AB Today – Daily Report February 6, 2020
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AB Today – Daily Report February 6, 2020 Quotation of the day “Sheer brutality.” NDP Leader Rachel Notley gives her assessment of the changes to seniors’ health coverage suggested in the Ernst and Young review of Alberta Health Services. Today in AB Premier watch Premier Jason Kenney told the Montreal Gazette’s editorial board he will be opening a office in the city this spring. The office will be led by a former Quebecer who has lived in Alberta for several years, according to Kenney, with the purpose of promoting the energy sector. Meanwhile, CBC reported that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will join Kenney and the premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington on Friday and Saturday. NDP says seniors will be hit hard by proposed health-care reforms Advocates called on the government not to follow through on proposed changes to seniors care in Alberta at a news conference alongside NDP Leader Rachel Notley Tuesday. Rick Brick, district director for the National Association of Federal Retirees, said recommendations in a recently released review of Alberta Health Services (AHS) conducted by consulting firm Ernst and Young, as well as changes to the seniors drug plan will negatively impact the province’s elderly population — and will ultimately end up costing taxpayers more in the long run. The review proposed changing about 1,300 long-term care beds to less costly supportive living beds, which EY said would result in an estimated $32 million in savings. Brick argued reducing care levels will lead to worse outcomes, as well as increase direct costs for patients and their families. “There are some things in there that seem on the surface to be positive — expanding home care, community based programs, better aligning resources — but in some ways the devil in the details,” Brick said. The introduction of income-tested drug coverage for seniors — a proposal being examined as part of the fall 2019 budget — would require the province to spend more to beef up its health-care bureaucracy, according to Brick and Notley. Trying to assess for need is a “bureaucratic impossibility,” Notley said, adding that income testing can be progressive in some situations, but not when it comes to pharmaceutical coverage. Health care, including pharmacare, should be based on need, not ability to pay, according to the NDP leader, adding that if seniors can’t afford to pay for drugs, they may end up in hospital or long-term care, something that will ultimately cost the health-care system more. Currently, seniors enrolled in the province’s drug plan pay no premiums, but have a copayment of 30 per cent to a maximum of $25 per prescription. If the rules change, well-off seniors could be asked to pay premiums, a deductible or increased payment, although no decision has been made. Last year, the government also announced non-senior dependents would no longer be covered under the seniors drug benefit program as of March 1, affecting approximately 46,000 Albertans who are currently enrolled and must now seek coverage from Alberta Blue Cross, which costs up to $63.50 per individual. Today’s events February 6 at 9 a.m. — Edmonton The UCP’s treasury board committee will hold a closed-door meeting in the cabinet room of the legislature. February 6 at 12 p.m. — Edmonton Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women Minister Leela Aheer will speak at the Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Event at the Royal Alberta Museum. February 6 at 1 p.m. — Edmonton At the federal building, Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Seniors and Housing Minister Josephine Pon will announce new funding for seniors lodges and continuing care spaces in rural communities. February 6 — Fredericton, New Brunswick Federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for labour will meet at the Fredericton Convention Centre. Topics of conversation ● Scott Banda, CEO of Federated Co-operatives Limited CEO — which represents co-op owned gas stations, among other firms — was in a Calgary courtroom on Wednesday seeking an injunction against Unifor’s picket at a Carseland cardlock. ○ Banda held a news conference, attended by members of United We Roll, a pro-oil protest group. Later, a convoy of United We Roll protesters broke the picket line after threatening to run down protesting union members. ○ The picket in Carseland is being held in solidarity with locked-out workers entangled in a labour dispute with the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina, Saskatchewan. ○ Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen also weighed in on the strike, the second minister to do so, in a social media video. ○ Dreeshen took the side of the employer, saying the striking workers’ picket of the cardlock, the only source of commercial fuel in the community, is hurting farmers and escalating the situation. ● Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful Peter MacKay brought praise for the oilsands and concern about rural crime to Red Deer during a campaign stop Wednesday, the Red Deer Advocate reports. ○ “I know Alberta’s economy has struggled mightily, and I just want to bring you a little bit of a love letter from Atlantic Canada,” MacKay told the crowd. “I want to say thank you for the schools, and the roads, and the hospitals and the social services.” ○ He called the importing of oil from other countries to Atlantic Canada and Quebec “perverse” and the equivalent of owning a bread store, but buying bread. ● The Teck Frontier mining project drew international attention with a column in the British newspaper The Guardian by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, who opposes the project. ○ McKibben argues Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be a hypocrite if he approved the mine, stating Canada is a country with 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, but Frontier’s operations would eat up one-third of world’s remaining carbon budget. ○ “If an alcoholic assured you he was taking his condition very seriously, but also laying in a 40-year store of bourbon, you’d be entitled to doubt his sincerity, or at least to note his confusion,” McKibben wrote. ● UCP MLA for Calgary—Klein Jeremy Nixon told the Calgary Herald he may bring forward a motion asking the Alberta legislative assembly for permission to have former Calgary Board of Education (CBE) trustee Lisa Davis speak in front of the Standing Committee on Families and Communities. ○ Davis recently resigned after the CBE passed a motion behind closed doors requiring all CBE trustees who speak to a provincially appointed auditor to do so with a CBE lawyer present. ○ Education Minister Adriana LaGrange ordered an audit of the board after trustees voted to lay off 300 teachers in order to make up for shortfalls in the provincial budget, a move they have since reversed. ● Media were kicked out of the Alberta Industrial Heartland Association’s annual stakeholder meeting for the duration of remarks by former prime minister Stephen Harper, the Sherwood Park News reports. ○ A source speaking to the paper said Harper didn’t want “his words twisted by big media.” ○ The News reports Harper’s speech was about technological revolution and the global economy. ● The Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the Alberta Federation of Labour got into a war of words Wednesday over compensation for nurses. ○ In a news release, Alberta director of the CTF Franco Terrazzano accused the United Nurses of Alberta of having “golden benefits” and called on Premier Jason Kenney to reign in expenses. ○ Terrazzano said the nurses’ defined benefits plan is a “double pension”, slammed part-time nurses’ overtime pay and claimed “top-up bonuses” received by nurses have “no rationale.” ○ AFL president Gil McGowan accused the CTF of being an “astroturf organization” openly operating as the United Conservative Party’s propaganda machine (the AFL has historically supported and campaigned for the NDP). ○ “It’s no coincidence that this attack on front-line nurses directly parallels bargaining positions taken in the past few days by the [Alberta Health Services] bargaining team and tweets posted by the premier’s issues management staff,” McGowan said. “The spin is dishonest, but the similarity of the arguments made is a smoking gun for the collusion between Kenney and the organization he used to lead.” ● Amazon Canada has named Fort McMurray Canada’s “most romantic” city on its annual Valentine’s Day-timed list, beating out Victoria, which held the top spot for the last seven years. News briefs — Governmental Finance Minister pleased with pay freeze for HSAA members ● Finance Minister Travis Toews issued a statement praising an arbitration ruling that decided Health Sciences Association of Alberta members should receive no wage increases. ○ Toews said fiscal restraint and discipline must continue into the 2020 collective bargaining process. ○ “Our goal as we move forward with upcoming negotiations is to do so cooperatively, not combatively,” Toews said. Oops! Tuesday’s edition of AB Today misspelled the name of legislative assembly clerk Shannon Dean. We apologize for the error. .