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Hello AB Resistance Partners!
ABR is now on X! Please follow us at AB_Resistance, and REPOST! We also have our site up on FB! WE ARE IN NEED OF ADMINS ON BOTH SITES‼️
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We will be sending out this update, as well as a VERY IMPORTANT FOLLOW UP over the next couple of days. This update is a chronicle of just some of the most recent horrendous actions of the UCP govt.
Healthcare
1. SOS sent out to the UCP govt by the AMA and Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Doctors Association has been ignored by Health Minister Adriana Lagrange and Danielle Smith. Dr. Parks states that 2 proposals presented to the UCP which would begin to stabilize HC in Alberta, were presented to the government last fall. There has been zero response.
Medicine Hat News Aug 7/24
2. Alberta father, 41, dies of cancer before getting to see an oncologist.
Global News June 2/24
3. Cancer treatment wait times are leading to hard choices for oncologists. Treatment that would have been offered earlier to prolong life, or minimize suffering and pain, are not options oncologists can offer anymore, as wait times for treatments grow.
Edmonton Journal June 2/24
4. A new hospital in Airdrie, the fastest growing city in AB, has been cancelled by the UCP. Instead, the UCP have given a Drs group $85K to develop a business plan resulting in a new clinic, or HC “Campus” which includes the following:
A. Bottom floor: A walk in clinic for the general public
B. Top floor: A clinic with all the bells and whistles, nurses, NPs, midwives, etc,, but…NOT FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC. If you’re venturing up to the top floor, YOU MUST BE PAYING A MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION.
This is the UCP answer to the need for a hospital. Airdrie, you’re being privatized! There are now over 40 medical clinics in AB advertising membership fees. Public HC…death by Cuts.
CBC News April 24/24
5. 350 hip and knee surgeries halted over the summer. Operating rooms will sit empty, as orthopaedic surgeons flee, many to BC. Since the original news story, the Aug 12 date for resumption of these surgeries has been extended.
Press Leader July 19/24
6. Hinton declares HC EMERGENCY. Their Drs are leaving, or retiring. They already only have half the Drs needed. The town is being forced into digging into its own pockets for the $500K it will take to keep their clinics open.
Adriana Lagrange – “What Hinton or any other community wants to do to make their communities more attractive to physicians, that’s really up to them”. Have you heard of quiet quitting? This is what “quiet privatization ” looks like.
7. There have been reports of patients being billed for testing such as PAP Cervical Cancer Screening because they were processed at a private lab…EM Diagnostics Base Lab.
8. C.Galloway, Friends of Medicare: UCP is using healthcare shortages to bring in for profit acute (hospital) care, without doing anything to mitigate shortages.
9. Eric Bouchard, UCP MLA, has been hosting forums called the “Injection of Truth”, claiming that the COVID vaccine has resulted in an increase in deaths in children. The speakers, 6 “drs”, one a veterinarian, have all had licenses revoked or suspended for distributing disinformation. 6 other UCP MLAs attended, and applauded as speakers accused AB doctors of child abuse. Smith publicly supported this forum, while the balance of the UCP Caucus sat silently.
The Tyee July 18/24
Alberta Politics June 22/24
Anti hate.ca May 15/24
10. Oncologists have now taken to X, posting video pleas to the UCP for help for their patients. This is what HC has sunk to in Alberta.
Education
1. Alberta ranks LAST in Canada re Public Education spending per student. The last budget recorded cuts across the board for Public Education. However, Private Schools received $419M, and Charter Schools $118M. The UCP is systematically destroying Public Ed by defunding it. As new school builds are cancelled for Public Ed, the UCP will add 100 modular classrooms.
ATA Feb 27/24
2. A scan of publicly available board budget reports for 2024/2025 shows that province wide, more than 250 teaching positions will be eliminated.
ATA June 19/24
3. MLA Dale Nally held a “Parents for Choice” meeting on July 22. The focus was training the right wing in the intricacies of taking over school and municipality boards. This is the not the TBA we’re talking about, (or is it?), this is the sitting government.
Conflict of Interest
1. Forestry & Parks Ministry – Todd Loewen
Todd Loewen had the Hunting & Fishing portfolios split and Hunting put under his ministry. Loewen owns an outfitters and guiding company in Valleyview, AB, Red Willow Outfitters. Last year, Loewen travelled to Nevada, to sell Trophy Hunting licenses to US hunters for our bighorn sheep. Recently, Loewen has declared that some farmers are having trouble with grizzly bears. Instead of allowing these farmers to kill problem grizzlies, Loewen has opened up hunting on grizzlies. You only have to apply for a license (and a guide?). There was no consultation with Wildlife Conservationists. The UCP seems to have issues with consulting experts. They must believe that they themselves are all the expertise needed to make momentous decisions on behalf of Albertans.
Western Wheel July 18/24
2. Environmental Ministry – Rebecca Schulz
Rebecca Schulz has granted 2 O&G Pilot Projects totalling $2M to a lobbyist for O&G. Who is that lobbyist? Cole Schulz, her husband.
Calgary Herald Sept 27/23
3. Seniors, Social Services Ministry – Jason Nixon
Jason Nixon’s family founded the Mustard Seed shelter, which falls under his ministry’s purview. Jason Nixon, along with his brother Jeremy, receive a pension from the Mustard Seed. The latest budget revealed that funding for all shelters was cut…except for the budget of the Mustard Seed.
AB Politics May 1/24
The Sprawl March 26/22 Nixon’s Rocky Ascent to Power
4. Smith: Albertans want me representing them at Oiler Playoff games…In Skyboxes. Smith, her ministers, and staffers attended multiple Oiler playoff games in Edmonton, Vancouver and Florida. Many times they were hosted, in skyboxes, by lobbyists. One such lobbyist was the company that facilitated the purchase of TyleNOT, the fiasco that cost Albertans $100M…for nothing. This story is ongoing, coming out in trickles…but it will ALL come out.
One Albertan who caught on to this early, and posted Smith’s expenses in Vancouver on a game day, was threatened by the premier’s office with a legal suit if he did not delete the post.
APP/CPP
1. Although the UCP has been quiet recently regarding the Alberta Pension Plan proposal, it is still on their agenda. The resistance they have come up against has forced them to use other means of convincing Albertans to shed their CPP. Groups such as Freedom Alberta are quietly holding APP forums for the UCP. The survey the UCP funded, will not, according to the UCP, be made public. Uncovered recently in a FOIP: “Alberta officials cautioned against releasing pension survey data. The ministry may be impacted upon the release of this records package”. How is it that our tax $ paid for this survey, but we are denied access to the results?
Wildfires
1. Alberta is burning…again. Alberta was not prepared for this fire season. They refused to offer
experienced firefighters competitive wages, or health insurance. They went elsewhere.
Edmonton Journal May 8/24
2. Over 4000 AB Firefighters Left Without New Contracts
The Alberta Worker Aug 7/24
Energy
1. Municipalities are being ignored…again. AB UCP are proposing changes to enable O&G companies with unpaid taxes, to be sold without paying the arrears in taxes. The municipalities are owed approximately $251M in unpaid taxes. Calgary Herald Fe28/24
2. The AB UCP “pause” on renewables, has cost Alberta $91M in taxes per year. Calgary Herald Aug 8/24
3. 53 wind & solar projects worth billions of $ and thousands of jobs were abandoned when the UCP “paused” renewables, then failed to clarify new rules. CBC Aug2/24
4. Smith LIED about the Alberta Electric Operator asking her to pause renewables. Mike Low was actually opposed to the moratorium. Fast forward a few months? Mike Low no longer has his job. CBC May 9/24 CTV Calgary May 10/24 The Narwhal July 5/24
General
1. New report shows collapse of AB living standards. Alberta Workers May 18/24
- Since 2019 AB has had the lowest wage growth in CA.
- AB only province to have not increased minimum wage in 5 yrs
- AB lost 33,000 jobs in May
- Decline in living standards corresponds with record profit taking by AB corporations
- AB inflation rate 3.3%…highest in Canada. CA inflation at 2.67%
- AB Electricity costs up 84.9%./CA 14.8%
- AB Auto Insurance up 38%/CA 15.0%
- AB Tuition up 23.3%/CA 5.4%
2. Polling Canada
If you think that your choice is a given, ladies? Stats for Alberta show that the 3 rd highest fundraising, after the 2 main political parties, is PRO LIFE, quietly preparing for your future.
3. Heritage Fund – If you think that you are suffering through with a lack of Public HC, lack of teachers, etc, because your tax dollars are being contributed to the Heritage Fund for your future? Uhh…NO. Danielle Smith has publicly stated that she will be using the Heritage Fund to support her pet O&G projects…the ones who can’t qualify for a bank loan. She calls it DE- RISKING…for them, not us.
So…no healthcare, no education, and no Heritage Fund.
The Tyee June 20/24 Fraser Institute
June 26/24
Please watch for our follow up email in the next couple of days. It is IMPORTANT‼️
WHEN YOU SHARE A COMMITMENT AROUND A COMMON GOAL, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!