Lloydminster - Group Rallies the Troops

Join Together Alberta touring the province in an effort to combat funding cuts by the provincial government
Posted By Graham Mason, Lloydminster Meridian Booster
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A small group of concerned residents gathered at the Legacy Centre Monday night to air grievances about Alberta provincial government funding ahead of a budget in which the government is planning widespread cuts.

The main concern was health care, mainly regarding the most vulnerable, including shortages of long-term care beds and lack of support for seniors.

A consortium called Join Together Alberta, which strongly opposes government spending cuts, organized the meeting.

"Our economy is starting to recover ... and yet we're also seeing on the other side 'expect cuts,' said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta.

"The cuts are already hurting ... health care wait times, hiring freezes, positions being eliminated, procedures being cancelled."

Moore-Kilgannon made three major recommendations. He called for using money from the rainy day fund to bridge the gap during the recovery, the abolition of the flat tax and making oil companies pay for developing carbon capture technology.

"Just because your investments didn't do so well last year doesn't mean you can't afford to send your children to post-secondary education or you should (cut back) on health care," said Moore Kilgannon. "It doesn't have to be this way. There's no need to panic, especially given the signs of recovery."

No other government has as many options."

Rod Sellers, member of a local seniors advocacy group argued Lloydminster is entitled to more health care money, not less.

"Over the last 10 years East-Central health has allotted about 10 per cent of their budget to the Lloydminster health district, the population is at about 15 or 20 per cent," said Sellers. "We challenge the government every chance we get to discuss these statistics with us but they don't want to get into that argument because I think they know they'd lose it.

"Their statistics are based on, well, we can't figure out exactly what."

"What this whole discussion boils down to is 'what are our values?,'" he said. "We value our seniors, we value our education system - we value these things."

A lack of support for seniors was the most common gripe presented by attendees.

"Lloydminster being on the border here we do have quite a lot of difficulties, and I have to say that our neighbour to the east - the government to the east - actually treats their responsibilities to people with developmental disabilities in a better fashion than the people from Alberta, said one man who works for a local seniors housing facility who wished to remain anonymous for fear of damaging his relations with the Alberta.

Jackie Crooks, a registered nurse from Vermilion, pointed out the shortage of health care beds in the province.

"In the early 90s there was a significant reduction in acute care beds ... Vermilion saw a reduction from 35 to 25," said Crooks, adding it's also important to have beds available in urban centres. "People who live in rural areas need to be able to access urban hospitals, especially Alberta Hospital."

"The second major change that I've seen in the Vermilion and surrounding areas has been a reduction in long-term care beds," she said, adding many have been changed to assisted living beds and there is a significant difference between the two. "People are living longer, and have more complex, unstable mental and physical illnesses that often require unscheduled nursing and medical interventions."