Latest news with #Albertan
Edmonton Journal
13 hours ago
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Alberta shows a lack of improvement when it comes to emergency room wait times: report
Article content Alberta's emergency room wait times are just as long as they were last year for the median patient, according to a new report by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI). The median Albertan spent three hours and 48 minutes in the emergency room in 2024 — an increase of 54 minutes since 2020. According to the report, the Edmonton region had the highest median wait time at five hours and 54 minutes, followed by the Calgary region at four hours and 42 minutes.
Calgary Herald
13 hours ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Alberta shows a lack of improvement when it comes to emergency room wait times: report
An Alberta Health Services building on 107 Street in Downtown Edmonton on Feb. 27, 2025. Photo by Shaughn Butts / Postmedia Alberta's emergency room wait times are just as long as they were last year for the median patient, according to a new report by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI). THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The median Albertan spent three hours and 48 minutes in the emergency room in 2024 — an increase of 54 minutes since 2020. According to the report, the Edmonton region had the highest median wait time at five hours and 54 minutes, followed by the Calgary region at four hours and 42 minutes. Krystle Wittevrongel, the institute's director of research, said over the past five years all 10 provinces have seen an increase in wait times. Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again 'Alberta didn't increase much from last year, but compared to the beginning of the five-year period, there was an increase of 54 minutes compared to the beginning of the period (2020), but it was zero minutes from last year. So we don't have much change, but it's hard to look at it just from one year's perspective,' Wittevrongel said. MEI obtained the data through freedom of information requests from all 10 provinces for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Wittevrongel said despite getting both the average and median wait times, they chose to go with the median statistic since it was a better indicator when accounting for extreme outliers where some people may wait for very little or a long time, which can skew the average. This means 50 per cent of patients wait longer and 50 per cent wait less time than the median. When creating the report, Wittevrongel said her team looked at the time when a patient is triaged to the physician's initial assessment and the total length of stay from triage until they are discharged from the emergency room. She said they mainly focused on the length of stay since it is more indicative of a hospital's overall operation such as bed shortages. According to the report, the University of Alberta Hospital had the longest visits in Alberta with a median stay of eight hours and 30 minutes in 2024, followed by the Misericordia Community Hospital at seven hours and 54 minutes and the Royal Alexandra Hospital at seven hours and 42 minutes. 'Almost four hours for a length of stay doesn't seem that high, but it is quite high when we look at other countries and I really think that we've just gotten to a place where we accept long wait times and something has to change,' Wittevrongel said.
Calgary Herald
13 hours ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Opinion: Province needs to make realistic investments in team-based primary health care
The Alberta government made improving access to primary care health services a priority in its health system reforms. Yet, the $644 million it announced in this year's budget to connect every Albertan to a primary care team and improve access to front-line health services falls short of the funding necessary to achieve this. Article content Article content Family doctors cannot continue to deliver care without a well-resourced and supported team. Refocusing the system around team-based care — in which patients have timely access to family doctors, nurse practitioners and other health-care professionals — is a critical, long-term project. The government must be clear-sighted about the investments needed to build a system that delivers for all Albertans. Article content Article content A recent analysis by the Alberta College of Family Physicians with input from experts shows that, realistically, the government needs to invest between $3.2 billion and $6.8 billion annually — between $673 and $1,417 per Albertan — to fully fund team-based primary care. Article content Article content It sounds like a hefty price tag until you compare it to how much is already being spent. Our analysis indicates that the government is already spending approximately $3 billion a year on primary care, but doing so in a fragmented way that is neither delivering optimal care nor offering financial efficiency. Article content Our model shows that making sufficient investments in primary care will result in a return on investment of more than $3 billion from savings connected to reduced emergency room and urgent care visits, and fewer unnecessary trips to specialists. This investment will also improve access for all Albertans to the right health care at the right time, decrease effects on the acute care system and address health workforce challenges. Article content Article content An aging population and patients with increasingly complex needs are increasing family doctors' workloads and straining their ability to provide comprehensive care by themselves. The administrative burdens of running their practice add to their challenges. Article content These issues are compounded by a growing population and a shortage of family physicians, due to factors such as retirement, doctors opting to work in other areas and fewer medical students choosing family medicine, which has left more than 650,000 Albertans without a primary care provider. Article content Properly resourced and developed team-based primary care will ensure that all Albertans have a medical home where they can access services when they need them, reducing lengthy wait times for appointments, and the overcrowding and costs of avoidable emergency department care and hospital admission.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Alberta's push for independence pales in comparison to Scotland's in 2014
One day after the Liberal Party secured their fourth consecutive federal election victory, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tabled legislation to change the signature threshold needed to put citizen-proposed constitutional questions on the ballot. She lowered it from the current 600,000 signatures to 177,000. Since the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project already claims to have 240,000 pledges in support of an Albertan sovereignty referendum, the change clears a path to a separation referendum. In 2014, Scottish voters went to the polls on a similar question to the one proposed by the Alberta Prosperity Project, but asking voters whether they wanted to regain their independence from Britain. Although the Scottish 'Yes' campaign was defeated, it garnered 45 per cent of the vote, far exceeding what most thought was possible at the start of the campaign. The 2014 Scottish referendum injected a huge amount of enthusiasm into the Scottish separatist parties, with the largest, the Scottish National Party (SNP) — which led the fight for the Yes side — soaring from 20,000 members in 2013 to more than 100,000 months after the referendum. While the Yes campaign did not achieve its goals and the Scottish historical context is very different from Alberta's, there are still important lessons about how people can be won over to the cause of independence. Albertan separatists don't seem to be heading down the same path. Smith has suggested that if the necessary signatures were collected, that she would aim to hold a referendum in 2026. But the Alberta Prosperity Project's Jeffrey Rath suggested the group would push Smith to allow a referendum before the end of 2025, giving the referendum a maximum of seven months of official campaigning. The broad ground rules of the Scottish referendum were established in the Edinburgh Agreement in October 2012. On March 2013, the SNP-led Scottish government announced the date of the independence referendum — Sept. 18, 2014. The long campaign period allowed a wide variety of grassroots campaign groups to organize in favour of independence. While Alberta separatism is less likely to be buoyed by artist collectives and Green Party activists like Scottish independence was, a longer independence campaign would allow a variety of members of Albertan society to make the case for independence. Dennis Modry, a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, recently told CBC News that the initial signature threshold of 600,000 was not all bad, as it would 'get (us) closer to the referendum plurality as well.' That remark suggested Modry sees value having more time to campaign before a referendum is held. In this regard, he and Rath seem to be sounding different notes. Hints that the Alberta Prosperity Project is already divided raises broader questions of leadership. In 2014, the Scottish Yes side had a clear and undisputed leader — First Minister Alex Salmond, head of the SNP. The late Salmond led the SNP to back-to-back electoral victories in Scotland, including the only outright majority ever won in the history of the Scottish parliament in 2011. Salmond was able to speak in favour of independence in debates and to answer, with democratic legitimacy, specific questions about what the initial policy of an independent Scotland would be. The SNP government published a report, Scotland's Future, that systematically sought to assuage skeptics. Its 'frequently asked questions' (FAQ) section answered 650 potential questions about independence. The Alberta Prosperity Project, on the other hand, only answers 74 questions in its FAQ. Whereas Salmon's rise to the leadership of the Scottish independence movement was done in full public view and according to party rules, the Alberta Prosperity Project's leadership structure is far murkier. The organization claims there 'is no prima facie leader of the APP, but there (is) a management team which is featured on the website Follow that link, however, and no names or management structures are listed. While independence always involves some unknowns, clear leadership can provide answers about where a newly independent nation might find stability. The Yes Scotland campaign promised independence within Europe, meaning Scotland would retain access to the European Union's common market. By contrast, the Alberta Prosperity Project isn't clear on the fundamental question of whether a sovereign Alberta should remain independent or attempt to join the United States as its 51st state. Despite the claim on its website that 'the objective of the Alberta Prosperity Project is for Alberta to become a sovereign nation, not the 51st state of the USA,' the organization backed Rath's recent trip to Washington, D.C. to gauge support for Albertan integration into the U.S. Rath has also said that becoming a U.S. territory is 'probably the best way to go.' The 2014 referendum in Scotland was called a 'festival of democracy', and even anti-independence forces agreed the referendum had been good for democracy. It took time and leadership to put forward a positive case for independence, one that voters could decide upon with confidence. Alberta could learn from Scotland and strengthen its democracy by holding a referendum based on legitimate leadership, reasonable timelines, diverse voices and clear aims. Or it could lurch into a rushed campaign, with divided leaders of dubious legitimacy, arguing for unclear outcomes — and end up, no matter which side wins, weakening its democracy in the process. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Piers Eaton, L'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Read more: Alberta has long accused Ottawa of trying to destroy its oil industry. Here's why that's a dangerous myth Danielle Smith's subservient Florida trip flouts the Team Canada approach to fighting Trump Why Alberta's Danielle Smith is rejecting the Team Canada approach to Trump's tariff threats Piers Eaton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Canada's energy conversation shouldn't 'start and end' with pipelines, Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he agrees "more needs to be done" to support Canada's energy sector and strengthen the wider domestic economy, but reiterated he believes the industry should not revolve solely around the conventional oil and gas pipelines that have long fuelled political debate out West. In an interview Tuesday, Carney said his new government will be focused on diversifying the energy sector beyond its roots in Alberta's oilpatch to include other, clean energy resources from across the country. He did not rule out pipelines as part of the discussion, but said he doesn't believe most Canadians see those projects as the be-all-end-all option. "It's remarkable. In some circles, this conversation starts and ends with pipelines," Carney told CBC's Power & Politics host David Cochrane in Ottawa. "But that's what it has become politically," Cochrane noted. "No, that is not what it's become politically. That is not what it's become for Canada. Canada as a nation," Carney said. "Canadians, yes, they want energy pipelines that make sense. They also want connections between our clean grids. They want actually less carbon, so they want carbon capture and storage … they want broader [mineral exporting] corridors, for example ... that open up whole swaths of the country to new trade so that we are sovereign in the most important components of the future," he continued. "All of those things are possible." WATCH | Carney on his vision for Canada's energy sector: Stalled or cancelled pipeline projects have fuelled feelings of alienation in the West for years. Oilpatch leaders chastised the previous Liberal government for introducing policies they said hurt the sector — like clean fuel regulations, the proposed emissions cap and changes to the federal assessment of major projects. Concern has risen further since the Liberal Party held onto power in last month's election, despite only winning three of the 51 seats in the deep-blue provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Support for a referendum on Alberta's sovereignty has seen renewed support, in turn, with backers insisting the province has its own unique identity with values Ottawa doesn't share. Asked on Tuesday how he planned to confront the discontent, Carney said he believes it was co-operation between Alberta and Ottawa that gave rise to the first large-scale commercial oilsands project he remembers from his childhood. (The prime minister was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., two years before the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant opened in Fort McMurray, Alta., in 1967.) "When I was born, the oilsands was a concept," said Carney, who grew up in Edmonton. "It was the ingenuity of Canadians, many Albertan engineers and entrepreneurs, and the partnership between the federal government and the provincial government that made the oilsands what they are. This is what we need today." WATCH | Albertans have 'legitimate grievances,' Poilievre says: Carney said multiple provinces and Indigenous leaders will also play a role. "The only way to get [that co-operation], in my view, is to recognize what a moment that we are in, the need for ambition and the need to work together." Tim Powers, a political columnist who has worked on numerous Conservative campaigns, said Carney could have been more direct in his answer but it was clear he's not outright against pipelines as a concept. "He's been a bit evasive, but he hasn't put a million caveats on it all. And in other places he's said he's not opposed to a pipeline. So we should expect, as he is calibrating and looking at options, a pipeline of some variety — or two — could be in the mix," Powers said. Canada's oil and gas sector has not pitched new pipelines under the current regulatory environment. After the election last month, dozens of Canadian oil and gas CEOs wrote to Carney and asked that he repeal the assessment law and scrap emissions cap regulations. LISTEN | CBC's Front Burner covers Alberta's separatist movement:
