In this week's rant, Cory talks about Quebec separatists and why they are a real threat to Canada, and why it's time for a referendum on independence. He also talks about why he thinks there's no chance of a successful referendum in the West.
00:00:30.000good day welcome to the cory morgan show spring it's almost here it's almost here
00:00:59.200I start these with just the weather small talk while you guys get on board and get ready for a bunch of ranting, raving guests and all that good stuff.
00:01:07.580And yeah, Calgary's covered in snow again.
00:01:09.240I almost froze to death in yesterday's global warming, but it's supposed to get nice in another week.
00:01:13.020And we'll have another snowstorm for at least a long weekend to look forward to.
00:01:16.520Eventually, though, we're going to be out of winter.
00:01:18.320I've just never learned to like winter.
00:01:20.280All right, let's get on to some more stuff.
00:01:21.900Yes, this is my weekly rant show, and it's live for those who are on live.
00:01:55.900He's watching the bureaucracy fighting so hard against Premier Smith and against people like Don to avoid and just stop any productive change from coming.
00:02:05.400It's a real micro version of what the bigger monster is with health care reform that we need to do.
00:02:12.120And Don's always great to talk to on those subjects.
00:02:14.260He gets out on the ground and just gets on their case.
00:02:17.280So let me talk about something that's a little less divisive right now.
00:03:40.740The third-place party in the polls is Quebec Solidaires, which is also a separatist party.
00:03:45.560So, I mean, more than half of Quebecers support one separatist party or another.
00:03:51.040Parti-Quebec law leader Paul St-Pierre Plamendon has now promised another referendum on independence will be held if his party takes power.
00:03:58.780If there's one thing that the separatists of Quebec learned in 1995 is that they can't pull the trigger on another referendum until they're confident they're going to win it.
00:04:06.480A referendum loss sets back independence efforts by decades, even if it's on a narrow loss like last time.
00:04:11.880Some Western independent supporters pushing for a referendum in the West would be well-served to keep that in mind, too.
00:04:17.120So, if Plamondon is promising a referendum, it means he's confident that the independent side will win it.
00:04:23.040After decades of chasing non-French speakers from Quebec through oppressive policies,
00:04:27.040coupled with antagonizing the rest of Canada to disrupt national unity,
00:04:31.700Quebec could finally have the winning conditions it sought for an independence referendum.
00:04:35.800I remember watching the Quebec referendum from afar, of course, as a young Albertan in 1995.
00:04:41.320Politicians, personalities, and legacy media all worked overtime in begging Quebec not to leave.
00:04:46.040Delegations crossed the country to wave flags in Quebec and at rallies and let Quebecers know,
00:04:51.420we didn't want them to go. We love you, Quebec. Stay with us.
00:04:53.900It was an almost humiliating sort of groveling at the feet of Quebecers.1.00
00:04:57.800It was successful, though, as Quebecers chose to stay within Canada with a meager 1% margin.
00:05:03.620Now, as another Quebec referendum is looming, Canada's in a different place.
00:05:07.940Legacy media, they don't have that stranglehold on information anymore,
00:05:10.580and Western provinces aren't as solidly federalist as they used to be.
00:05:14.020The reaction to another referendum in Quebec can, and should, be much different.
00:05:17.820The West shouldn't beg Quebec to stay.0.97
00:05:20.040We should loudly come out and encourage them to leave.
00:05:23.040We can't hold a referendum to kick Quebec out of a confederation,
00:05:26.080but we can certainly show enthusiasm for their departure.
00:05:29.580Canada's broken. It has been for a long time.
00:05:32.480The federation's slanted in favor of the Laurentian provinces,
00:05:35.380and even then, Quebec still wants to leave.
00:05:37.360The Charlatan and Meech Lake Accords from 30 years ago, they failed to change the Constitution.
00:05:41.720The only way we can change this system is to tear a province free from it.
00:05:45.540And Quebec is right now the best poised to do so.
00:05:48.140If a referendum on independence was to be held in Alberta or Saskatchewan today,
00:05:52.020the independent side would be lucky to garner 25% support.
00:05:55.100If the same referendum was held six months after Quebec voted to go, though,
00:05:58.940I think western provinces would be out the door.
00:06:01.240Once one province separates, the deal's done.
00:06:03.540There's little sense in staying within a federation that is no longer figuratively broken, but has become literally broken.
00:06:09.940Provinces will work to break free and seek their own deals and destinies.
00:06:13.260This can be a positive evolution for Canada, Quebec, all the West, all of us.
00:07:01.020So what do we got dominating the new scroll right now?
00:07:05.960All right. Well, our top story is the budget that the federal government just introduced yesterday.
00:07:13.100So Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister, her midterm spending deficits are up 95% with the total spending to be $498 billion.
00:07:25.740And so there's a number of introductions to this budget, including capital gains taxes are increased to 66.3% for over $250,000. So we see a lot of money being filtered in there.
00:07:42.740there. We also see taxes on tobacco as well as money going towards immigration. So that means
00:07:51.060sorry, hospital care for asylum seekers, for asylum holding places, as well as lodging. So
00:07:59.200we have a lot of money going into sustaining asylum seekers and refugees. And only about
00:08:06.580$8 million is going towards managing smuggling of goods that are coming through our borders.
00:08:15.620So a lot going on with the budget. We're still going through some of it.
00:08:19.780And another one that's hot this week is what's going on with the Canadian
00:08:27.060Security and Intelligence Services. So we have the CSIS director testifying that China
00:08:34.180is actually an ongoing problem and CSIS is working relentlessly to deal with Chinese Communist Party
00:08:41.740infiltration in Canadian institutions. So we saw this through the China inquiry, the Commission
00:08:48.900on Foreign Interference, where CSIS Director Vigneault testifies that actually he told Prime
00:08:56.180Minister Justin Trudeau about these warnings and they had documented evidence that this was going
00:09:04.040on in the elections from 2021 and 2019. However, the prime minister denied that he was ever told
00:09:13.340this to such an extent that the commission called the CSIS director back to the stand after the
00:09:20.980commission was supposed to be over, who reaffirmed that he did tell Trudeau this. And actually a lot
00:09:27.700of this information came out in a late night dump Sunday evening. I think it was the 7th of April
00:09:33.560after the CSIS director had already testified so we've got a lot of murky water going on there
00:09:39.700and that's not the only scandal that the Trudeau government is embedded in with CSIS
00:09:46.920investigating we also have the Winnipeg lab scandal so this is this comment about relentlessly
00:09:56.980trying to get in the way of Chinese infiltration and Canadian politics is something that the
00:10:04.780CSIS director is focusing on. And this came out in the wake of the two Chinese spies that were
00:10:11.320working for the Winnipeg lab. And they have since been fired about a year. They're fired about a
00:10:19.400year after it was revealed that they were compromised, actually. So we've got a lot going
00:10:25.460on with our intelligence agency and our federal government. I'm sure our listeners are familiar
00:10:30.860with the online harms bill that was proposed in recent months. So we have our Governor General,
00:10:38.220Mary Simon. She hosted a private symposium for people that are in support of this online harms
00:10:46.400bill. And it's worth noting that the Governor General of Canada is actually expected to be
00:10:53.840non-partisan, and she calls herself apolitical. We have a comment from Riddle Hall insisting that
00:11:00.460this is the case, even despite the event that she held over the weekend.
00:11:08.800We also have our federal environment minister, Stephen Guilbeault. He told the House of Commons
00:11:15.380this week that he's met many farmers from Alberta to Nova Scotia and everywhere in between, Quebec,
00:11:23.220and farmers are allegedly more worried about climate change than they are about this carbon
00:11:28.980tax according to the environment minister who claimed this in the house of commons the other day
00:11:36.020and to top it all off we have some more information on the great gold heist
00:11:43.540that went down at the toronto international airport so it turns out that air canada employees have
00:11:49.700actually been found to be involved in this. We have two present and a former Air Canada employee
00:11:57.280that has been snagged in relation to this $20 million worth of gold bars, $2.4 million in cash
00:12:05.720and about a half mil worth in jewelry. That's a good haul if you can get it. So I mean that this
00:12:12.920budget, I mean they've been saying it's supposed to be fair for all generations. You know Trudeau's
00:12:18.140borrowing so you don't have to. So you're of kind of a, you know, a younger vintage than I am. Do
00:12:24.740you feel confident that this budget is going to serve your future? Not confident at all. As far
00:12:30.580as I can see, it's tax upon tax and debt upon debt. So the government is just trying desperately
00:12:38.820to fill in the holes that it's made with the gross spending and borrowing more specifically
00:12:46.480over the last several years and trying to patchwork it in by making up for it in tax.
00:12:54.260So no, not confident about that. Looking forward to seeing some changes in our federal government
00:12:59.480very soon. Well, I guess in the meantime, we can count on you to keep shoring things up. We're
00:13:05.120going to put things on your credit card, you know, my generation will, and leave you guys to cover
00:13:10.420it. I mean, we just kicked that can down the road. So get ready for those cuts, I guess, when
00:13:16.080it's time for them to hit. You know, I think CSIS has been going a little wrong with things as well
00:13:21.680when it comes to Prime Minister Trudeau. I mean, as you said, your stories keep pointing out and
00:13:25.940you rate them great. Just has been told over and over and over again about all these things. If
00:13:30.960he denies it, maybe he really doesn't remember. But he said before too, he doesn't read all these
00:13:35.580things. He doesn't read it. That's right. They've got to treat it right. Bring him a pop-up book,
00:13:39.380a coloring book. Prime Minister isn't like other ones. You know, you've got to get into a song.
00:13:44.880on his level show the winnipeg lab and a pop-up book that has a big virus popping out of it
00:13:50.400maybe even then just maybe then you would understand the significance of it yeah he
00:13:55.300seems he seems quite laissez-faire about these issues cory and that's highly concerning i think
00:14:01.340to a lot of canadians just the lack of um really interest or any kind of investment into these
00:14:08.720issues he's very cavalier about it as if someone else can do the reading and just gives the
00:14:14.860give the Cole notes version. Well, we know what happens to those students in high school that
00:14:19.280just reads the Cole's notes versions of the books, right? Well, we'll do what we can anyways. We can't
00:14:25.540educate the prime minister, but we can educate the public. So thanks for checking in with us today.
00:14:31.680And I know you've got plenty more to write out there. So we'll talk to you after the show.
00:14:37.020Yes, it definitely keeps me busy. All right. See you later, Corey.
00:14:41.100All right. And that's a reporter, Jen Hodgson. That's that time. I like to remind you, as you
00:14:45.420can see, yes, she, she writes a lot, a lot of great stories out there all the time. The reason
00:14:49.440we can do that guys is because you've subscribed. This is where I nag. This is where I try to0.50
00:14:53.060fill the coffers up, but it's important. This is how we stay independent. This is why we are
00:14:57.020not tax funded. It's through subscribers. So if you haven't subscribed yet, guys, it's $9.99 a
00:15:03.320month, a hundred bucks a year. Come on. Well worth it. Just like a newspaper subscription.
00:15:07.680And if you're subscribed already, I really appreciate it.
00:15:10.380You know, it's how we keep these things going, how to keep the truth out there.
00:15:27.600So, I mean, the subject, I appreciate it because, I mean, it's one facet of health care.
00:15:32.780Unfortunately, it's a monstrous animal, a huge bureaucracy,
00:15:35.660see a lot of areas that need to be fixed up. But one that I think a lot of people can relate with
00:15:39.720EMS. I mean, it's such an important part of the healthcare services in an emergency situation.
00:15:45.780It's integrated with the whole system. And if we can't fix that, how on earth are we going to fix
00:15:51.640the giant monster? Right. Well, I'm glad to come in and help keep track of progress or lack thereof,
00:15:58.800or what's actually happening in this one small area of healthcare. You would think that EMS by
00:16:03.580itself would be easy to fix but it's so intertwined with the rest of health care now not the way it
00:16:10.960used to be so we have some real struggles right now that we're dealing with yeah well so we've
00:16:17.400been talking for a while we have a more receptive premier than we've had for quite some time even
00:16:21.000premier canning was a bit receptive on some of this like that's our say with the ems there's
00:16:24.460some good common sense solutions that you know you've been pointing out others have been pointing
00:16:28.020out we're using a lot of ambulances to transport patients that just don't need to be
00:16:33.300used in that sense when it should be an emergency use, or they've been draining from
00:16:37.260rural populations, you know, taking the rural ambulances into the cities and leaving other
00:16:43.080areas under covered, or again, hallway medical care, you know, paramedics have been used to
00:16:47.780maintain patients. So we know the simple solutions that a lay person can see, yeah,
00:16:51.860that doesn't make sense, that's not very good, yet it's like pulling teeth, getting Alberta
00:16:56.340Health Services to cooperate with changing some of these. And I think you've hit the nail on the
00:17:00.640head. Daniel Smith, I think, understands very well. Our premier understands very well exactly
00:17:05.980what's wrong with EMS. She came to one of our town hall meetings in Airdrie before she was elected0.98
00:17:10.400when we were speaking about EMS to the community. And Alberta Health Services has certainly dragged
00:17:16.500its feet on this transfer issue. It's been more than a year since they put out that RFP looking
00:17:22.820for contractors. And I'm not quite sure why it took so long. You know, in northern Alberta,
00:17:28.120north of Red Deer, 90% of patients inter-hospitally, and many of them by air, are moved by private
00:17:34.240contracted services. This is not a new phenomenon. And there are private contractors here in southern
00:17:40.540Alberta. There's Aaron Paramedical, Genesis MediShuttle, MedSource. It does a lot of oil
00:17:45.740field work. I think it's called Lifelink Ambulance. They do a lot of rodeos and standbys. I mean,
00:17:52.360all of these qualified private operators that use registered paramedics on their ambulances
00:17:58.180are willing to step up. And in fact, Aaron, paramedical is moving patients almost weekly
00:18:03.620still with a phone call. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't get a, they didn't get a shot at the RFP.
00:18:09.860Yeah. They, they, they brought, put out the RFP, but then they put a whole bunch of roadblocks
00:18:14.040and, and the usual bureaucratic crap to make it. It was all done in secret. Yes. That was part of
00:18:18.960frustration i think us for us dealing with alberta health services and and ems now it's it's not just
00:18:25.600the fact that they've they've failed to fulfill their primary mandate which is the emergency care
00:18:30.560and transportation of sick and injured people in the community they've integrated us into health
00:18:35.200care a lot including putting us in the hallway right and you just can't survive an ambulance
00:18:39.680ambulance service can't survive when half your fleet's in the hallway so i think we know what
00:18:44.320the problems are and let's talk about this latest contract debacle. Yes, well, expand on it. I mean,
00:18:52.960as you said, I mean, the things like even talking to the counties, they've been putting things in
00:18:56.000camera or trying to get the counties to hold meetings in secret. You've been a thorn in their
00:19:00.800side because you're attending and you're just exposing what's been said and pressuring.
00:19:04.720You know, we've been, and again, we've done this before on the show, talking about the number of
00:19:08.560transfers, non-urgent transfers that are being done from the rural communities
00:19:12.640using the emergency ambulances, taking an emergency ambulance out of the community for a long time.
00:19:17.360So this new contract provider in Calgary and Edmonton was supposed to solve those problems,
00:19:23.360but they're only going to reach 50 kilometers outside of the cities.
00:19:26.220So if you're in a community outside that radius, this new transfer protocol is not going to help you at all.
00:19:31.860So what are they doing to satisfy the rural?
00:19:34.980Well, they've got this new EMS standing committee, which I wasn't qualified to be on,
00:19:39.400and frankly wouldn't sign an NDA to join either.
00:19:41.760but it'll be another year they'll meet and then they'll come up with an idea and then it'll take
00:19:46.520another year to implement it. Meanwhile, today and tomorrow and the next day, non-urgent patients
00:19:51.300need to be moved for tests and treatment. So you mentioned AHS doing in-camera closed
00:19:58.400confidential sessions with municipalities. We caught them last week and kudos to the Foothills
00:20:04.220County Council who, when AHS showed up and said, we want to hold our meeting with you in camera,
00:20:09.680in confidence foothills county council said no we have a group of citizens outside who deserve some
00:20:16.080transparency they've asked that this be a public meeting and we think they deserve it so ahs was
00:20:22.000forced it and they've held a number of these closed sessions in claire's home and nanton and
00:20:27.680so we're very concerned with what they're actually talking about and why they want to keep this
00:20:31.440information from the public yeah well and so these non-immersion you know transfers i mean
00:20:36.560I mean, and it's going to be more acute when you get to more rural areas because you have smaller hospitals with limited amounts of specialists.
00:20:42.420You might have a, again, see a senior who's in mobility challenge, you know, needs, can't just hop in a car and drive to the city hospital.
00:20:51.620But at the same time, doesn't need a fully staffed ambulance as well.
00:20:56.180It's like taking a limousine to the grocery store.
00:20:58.160If you're a non-urgent patient who needs to go for a cast change to get orthotics, to get an MRI because you've got a back problem and you just need a stretcher to lay on, taking the only emergency ambulance for 1,200 square kilometers is foolish.
00:21:13.300Let's put these reputable, capable, registered paramedics in these private contractors to work.
00:26:05.360well, how can you be a senior or an executive director for EMS and really not know what's
00:26:10.580happening in a week? Like it's shocking. And the secrecy, the lack of accountability,
00:26:16.160very frustrating. And that's why we started the Where's My Ambulance campaign.
00:26:19.700Yeah. And I'm going to get to that for the final part in chatting with you because you're getting
00:26:23.280active. I mean, you're not just putting out the problems, you're putting pressure on in areas,
00:26:27.660bringing awareness to this so that they can push for solutions. And, you know, if you can't get
00:26:32.260it through the bureaucracy of AHS, the municipalities, I mean, they're upset and getting them engaged,
00:26:39.200getting them pressuring or getting the people living in them realizing just how badly served
00:26:42.980they are. Maybe that'll bring some things about. Well, I'm not a big fan of raising awareness. I
00:26:47.120don't like the term. I like getting things done and fixing problems. That's what paramedics are
00:26:51.120good at. Municipalities, as we talked before, that's where you start. Your municipal elected
00:26:57.820officials are there to protect you a lot from other levels of government, especially now.
00:27:04.320So again, kudos to Foothills County, who said no to AHS, having a confidential closed session.
00:27:12.560And again, there's always conversations that these organizations perhaps need to have,
00:27:18.180short ones, but to have your whole presentation, your PowerPoint on response times,
00:27:22.480number of out-of-service ambulances, and especially the Q&A from counselors,
00:27:27.820You know, we have a group of us, retired paramedics and some other knowledgeable citizens who have offered now to spend some time with counsellors who have questions about how the ambulance service runs.
00:27:40.780Because when these people show up in their uniforms, with their slick presentation, they talk fast, they use a lot of medical jargon.
00:27:49.260And I think in a lot of cases, counsellors aren't sure exactly what questions to ask.
00:27:53.780And even when we give them questions, they're not sure how to follow up.
00:27:56.600So if you're a counselor in a municipality in southern Alberta and you want to have a conversation about what the ambulance service is really doing, feel free to call us.
00:28:06.920Well, then, for people on the ground, I see you've got your sign here.
00:28:26.660And again, we go out now to town council meetings and we show up and we ask questions and we encourage citizens in these communities to ask questions.
00:28:34.300And we showed up again down in High River last week and we had a group of us stand out front.
00:28:40.980And we, a lot of people who stopped, it was funny because they'd look at the sign and they'd go, are you guys here because there's no ambulance in town?
00:28:48.440Well, that's what I was talking about with awareness too, though, because a lot of people, I mean, they aren't necessarily paying attention.
00:28:53.500I live in Prittis. As we said, our ambulance is getting sniped all the time. It's there. It's
00:28:59.200rarely there. I mean, it's the default is our ambulance isn't in the bay servicing our area,
00:29:04.100but your average citizen doesn't know that until they try to call one.
00:29:07.060The medics have a special name for the Prittis ambulance, and it's not very polite
00:29:11.080because it's never there. And it's a tough truck to staff.
00:29:15.300Well, yeah, because you don't feel like, you know, you joined or you got employed there to
00:29:19.920work that area and you find yourself in an urban environment all the time that's not what you signed
00:29:23.380up for you know and it's heartbreaking for some of these medics who work in communities like
00:29:26.820Okotoks and High River as when they get sent to the city or when they get given a non-urgent
00:29:31.220transfer and as they leave town they see on the map that somebody in their community is having a
00:29:36.300critical medical emergency and they're leaving town yeah and that's heartbreaking for these for
00:29:41.840these medics to work in an organization that that seems to not care about the people where they live0.75
00:29:46.840in their rural communities. It's frustrating.
00:29:48.900And the more populated areas where I live
00:30:37.780That's our goal is to make it simple again.
00:30:39.580Well, like I said, I appreciate your work.
00:30:41.700I mean, your work prior as a paramedic, but now just shining a light on this because it's one of the areas of health care that, as I said, a lay person can kind of understand.
00:30:48.000I mean, they can't take part in it, but they know, OK, there's an urgent situation.
00:30:51.140We need to stabilize somebody and get them to care as fast as we can.
00:32:01.020Okay. All right. So again, where's my ambulance.com and yes,
00:32:04.280it's Don Sharp. He's been in before and yeah, he's,
00:32:06.960he's fun on Twitter and all those social media areas and that as well. I mean, it's just the
00:32:11.760healthcare monster. And there's areas that I don't understand. You know, I'm going to, I'm going to
00:32:15.420make the call out right now. Somebody, please send somebody in. I've had a family member who's been,
00:32:19.540you know, ailing. I've spent time at the hospital lately, visiting things like that.
00:32:23.220And I don't understand it. Now I do understand that the nurses and doctors are harried and
00:32:27.600they're working very hard and everything. But I also noticed that 90% of their time they're
00:32:31.100sitting in front of a computer. So what is going on? I honestly don't understand. I don't know.
00:32:35.500So if somebody can explain to me why it's so integral to deal with the paperwork, with the computer, there's literally every, you know, stand, there's computers all the way through the hallways, there's these stands, we've got dozens and dozens of patients, you've got a few people moving around, dealing with them, doing what they can, moving them, checking on them, you know, bringing medication, but I see them most of the time staring at a screen.
00:33:01.680I mean, I understand you have to have a degree of administration and paperwork to deal with a large system in a hospital and things like that.
00:33:09.560But when they are spending, these trained professionals who are supposed to be trained for the care one-on-one with patients,
00:33:16.900and it looks like they're spending 80% of their time staring at a screen, something isn't working.
00:33:23.180I mean, going farther back to, I remember Paul Hinman used to bring that up in his speeches all the time when we were the Alberta Alliance.
00:33:32.140But, you know, to show some of the bureaucratic problems, the hospitals, things like that.
00:33:52.080Go there on a weekend. It's empty. Aside from a few folks visiting. Why? People don't stop being
00:33:59.240sick on the weekends and evenings. Well, it's because the parking was jammed with bureaucrats.
00:34:06.120I mean, they still have to be cared for. The ones working the ground, working the wards,
00:34:09.760they're there, all those other shifts. But all the rest disappeared. We've got a load of paper
00:34:14.500pushers. And when you're having a heart attack, a form isn't going to save you. Somebody typing
00:34:20.200on a computer isn't going to save you. You need somebody physically with you. You need a doctor
00:34:25.580later who's going to find out why your ticker is going off on you and hopefully treat that later.
00:34:31.460But it's hard to do when they're constantly mired in administration. That gets back to, again,
00:34:36.660this is the nature of government-run businesses, of bureaucracies. Private isn't a solution to
00:34:43.180everything. We need a mixed system. But I tell you, if there was competition, if there really was,
00:34:49.020even if it's universal. I'm going to say the blasphemy. Yes, we need private care. We need
00:34:55.260more of it. I want to see private hospitals. I do. I want to see private emergency centers.
00:34:59.700I want to see them advertising, trying to get you to choose them as the place to go to,
00:35:04.720even if you're not paying out of pocket. You know, there's ways we can deal with this.
00:35:08.420I tell you what, it'll get better a lot faster. Down in the States, when I was working down there,
00:35:13.900I remember in Hobbs, New Mexico, driving on the highway, there was a billboard for a hospital and
00:35:17.720had a digital readout actually showing what the emergency wait times were. They would say,
00:35:22.500come to our hospital if you need to, because they're competing. And the emergency wait times
00:35:27.600are on average, and it tended to be 10 minutes. I think the longest I ever saw was 40 minutes.
00:35:33.960Now, we're in Canada. How are we doing? It's free to die on a gurney, because you're waiting 23,
00:35:40.36048 hours. I mean, the numbers are obscene what you have to wait for emergency service now in
00:35:46.120Canadian hospitals. So set aside that instinctive opposition to the private involvement. Let's look
00:35:53.200at outcomes, guys, we've got to make it better. And if you were running a private facility,
00:35:58.480and you're walking up and down, and your professionals are mostly sitting in front
00:36:02.640of computers all the time, you're not going to get patients coming back because they realize
00:36:06.960they're not getting the best service they can. And as an operator, you're going to change things.
00:36:11.180Is it the person sitting in front of the computer is not doing a good job? Or is it your management
00:36:14.900that's putting too many administrative tasks on the professionals who should be working on the
00:36:19.420ground. I don't know. These sorts of things can be solved. But when you're in a giant monolithic
00:36:24.660bureaucratic system, there's only one system. There's no incentive to fix that. There's no
00:36:32.280motivation to change it. And again, it keeps coming down to throwing more money at it. We've
00:36:36.320been throwing money at it. Canada is one of the highest spending countries in the world when it
00:36:39.620comes to healthcare spending. And it's not getting us better outcomes. I mean, it's just not cutting
00:36:47.800it, guys. I mean, one of the areas too, some of the blasphemy. Guess what, guys? Nurses aren't
00:36:52.320saints. I get sick of that. I get sick of the nurses union, not the nurses themselves, but0.96
00:36:56.620their bloody union. And they support that union though, a lot of them. And look up, if you want
00:37:02.160to look up a story, look in Alberta, and I'm sure it's the same in every province. The sunshine list
00:37:08.280is it what they call it or whatever the ones who get over a hundred thousand a year and there are
00:37:13.280a lot there was one in alberta i believe that nurse got over four hundred thousand dollars0.88
00:37:18.780because they play an interesting game most of them are part-time part-time but they work full-time
00:37:25.380hours you see the way it works is they automatically get overtime the second they work a shift that
00:37:33.200wasn't scheduled for them. And they play a really neat game. So you put yourself down as part-time,
00:37:39.280but then you sign up for all the other shifts that come along. Even though you're only working
00:37:43.02040 hours a week, you can end up having half of your hours being overtime. And nurses overtime1.00
00:37:46.480isn't like our overtime with its time and a half. They get two and a half times. And then if you
00:37:51.020work on a holiday, oh, they can get up to quadruple time. And you work in the evenings, you get an
00:37:54.920evening premium. And you work in the weekends, you get a weekend premium. And you can work as a
00:37:58.300part-time nurse and end up pulling in well into over a hundred thousand a year. It's ridiculous.
00:38:04.880If you're going to work over 40 hours a week, every week, change it, make them full-time,
00:38:08.940make them like real people in the real world. If you're working overtime, you're getting overtime
00:38:12.300fine after 44 hours, like the rest of us, or even 40. But no, no, they game the system.
00:38:20.680And I tell you, the unions get worked up every time that's brought up. That's one of their
00:38:23.300little secrets they love going on about. You know, they're gaming the system. Look, nurses are1.00
00:38:28.420professionals. They work very bloody hard. I understand that. But if they're screwing us,
00:38:34.480I can only support so far. Competition. A private operator is not going to put up with that crap.
00:38:39.720They will pay a high price for good professionals in their institution, but they're not going to put
00:38:45.060up with them gaming them on it, are they? Yes, we need to change this. Either way, you know,
00:38:49.260So one of the first steps, which I think was great, is, yes, Premier Smith is breaking up the AHS, the Alberta Health Services for people who are outside of Alberta, in a separate unit.
00:38:59.660So there's going to be three or four, I believe.
00:39:02.220That way it's not such a giant monster.
00:39:04.160You know, she's biting it apart a little to fix it up.1.00
00:39:06.960And as Dawn was talking about, we can look at little areas of it, such as EMS.
00:39:12.220We can fix that and we can show that there can be improvements on some of these things because it's ridiculous right now.
00:39:19.260Speaking of ridiculous, this is one of the things that Jen mentioned earlier.
00:39:22.200So, you know, let's just go into some federal stuff.
00:39:24.920The governor general, yeah, she's had online harm symposium.
00:39:29.240She's hosting, and this was for Bill C-63.
00:39:32.460She basically came out in favor of a liberal government bill.0.89
00:39:37.620Now, people who aren't political wieners like myself might not really understand just how egregious this is, just how bad this is.
00:39:44.500This is the king's representative taking a stance on political policy, becoming political, becoming partisan.
00:39:54.020She's supposed to be nothing more than a rubber stamp.1.00
00:39:56.360I know people talk about the office of it and it should be respected.
00:39:58.800No, they don't garner my respect anymore.
00:40:01.660They're a remnant of the feudal system.
00:40:03.860At least just be the ribbon cutter you are, the celebrity you are, the patronage appointment you are, the token you are.0.70