable fee.

00:30:38.880 They're not grossly, they're not overcharging or gouging anybody.

00:30:43.080 And they're getting the patients moved safely and quickly.

00:30:46.480 Those brave unit managers are succeeding in this.

00:30:49.380 Now, there's unit managers at Urgent Cares in places like Cochrane and Okotoks who frankly refuse.

00:30:56.780 Say, I don't care what happens.

00:30:57.760 I'm not calling.

00:30:58.460 I'm going to call AHS. I want an AHS ambulance because I don't want to get in trouble.

00:31:04.540 So those patients, remember some of these urgent cares close at 10 o'clock at night.

00:31:09.020 If there's a serious patient in the urgent care in Okotoks, Cochrane, any one of these places,

00:31:14.960 10 o'clock comes, the urgent care closes, but that patient's still there waiting for transport.

00:31:19.680 So now the urgent care manager has to keep a nurse and sometimes a doctor overnight at overtime

00:31:26.460 to look after people that if they had simply called somebody else,

00:31:30.580 if there was somebody else available they could call,

00:31:32.440 that patient would get moved to the hospital.

00:31:34.360 So we've got a big bureaucracy.

00:31:36.040 You've got levels and levels, unfortunately, of resistance.

00:31:38.340 I mean, that's the hard thing.

00:31:39.080 With a big ship, it just doesn't turn easily.

00:31:41.760 You did mention the union.

00:31:42.920 I mean, the unions have been excellent for the paramedics in highlighting,

00:31:47.440 for example, the way rural ambulances have been drained

00:31:49.860 and pulled into the city and misappropriated, in my view.

00:31:53.280 uh but at the same time isn't there a bit of the resistance i guess when it comes to because

00:31:57.560 that's instinctive for a lot of unions well we don't allow private in here though we can't let

00:32:01.040 another group come in here and start well look at this latest report by michael korman published by

00:32:05.760 the parkland institute commissioned by hsaa the union neither one of them are interested in talking

00:32:10.740 about privatization they're very much against it and i would support 100 public health care if they

00:32:16.620 could do the job but i think ahs and especially ems have proven they can't we simply don't have

00:32:21.920 the vehicles or the staff to move patients right now. And I'm not talking about, we could grow more

00:32:27.460 paramedics. Do you remember that article, Bill, I can't remember, Bill McFarlane published. He blamed

00:32:34.140 the lack of paramedics these days on the low birth rate over the last several years. I laughed so

00:32:38.480 hard. He wouldn't call me back. I don't think he wanted to talk about it. It takes time to train

00:32:42.960 paramedics and buy trucks. New ambulances, by the way, from, you can look it up, wheeled coach,

00:32:48.900 Type 3 brand new ambulances, $240,000 U.S.

00:32:53.560 That's prohibitive.

00:32:54.700 Over a quarter million dollars.

00:32:56.180 It's a huge investment.

00:32:57.420 So we've got responsible business owners who own these trucks.

00:33:00.700 They maintain them, frankly, better than AHS.

00:33:03.920 I used to work on an ambulance not too long ago for AHS.

00:33:07.600 Their vehicles are not well-maintained.

00:33:10.320 They are not clean.

00:33:12.060 You sent me that picture of the gas tank, a simple maintenance issue.

00:33:16.820 There's so many of those.

00:33:18.260 They don't manage their own fleet very well, and yet they want to be able to micromanage a responsible private business owner's fleet and their staff.

00:33:26.160 It's frustrating.

00:33:27.040 It's frustrating to see this unfolding.

00:33:28.460 And it's frustrating to see the non-cooperative and, unfortunately, the reality politicized attitude of trying to make sure that the current government isn't successful no matter what they try.

00:33:36.880 I mean, I'm really seeing some of that.

00:33:39.160 And when there was that leaked email about the memo, everybody lit their hair on fire, and suddenly the government's on its heels and backtracking because the memo's saying,

00:33:46.240 we want these ambulances out of here within 45 minutes. Yeah. And what did Notley say in the

00:33:52.660 ledge? She said, patients are going to get dumped in a merge. Okay, let's back the truck up. Number 0.90

00:33:57.420 one, that letter, that email was written internally from a manager at the ER to her staff. And quite

00:34:03.380 frankly, I think that's an email written by a weak leader. That whole attitude of that was,

00:34:08.660 we're going to fail, look out. You know what, that 45 minute target time is, that's a target.

00:34:14.800 it's not a hard stop on March 15th, 45 minutes we're going to leave. No, I mean, nurses and

00:34:20.800 paramedics are very responsible. We're never just going to drop people and run away, especially if

00:34:25.820 they need extra care. So that's a target time. March 15th was going to be a slow rollout. It

00:34:31.600 wasn't well publicized, but the medics and the nurses knew about it. We're all kind of cooperating.

00:34:36.440 What's the goal here? The goal is to move patients into the hospital in a timely and efficient manner

00:34:42.520 so that we can then extricate the medics out of the hospital,

00:34:46.040 get them back into the communities where they serve 0.89

00:34:48.220 so that patients aren't waiting an hour for...

00:34:51.360 Corey, you know, people are scared.

00:34:54.200 We have all of these citizen action groups,

00:34:56.420 and that is the primary comment now on most of our citizen action groups

00:35:01.360 is, you know what, I'm afraid.

00:35:02.500 I'm afraid that if I call an ambulance, I'm not going to be able to get one.

00:35:05.500 I might have to drive my mom to the hospital myself. 0.99

00:35:08.400 And setting a target at 45 minutes to get somebody in,

00:35:11.540 drop off, do the paperwork, do the transfer, and get out. I mean, that's the goal. And that's a

00:35:18.060 long, I mean, that sounds unreasonably long already. It's twice as long as we used to drop

00:35:23.140 them off. And not only that, but the Canadian standard for turnaround times in hospitals and

00:35:29.400 emerge is 45 minutes. Alberta is the outlier right now with AHS's 90-minute turnaround time.

00:35:35.980 And it's gone on far too long.

00:35:38.680 Like I said, they've had years to fix this.

00:35:41.880 And again, making it clear the government can only do so much.

00:35:45.120 There's legislation that prevents them from moving too quickly to make changes at H.S. 0.79

00:35:49.680 That's for a reason.

00:35:51.140 But H.S. has got a responsibility here that they've failed to fulfill.

00:35:55.100 And I think at the end of the day, this is a leadership problem.

00:35:59.020 And we need erasing the board, the health care board, was a great move.

00:36:04.400 moving on from having our chief paramedic in charge

00:36:08.700 and now we have a provincial lead, a provincial

00:36:12.720 head of EMS, Athena Metzolopoulos. She's done some work

00:36:16.540 before with the red tape reduction project. I think she's very skilled. So I'm looking forward

00:36:20.720 to some positive changes. But again, alternative transport, that

00:36:24.680 should be happening right now. Not next week, not two weeks

00:36:28.720 from now, not three months from now, certainly. The vehicles and the

00:36:32.660 equipment and the people are ready to do it right now and they're needed right now. Well, yeah,

00:36:36.120 and it's a solution in front of our faces. I mean, a lot of the things that, again, we listen to,

00:36:39.660 and I won't even go left, right. We're hearing it in every province, but they're saying we have

00:36:42.780 more money, more money. Well, no, if there's only a finite number of bodies, you can pump all the

00:36:46.560 money in there that you want. I mean, if we're talking about nurses and doctors, but when we

00:36:51.540 are talking about patient transfer, actually, we do have the means handy. We have the trucks,

00:36:55.400 we have the people. Money will take care of that. One's not expensive. That's the thing. These guys

00:37:00.420 aren't looking for a windfall. I'm not sure exactly what the financial structure is going to

00:37:05.720 be. I hear it's going to be a flat fee based on so many transfers a day. Here's the interesting

00:37:10.680 thing, though. What AHS wants is total control of these private operators' resources. In other words,

00:37:16.840 they want to put an MDT in the truck, a computer, so the crews have to learn how to use that.

00:37:22.640 They want to control. I hear there's going to be a rule that they can't refuse a transfer.

00:37:28.140 So if you're offered a transfer or you're told to do a transfer at the end of the day that's going to run you past the end of your shift, that's fine.

00:37:34.860 In EMS, we understand late trips.

00:37:37.120 But if it's going to happen three times out of four shifts that you end up doing a late trip, I mean, this is what they're doing to the eMERGE crews now.

00:37:44.480 Keeping them late, running them hard, burning them out, and that's why 40% of them are off sick.

00:37:49.740 So, again, I don't see, I've talked to some of these people who work as, they used to work for H.S., but now they've left H.S., they don't want anything to do with H.S. E.M.S., and they've gone to work for these private operators.

00:38:03.980 They say, what are you going to do the first time somebody says you have to stay late and do a transfer?

00:38:07.060 He goes, huh, that's not going to go well.

00:38:09.240 Well, and unfortunately, it sets up some of the conflict potentially, too, and that's what I get fearful of.

00:38:14.860 When they start basically already creeping in and turning these alternative transport vehicles into full-out ambulances, you give it two more years.

00:38:21.580 Next thing you know, well, now we're going to require you to be unionized. 0.96

00:38:23.840 Now we're going to require your certification to be up to paramedic level.

00:38:27.600 Next thing you know, you're back to basically AHS ambulances on the road again.

00:38:30.780 That can be tied up very expensively doing patient transfers that we were trying to avoid in the first place.

00:38:37.060 Yeah, that kind of creep.

00:38:37.860 I guess I hadn't thought of that as certainly possible.

00:38:39.640 I mean, my focus is the immediate problem right now of just the patient who's right now in the High River Hospital.

00:38:47.100 She's an inpatient.

00:38:48.160 She needs a stretcher to get to South Health Campus to get an MRI. 1.00

00:38:51.420 Right now, the nurses will phone and say, I need an ambulance tomorrow to move a patient on a stretcher for MRI.

00:38:56.880 If she doesn't make that appointment, that MRI sits empty, she doesn't get looked after.

00:39:01.920 And that's happening over and over and over.

00:39:04.260 And that can be changed.

00:39:05.180 That's a stable stretcher patient that could go.

00:39:07.860 Now, here's the other problem.

00:39:08.880 This alternative transport issue that AHS has got planned isn't going to affect any communities outside of a 50-kilometer radius from Calgary or Edmonton, big centers.

00:39:20.100 So if you live in Banff or Canmore, you're outside.

00:39:23.500 No, that's not going to affect you.

00:39:25.300 Or if you live in Sundry.

00:39:26.720 Sundry right now is moving patients sometimes by taxi to the city.

00:39:31.180 And their concern at the hospital is who's going to pay for that.

00:39:34.580 So when I heard that question, I said send it to Alberta Health Services.

00:39:37.840 send it to the same people these other paramedical outfits and I mean that's that should be paid for

00:39:43.820 by this organization AHS that said they were going to take care of EMS and inter-hospital

00:39:50.740 transfers and quite frankly isn't doing a good here's they're not doing a good job now now they 1.00

00:39:55.560 want to take on the additional monster of alternative transfer welcome you know stick

00:40:02.180 some of this off our hands because we got a million other things right NHS believes that

00:40:05.620 There's no amount of managers that they can hire.

00:40:09.520 We're always going to need one more manager.

00:40:11.940 So that's another, like, it's, I think the whole thing's crazy.

00:40:15.500 They're not doing themselves a service.

00:40:17.900 They're not doing patients any service.

00:40:20.040 And I'd like to see them move forward with a quicker solution.

00:40:24.680 Well, you've been talking about it for years, and that's part of the issue.

00:40:27.640 It should have happened years ago.

00:40:28.560 The government's moved very slowly with it, too.

00:40:30.820 I mean, we keep bringing it up.

00:40:32.040 I mean, it was that horrific case of that woman who was attacked by dogs

00:40:35.120 and most definitely could have possibly been saved with a quicker response.

00:40:40.420 She was a 10-minute drive from the biggest hospital in Alberta.

00:40:43.460 So let me jump on this, another little side note here.

00:40:46.480 The Health Quality Council of Alberta,

00:40:48.640 they're the ones who did the report on the fatal dog bite.

00:40:51.240 They left out all of the issues with leadership.

00:40:54.320 They didn't mention leadership and poor leadership, not even once.

00:40:57.960 I spoke.

00:40:59.380 I phoned them and said, can I come in and talk to you?

00:41:01.420 in 2018. I went to the Health Quality Council. I made a presentation. I said, your little focus

00:41:06.800 website you have with all the times. I said, keep some EMS stats, response times, hospital turnaround

00:41:12.400 times, hospital wait times. Oh yeah, we can't do that. We're really busy. I said, no, this is

00:41:18.020 important. And this is healthcare. This is EMS. This is hospital. Yeah, no, we're too busy. I got

00:41:24.460 blown off by them two or three times. And you know what? Now I see them doing this fatal dog

00:41:29.680 bite review and I go, you guys dropped the ball. Elf Quality Council of Alberta dropped the ball

00:41:34.120 four years ago. They could have, they could have gotten in front of this and actually been part of

00:41:38.960 the solution rather than sweeping up the mess with this report on that fatal dog bite attack.

00:41:43.240 So getting on to the solution, you know, how do you, I mean, you're trying piecemeal. We've got

00:41:48.300 things that are proposed here and there, but again, you got that, that big monstrous leviathan

00:41:52.580 of a bureaucracy with the AHS. What can government or people or just anybody do? How are we, how?

00:41:58.160 That's the hardest question.

00:41:59.420 I mean, you know the solutions, but how can we get this machine to embrace the solutions?

00:42:03.400 Well, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to talk to the people that are doing the work.

00:42:07.780 Right now, the only time they talk to the people that have solutions or make suggestions is they punish them.

00:42:13.720 Take a look at that paramedic right now who's been disciplined multiple times for speaking up,

00:42:19.300 simply FOIPing documents and going and speaking to a reporter.

00:42:22.340 Brave kid.

00:42:24.080 He's a brave guy.

00:42:25.080 He's got a family.

00:42:26.160 He could lose his job.

00:42:27.080 we won't quit fighting. And that's, it's unfortunate that's what it has to come to.

00:42:32.380 And again, that's a leadership issue. You want my opinion of what we should do now,

00:42:37.000 the first thing we should do? So we should start replacing some of the people that are leaders

00:42:40.800 in this organization. Not just EMS, but the hospitals too. Quite frankly, how many years

00:42:47.080 have they had to solve issues like access block, moving patients from eMERGE into the hospital?

00:42:52.120 And I hear all the time, number one, it's a long-term care problem.

00:42:56.440 Okay, great, you've got a problem.

00:42:57.640 Not an EMS problem, right?

00:42:59.640 And then they tell me, well, we're all on the same team for patient care.

00:43:02.820 You know, you've got to, I say, well, I agree.

00:43:04.480 We're all on the same team for patient care in the hospital.

00:43:07.680 But don't forget, when it's 3 o'clock in the morning, it's 40 below,

00:43:10.820 and I'm in a ditch on the side of a highway at an overturned car.

00:43:14.440 I don't see anybody from the hospital on my team.

00:43:17.320 That's an EMS responsibility.

00:43:18.860 you know picking people up who've been hurt and are sick critically in communities that's my job

00:43:24.780 well and that's a specialized skill it takes a certain kind of person to do it just as an ems

00:43:29.340 a paramedic wouldn't necessarily be a good nurse i mean that's a separate skill as well and and

00:43:34.960 and you know i know people who are both nurses and paramedics they're fantastic people and i

00:43:40.440 know terrific practitioners um who are able to straddle that i never could i mean i was a good

00:43:45.500 paramedic at best. I've worked with some great, great clinicians, great paramedics. I think

00:43:51.940 some of the things that I've seen are just process issues. Why is this taking so long?

00:43:58.220 Where's the paperwork? Why am I here when this has to be done? And again, in EMS, when you show

00:44:05.460 up on a call and somebody's critically ill, we're trained to move very quickly. And then we drive

00:44:10.240 lights and center to the hospital and you give report to triage and they send you down the

00:44:13.420 hallway and you're going, are you kidding? Like this guy's sick, but their process is different

00:44:18.520 and their problems are different. Now, back to my original point, which is if you can't find

00:44:23.580 somebody to fix these hospital problems, start replacing people. Well, and there's something,

00:44:29.340 I mean, consequences for senior managers. Something I want to bring up is, I mean,

00:44:32.300 AHS, it was a representative who was caught in an outright lie. That was on the documentary,

00:44:37.600 the great one with CTV with Kathy Lee. Yep. When he said, we do not discipline people

00:44:41.720 for speaking up, and then after it pops up, well, here's one being disciplined for speaking up. Now,

00:44:47.300 there should be consequences for him lying to the public on a critical issue like this.

00:44:51.900 There was no consequence. You know, it's funny, one of the managers mentioned, well, he retired,

00:44:56.360 and I go, well, did he retire, or was there, and he goes, actually, we can't talk about it. I said,

00:45:01.880 well, if you can't talk about it, he probably didn't just retire, did he? So, and that's,

00:45:07.540 more of that needs to happen. But again, what's the biggest problem after leadership is transparency

00:45:11.920 and accountability, HS. HS doesn't want people FOIPing data. They make it very difficult

00:45:17.640 to actually get, and they, you know, these presentations that EMS goes out to,

00:45:22.620 they send executive directors out to speak to these town councils in these small towns,

00:45:26.500 and they just baffle them with all this gibberish, which is what it is. It's medicine, right? And it's

00:45:31.780 all these statistics and a PowerPoint. And really, town councils should be going, wait,

00:45:36.060 I don't need any more information. Where's my ambulance? I want it here when my people need it.

00:45:42.600 And that should be just a line in the sand. And like Jeff Ganung, the mayor of Cochrane said

00:45:47.440 after the last presentation in Cochrane, he said, look, people here are scared. And after years of

00:45:53.640 asking for better service, trust has been eroded. People don't trust AHS anymore. He says, we got to

00:45:59.400 repair that. Well, and you've been very active in Cochrane out there. I mean, you've got some

00:46:03.940 people working on things out there and doing stuff. Great group. And part of what the last

00:46:08.200 time you were in talking with me, we talked about was some efforts and municipalities to say, you

00:46:12.920 know what? Screw you guys. We'll take care of it ourselves. We will do it. And, but that's where

00:46:17.780 we're seeing the creep with AHSC. Well, we're going to find ways to regulate this out of existence

00:46:21.760 too. Well, here's an interesting one. Fire departments. You saw what happened in the MD

00:46:26.320 of Willow Creek. The MD of Willow Creek bought three ambulances. Now you can't call them that

00:46:30.980 against the law. It's a fire department paramedical response, whatever. It's an ambulance. So they

00:46:37.080 bought three of them and they put one in Fort McLeod and Claire's home in Nanton because they

00:46:42.300 saw repeatedly that they were spending long time on scene with critical patients who they needed

00:46:47.900 to move. And how many times, I think Canmore, yeah, Canmore just last weekend moved a patient

00:46:53.400 in the fire truck to the hospital. We don't have a lot of details. We don't need a lot of details.

00:46:57.300 We've all heard the stories, but now, and I think it's my opinion, and this is what I've told people, is every fire department in Alberta should have an ambulance, a fire paramedical response vehicle.

00:47:08.480 But for three reasons.

00:47:09.680 Number one, you go to a big fire, that's a good place to rehab your firefighters.

00:47:13.720 Get them in, take a pressure if you need to.

00:47:15.780 Number two, it's a safe place to look after people at a car crash on the highway, out of the elements.

00:47:19.740 You've got a place where you can literally sit eight people so they're not freezing cold, sitting in their overturned car or standing on the side of the road.

00:47:27.300 And three, it's a place you can use as a base for treatment.

00:47:30.740 You go over and you find a lady who's fallen and broken her hip in her driveway.

00:47:35.160 You're going to leave her in the snow for 40 minutes until AHS gets there,

00:47:38.120 or are you going to put her in a nice, warm bus design?

00:47:40.940 And number four, if you have to transport, giddy up.

00:47:44.600 You phone medical control.

00:47:45.900 You say, listen, I've got a lady here who's really sick. 1.00

00:47:48.220 AHS is too far away.

00:47:49.560 Hospital's 10 minutes away.

00:47:50.820 We're going to, we'd like to go.

00:47:52.800 That's that overlap of the skills, too.

00:47:54.560 Exactly.

00:47:54.920 You know, we know that there's a degree of emergency health training for firefighters, but they are firefighters.

00:48:02.400 Their primary role is getting that fire out.

00:48:05.700 We don't expect a paramedic to go into a place where there's propane tanks ready to blow and knowing what to do with that.

00:48:09.720 And we don't expect a firefighter to be the best paramedic around.

00:48:12.240 Well, hang on.

00:48:12.880 I'll disagree with you there because Cochrane has a number of, I think they have eight or ten people who are trained to the absolute top paramedic level.

00:48:21.260 A lot of them work part-time for EMS.

00:48:23.840 They're terrific practitioners.

00:48:25.340 I would work with any one of them.

00:48:26.620 I would let them treat my family.

00:48:28.560 They're terrific paramedics.

00:48:29.820 There's also small services, volunteer services in towns where they really have the minimum MFR,

00:48:34.940 medical first responder training.

00:48:36.580 And they do a great job too.

00:48:37.980 They can do CPR.

00:48:38.820 They can stop the bleeding.

00:48:39.720 They can hold somebody's head still in a crash.

00:48:42.060 But, you know, there's lots of fire departments who quite frankly could run an ambulance service

00:48:46.620 tomorrow better than AHS could.

00:48:48.720 And I encourage every fire department to get an FPRV.

00:48:51.860 I won't devolve into the Prentice issues as we have in my area.

00:48:56.300 And our proximity to the city means we are constantly drained of our local resources, and it's frustrating.

00:49:01.480 Prentice is known as the bitch truck. 1.00

00:49:03.120 Nobody wants to work it because it's never there.

00:49:05.720 It's too close to the city.

00:49:06.960 It's just there right for the taking.

00:49:08.440 Yeah, it goes to cover everywhere else.

00:49:10.520 And it just means that maybe you don't deserve the same coverage as the city.

00:49:15.960 Yeah, it doesn't sit well, does it?

00:49:17.460 No, no.

00:49:18.160 It sure doesn't.

00:49:18.640 They've got a resident down there who's going to make more noise about that yet.

00:49:21.440 that's good to hear all right well there's so much to cover it i mean it goes fast when i have

00:49:25.220 you in don we'll have to have you back because this issue is just so frustrating so stupid so 0.93

00:49:28.620 relatively easy at least to bring in some solutions and we've got resistance to those

00:49:33.420 solutions it just ticks me off every time i really appreciate that you keep bringing it up and

00:49:37.300 highlighting it and putting this stuff on the web and facebook and such so before i let you go uh

00:49:42.280 where can people find more info because i know people are concerned everywhere with this one

00:49:45.580 but they just it's a shotgun approach right because you're seeing in the news all the time

00:49:48.900 So we found Facebook to really be really effective.

00:49:51.660 Citizen action groups in each community are springing up and people are working together to try to put pressure on their on H.S. locally and also on their town councils, give them good advice and back them up.

00:50:01.360 And I really hope that R.J. Sigurdsson, who's doing great work as the parliamentary secretary, I really hope that he starts touring around the province and meeting with people in these towns and talking about EMS.

00:50:11.820 And I encourage people locally, especially in the smaller communities, to get together and start working on solutions.

00:50:18.260 Call me anytime. You can find me on the web. Great. Well, thank you very much, Don. And I'm

00:50:22.860 sure we'll be talking again. Thanks, Corey. All right. So that was Don Sharp. He's been here

00:50:26.900 before, as I said, and he's very active online. He's active on the ground. He comes out to towns,

00:50:31.820 he speaks, he helps. I mean, he's not waiting for somebody else to get it done. And I just really

00:50:37.700 appreciate that. We've got to, that's part of that attitude saying, you know, we've got this

00:50:42.080 big machine, it's going to fight. It's going to try to avoid turning. And, uh, the only way that's

00:50:48.580 going to get fixed is if we take it up ourselves and put that pressure on, they're not going to

00:50:53.200 willingly do it. And that's what Don's been doing. Uh, as Luther is saying, uh, he is sharp. Yes,

00:50:58.280 he is indeed. And, uh, it's a good play on words. And I really, really appreciate what he does.

00:51:03.640 Okay. As I said, we've got a really tight show today. So I'm going to pop right into our next

00:51:07.880 guest quite quickly here. We'll run a quick ad before we get there too as well. And we will

00:51:17.800 speak a little more on the local level of politics. So Chelsea Petrovic, she's a nominee or running 1.00

00:51:23.600 for the nomination down in Livingstone McLeod. And yeah, things are getting pretty hotly contested

00:51:29.460 as we got a spring election that's going to hit us in just a couple of months here. So the UCP

00:51:33.980 has really kind of put off the nominations right to the bitter end in some ways. But I guess when

00:51:37.600 you're changing leaders and things, things get backed up. So let's go to Chelsea when we can

00:51:42.560 here and we'll have a conversation. Hey, Chelsea, how are you doing? Oh, you're outside.

00:51:47.480 Yeah. Sorry, you guys, you got me out while I'm campaigning. So you get me while I'm live

00:51:51.800 streaming on the back of the car while we're hitting doors. I understand. Yes, it's a nomination

00:51:57.120 is a lot of work and that's the way to do it is hammering on doors. To give a little bit of

00:52:02.340 background, I guess it was Roger Reed is the incumbent. He's not going to run again. And

00:52:06.500 you've got a number of other people running for that nomination right down there in Livingstone

00:52:11.920 McLeod. Is that correct? Yeah, there was initially I believe eight of us and now we're down to three

00:52:16.640 so I'm hoping to be number one on that ballot coming here Friday, Saturday, Sunday and

00:52:20.960 be the voice for Livingstone McLeod. We know we haven't had one for a long time and

00:52:26.260 it's time we bring back the politicians back to Ralph Klein days where we have some more people

00:52:31.980 politicians and less party politicians. Well, you note there hasn't been a voice for a long time.

00:52:37.120 I mean, there was a UCP MLA there. I got to admit, Roger Reed wasn't one that you really saw or heard

00:52:41.900 a heck of a lot of. We have that problem in some constituencies sometimes. Is that part of what the

00:52:46.260 issue is down there right now? Yeah, the biggest concern, I think, as I go door to door is the

00:52:50.920 voices haven't been heard for the last number of years. You know, people are quite concerned about

00:52:56.880 that. I've had people that have tried reaching out every day for months on end with no response.

00:53:02.800 So we're hoping to change that here. We've been hitting the ground extremely hard,

00:53:06.480 listening to everyone's concerns. And it's actually most people are surprised to see

00:53:11.040 a politician come to their door in this riding. And hopefully we can make that change and start

00:53:16.480 having the politicians that are going to work for the people instead of the other way around.

00:53:21.360 So what prime issue is your campaign riding on it at this point down in that constituency?

00:53:25.760 Well, I think that first and foremost, we're extremely excited to have a potential politician that is willing to get out there, willing to start listening to all of the concerns across the riding.

00:53:36.300 A biggest thing for us here in Livingston McLeod is the continual overreach.

00:53:40.160 We're worried about that federal government and how they continue to dabble in stuff that's not necessarily their business.

00:53:45.920 So hoping we can move forward in a positive direction and start making choices at that local level.

00:53:52.040 And, you know, what we here in Livingston-McLeod, we kind of know what's best for us here.

00:53:57.260 So let's move on towards that positive process and tell the federal government to back off a bit.

00:54:03.980 Right on. So what's the timeline on your nomination?

00:54:06.640 Before I let you go, I know it's a quick hit and you look pretty chilly out there.

00:54:09.640 So is the membership cutoff passed already or is it still going?

00:54:13.860 Where are you sitting with the nomination right now?

00:54:15.420 So the nomination has cut off. It cut off on February 16th.

00:54:19.100 We didn't have a lot of time to sell the memberships, unfortunately.

00:54:22.880 The voting dates will take place on the 9th, 10th, and 11th across all of the nominations.

00:54:28.300 So it's six locations, six different times over a period of three days.

00:54:32.900 So if anyone's looking for more information, I have that on my website at chelseapetrovic.com.

00:54:37.620 You're able to vote at any voting location, but they have tried to spread it across the constituency as much as possible.

00:54:44.720 Great.

00:54:45.120 Well, thank you for taking a moment out of the door knocking to join us out in that cold there.

00:54:49.360 I'll let you get back at it and maybe warm up.

00:54:51.180 When you shake hands with cold fingers, it can make the wrong impression sometimes.

00:54:54.900 So thanks for talking to us today.

00:54:57.180 I always appreciate and enjoy watching a contested nomination.

00:55:00.980 I think that's important in some of these constituencies that get taken for granted.

00:55:04.220 So thanks for talking to us today.

00:55:06.420 And perhaps we'll check in again down the road.

00:55:08.380 Perfect.

00:55:08.720 Thanks so much for having me, you guys.

00:55:10.000 Have a great day.

00:55:10.980 Great.

00:55:11.240 Thank you.

00:55:12.260 So just that reminder, that was Chelsea Petrovic at ChelseaPetrovic.ca, I believe she said,

00:55:18.100 and it's a nomination that's running down Livingstone McLeod.

00:55:20.520 And part of the problems we have in those constituencies, they're strong, conservative

00:55:23.540 constituencies, they get taken for granted.

00:55:26.140 And you sometimes get those people who get in there, as perhaps he was sort of noting.

00:55:31.640 And I had that issue with an MLI I had before, too, and it was Wild Roses.

00:55:35.520 Sometimes they get in and they just want to coast and ride.

00:55:37.840 And, hey, you know what, it's not supposed to be there just for a job to ride on and get a good salary and a little bit of profile.

00:55:44.600 You've got to be active.

00:55:45.580 You've got to be pushing.

00:55:46.280 You've got to take those issues up.

00:55:47.720 And, well, hopefully that constituency gets a person who will do those things for them.

00:55:54.940 Because, I mean, again, Shia, I know somebody else pointing out saying, you know, we need independence, not more UCP.

00:55:59.620 Yeah, fair enough.

00:56:00.620 But the reality is with the polling and Livingstone McLeod and some of them, I mean, unless something incredible happens, it's going to be a UCP MLA.

00:56:09.140 So the real race for that is the nomination that's happening right now.

00:56:12.680 So we just had Chelsea pop in to speak on that. 0.99

00:56:15.880 As I said, there's a lot of nominations that they've put off right to the end.

00:56:19.040 They're happening.

00:56:19.600 They got a whole bunch to get done in this next couple of months.

00:56:23.000 We're still watching things unfolding in Rimby, Rocky Mountain House, I think it is.

00:56:26.820 And that's where Jason Nixon's pretty embattled, and that's going back and forth.

00:56:31.020 They're trying to stop the nomination there.

00:56:33.800 I know opponents to the UCP love pointing at that, that there's still some internal division and infighting going on, and there is.

00:56:39.580 It never seems to stop.

00:56:41.600 So, you know, it's tough.

00:56:45.160 Vlad saying, when will people stop voting the Uni Party?

00:56:47.540 Seriously, he gets frustrated with party lines.

00:56:50.580 But, you know, I could be paraphrasing the wrong person.

00:56:53.980 I think it was Churchill saying, you know what, democracy is the worst system on earth,

00:56:57.540 except for all the other ones. Like, there's no perfect way. The only main thing is take part,

00:57:01.960 participate, get up, get out there. And, you know, follow that theme with Don, who was in here

00:57:07.700 talking about EMS and what he's been trying to do, trying to engage communities, rural communities,

00:57:12.060 urban communities, get up there, fix your own EMS, because the current one isn't going to do it.

00:57:17.240 So yeah, lots of stuff breaking, lots of stuff going on. This was a really packed show. Next

00:57:21.940 week, I got something really special going on. We're going to have Tamara Leach. I'm going to

00:57:25.560 talk to her one-on-one. We're going to have a good conversation. I mean, there's certain things she

00:57:29.820 cannot talk about, and it's fair enough. She's still working her way through the courts and all 1.00

00:57:34.460 that stuff, but she's been speaking and coming out publicly again, which is good, and it's going to

00:57:40.220 be a very interesting conversation. I'm really looking forward to that, so don't miss next week's

00:57:43.860 show, guys, because she doesn't talk to a lot of press. She understands, well, for one, there's

00:57:48.980 legal challenges. And of course, the mainstream media is not her friend. It's not your friend

00:57:53.460 either. So there's that reminder, guys, before I let you go, if you haven't subscribed already,

00:57:58.220 take out a subscription and a membership of the Western Standard. That's how we pay our bills.

00:58:01.440 That's how we stay away from being beholden to the government or any government. And yeah,

00:58:06.780 10 bucks a month, it helps support us keep these shows going, keep our columnists going,

00:58:10.100 keep our reporters going across this country. So thank you all for joining me today, guys. I

00:58:16.520 appreciate it. It was really a packed show. I didn't get to do most of my ranting that I normally do

00:58:20.580 because we had a whole bunch of guests, but that's okay. I will have plenty more ranting to go and I

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Western Standard - March 09, 2023

CMS： Opposition parties need to step up and stop Trudeau.

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