Western Standard - June 03, 2022


Cory talks about how First Nations can contribute to health care reform.


Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

202.59987

Word count

852

Sentence count

50

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A long-standing land claim has been settled, and the Enoch First Nation has announced the construction of a charter surgical facility on their land. Both good news for Alberta's First Nations. But what will happen if Rachel Notley becomes Prime Minister?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 It's been a good week for Alberta First Nations.
00:00:02.900 Let's start with a long-standing land claim with the Siksika First Nation, east of Calgary, has been settled.
00:00:08.860 And the Enoch First Nation, west of Edmonton, has announced the construction of a charter surgical facility on their land.
00:00:14.640 Both good news things.
00:00:15.960 Starting with the Siksika settlement, while many modern interpretations of treaty obligations have been dubious,
00:00:21.380 one thing that has been crystal clear within all treaties has been the delineation of borders within the reserves.
00:00:27.580 Treaties are usually pretty simple documents, and they're all online to be seen.
00:00:31.020 Canada changed the terms after the fact with the Siksika Reserve and took a large chunk of their land away from them.
00:00:36.900 Hopefully, this settlement announced will lead to some final resolutions so folks can start looking forward instead of back.
00:00:42.280 And in fact, one of the Siksika elders said precisely that during the press event on the reserve yesterday.
00:00:47.960 And it was heartening to hear.
00:00:49.500 Now, on to the fantastic new venture announced by the Enoch Cree First Nation.
00:00:53.960 Billy Lee, or Chief Billy Morin, has been heading the Enoch Cree since 2015, and he hit the ground running.
00:01:00.860 He's a pragmatic young leader, and he intends to diversify the economy on his reserve, predominantly through health care services.
00:01:06.880 So, Morin has spoken in the past of setting things up from birthing centers to research facilities for diabetes.
00:01:12.140 He sees an opportunity for his people in the field of health due to the rigid regulations hindering development of private facilities off of reserve land.
00:01:19.720 It's a real creative idea. The first big health care facility on his reserve is now set to be built next year.
00:01:26.060 The Enoch Cree Nation has partnered with Surgical Centers Incorporated to open up a surgical center that's going to offer up to 3,000, publicly funded, still in the health system, people aren't paying out of pocket, knee and hip replacements a year.
00:01:38.280 This should work in conjunction with Alberta Health Services, and the provincial government appears eager to help the project along.
00:01:43.000 Now, waiting lists for health care in Canada's socialized health care system are terrible, and they've been growing.
00:01:49.160 In Alberta, it takes an average of 26 weeks just to get a surgical consultation for a knee or hip replacement.
00:01:55.320 After that, it takes nearly a year on average to actually get the surgical procedure done.
00:02:00.100 So, you're talking a year and change from pain to treatment in this system.
00:02:04.960 Meanwhile, patients are in a painful, debilitated condition.
00:02:07.380 They're often out of work while waiting for surgery, and they're taking a lot of painkillers.
00:02:10.980 We've got to shorten these times.
00:02:13.000 The new center on the Enoch Cree Reserve will be a godsend for thousands of Albertans.
00:02:17.500 Facilities providing private care within the public system are vulnerable to Canada's ideologically driven environment.
00:02:23.460 While the Canby Clinic in B.C. was a great success, it's under constant legal attack from the NDP government that opposes all private care, even if it benefits patients and taxpayers alike.
00:02:32.720 It makes Canada a difficult and risky place for health care investments.
00:02:36.340 With Canadian First Nations getting in on the private provision of health care, though, we could be seeing a game changer.
00:02:41.440 First Nations exist in a semi-autonomous state within Canada.
00:02:45.220 Reserves are largely self-governing, and they're exempt from many local laws.
00:02:48.700 That's why you can still smoke indoors at a First Nations casino, for example. 0.98
00:02:52.280 If a First Nations health care facility faces legal challenges from leftist governments, the challenges will probably lose.
00:02:58.320 And even if the challenge wins, a reserve can be inclined to tell the courts to get stuffed, and there won't be much repercussion.
00:03:04.200 While the left would rather have people die on waiting lists than reform the health care system, they'd also rather walk on hot coals barefoot before getting into a battle with First Nations. 0.56
00:03:12.900 How would it look if Rachel Notley became premier again?
00:03:15.360 It would look bad in a number of ways.
00:03:17.020 But then she tried to shut down the health care facility on the Enoch Cree Reserve. 1.00
00:03:20.520 How many people on reserves would she be willing to put out of work? 0.86
00:03:23.580 Most major cities in Western Canada have First Nation reserves, either near or bounding upon them.
00:03:29.440 I imagine the Sutina Nation west of Calgary is watching the Enoch Cree Project with interest.
00:03:33.920 And the Siksika Reserve could be considering health care centres as a place to invest their $1.3 billion that they just recently got.
00:03:40.040 A private imaging clinic offering MRI and CT services owned by the James Smith Cree Nation actually has been operating successfully in Saskatoon since 2020, and they might plan on expanding as well.
00:03:52.560 Medical centres on First Nations land are win-win-win. 1.00
00:03:56.100 Revenue and skilled jobs are brought to First Nations reserves.
00:03:59.640 Waiting lists for medical procedures in the public system will be reduced, and the system will likely save money in the process.
00:04:05.100 Let's hope the Enoch Cree Surgical Centre is just the first among dozens we're going to see on First Nations reserves across Canada. 0.96