Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, they are working well, but the demand continues to grow for health care in this province. It's a matter of demographics, a matter of us doing more: more heart transplants, more heart surgeries, bone and joint replacements, many things that we're doing in larger number than we did before. I do know that primary care health networks are working because in just talking to those that are involved, the patients especially, the people who access services are very satisfied with the service they're receiving.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, again to the Premier: if things are working so well except for this minor little annoyance that our demographics are changing and the demand is outstripping supply, if he can give us that answer today, why can't he and his government get ahead of this curve?

Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, I don't know why we want to point fingers at the seniors population and say: well, it's a minor issue. It's not a minor issue. We're all living longer. We're enjoying a good quality of life in the province, so let's not blame one demographic. We know that we're going to be living longer, of course, and we have to make those changes. As I said, 1,300 new beds added just this year alone with another thousand being added next year. That's 2,300 new beds paid for by the taxpayers of the province.

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let's be clear. I wasn't blaming the province's seniors; I was blaming the Premier. 1312 Alberta Hansard November 18, 2010 How much longer does the Premier expect Albertans of any age and stage in life to wait until things get better on the health care file? How much longer?

Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, there are improvements every day notwithstanding what you hear from some of the opposition members, but especially with the issues being raised here, yet calls from people that have had good access, have been dealt with with huge satisfaction levels, especially those that have been surprised with a diagnosis of cancer and have worked through therapy, radiation and are now here, healthy, to tell us the good parts of what we have accomplished.

Mr. Taylor: She was 82, and while nobody can say for sure, given that her sister is hale and hearty today at 84, her mother lived to the age of 99, her mother's sister is still alive at the age of 93, my mother's grandfather lived to the age of 98, and my mother's great-grandfather did as well, I can't help but wonder if mom would still be alive today if she hadn't been a smoker. While the brain tumours killed her, the doctor said that her primary cancer was the lung cancer that they thought they'd caught early a year and a half before, the lung cancer that showed up several years after she quit smoking. Mom was never a heavy smoker. She only smoked about six or seven cigarettes a day, and this was back in the day when people smoked anywhere, any time. When she did quit, she was able to give it up without much in the way of withdrawal symptoms. Probably she could have quit at any time, but she went on smoking six or seven cigarettes a day for 50-plus years, and she never exhibited any of the health problems normally linked with smoking until they found that tumour on her lung.

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the hon. minister for doing the right thing today. Predictably, the argument will be made that tobacco manufacturers are engaged in a legal business, making a product that is legal to manufacture and sell to consenting adults. The tobacco industry and their spin doctors have hidden behind that claim of legal status for far too long, using it as, if you will, a smokescreen to manufacture and sell a highly addictive product that, if used as directed, will kill you. Every time that it costs a smoker's life, in the lead-up to that it burdens our health care system. The minister is right. It's time that burden was shared with the industry that's responsible for causing it.

Thank you.

Mr. Taylor: Here's the thing. Even after 16 years of mismanaging health care, this government hasn't completely managed to stamp out the collective memory of those who used to run health care when it did work. To the health minister. Here's a thought: will the minister direct the Alberta Health Services Board to bring all staff, current and retired, to available status and to offer full-time shifts to all nurses who want them so that we not only have more health care professionals available, but they're available not at quadruple time but at straight cost, lower cost, straight time?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, I'm open to any and all suggestions. In fact, when we met with the emergency docs a couple of nights ago, we heard some other innovative ideas. So we'll be taking a look at anything and everything that can help improve the situation so that we're meeting more than the 20 or 30 or 40 percentile mark. We're aiming at a target of 90 per cent, and that, to my knowledge, is a new percentile for this particular suite of targets.


Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just don't spend too long looking at things.

Again to the minister. Another thought: since several hundred net acute-care beds could be open if only he could find the staff and since I've just given him a clue for how to do that, will the minister order AHS to open those beds and commit to have those beds fully operating and fully funded, all several hundred of them, within the next six weeks?



Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, when we met with the emergency docs a couple of nights ago, we talked about four time frames: immediate actions, things that could be done today, literally today and tomorrow; a short-term time frame, which would be within weeks, before Christmas; a medium-term time frame, which would be within a year; and a long term, which is within the five-year funding framework that we've discussed. Now, as part of that, certainly, they're looking at where and how more acute-care beds can be opened, where and how more continuing care beds can be opened because we recognize where the backlog is. There are too many people in acute care who ought to be in other settings.

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're still waiting.

Okay. One more try. To the minister: since he's always going to meetings, will he actually start listening and acting on the ideas that he's hearing from physicians and their colleagues at each hospital and take specific advice? One size does not fit all.

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, I'm not only meeting; I'm also listening carefully, and I'm acting as immediately as possible. This morning I visited the emergency room at the Grey Nuns hospital, picked up some ideas there. I've been now to about 26 different emergency rooms, listening carefully to what their solutions are because they're all a little bit different; they're all quite unique. You can't have a simple, one-size-fits-all approach, nor can you have a single, silver-bullet approach. It's a complex issue, and that will be told to you in identical words by the emergency docs as well. Yes, we are working . . .

Mostly, the public seems to think it’s all pretty childish, but both sides keep doing it because, well, that’s what we do: opposition, anger; government, indignation and obfuscation. All heat, no light, which might be good enough in most cases, Mr. Speaker, but it seems to me that in times of crisis the last thing the people of Alberta want from us is more hot air and smoke.

They need some light. They want solutions.

Make no mistake. Alberta’s ER crisis is real. Sick and injured Albertans are sitting in ER waiting rooms for 10, 20 hours, sometimes days. What’s more, Albertans wait months, sometimes years for tests and surgeries, and many do not have family doctors.

Mr. Speaker, last Thursday I stood up in question period and asked Alberta’s minister of health: “Will the minister direct the Alberta Health Services Board to bring all staff, current and retired,to available status and to offer full-time shifts to all nurses who want them?”

A solution proposed in question period? Quelle surprise!

Perhaps I’ve started a trend.

On Monday my team and I watched as similar propositions were put forward by one opposition party, and yesterday we listened as my exact proposal was suggested by another party. And it’s about time, Mr. Speaker, because I suggest that anyone following question period beforehand would have been hard-pressed to believe that either side cared as much about solving the problem as about using other people’s pain to score political points on each other.

Now, I don’t care where the good ideas come from. I would suggest that neither my constituents nor yours do. They just want us to do what they’re paying us to do: work together to solve the problem.

Yesterday in question period we were promised 51 new beds by the end of the month. I challenge the minister to double that, and I challenge every one of us here in this House to propose practical, workable solutions to the ER crisis that put Albertans first.

Like the bumper sticker says, “Wag more, bark less.”

Mr. Lukaszuk: Mr. Speaker, yes, I have had a chance to look at the documents. I will be reporting in due course. I appreciate the member raising this particular issue; it is an important issue. I will be reporting not only to the member but to the House in due course. The Speaker: The hon. member. Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that individuals who 1124 Alberta Hansard November 4, 2010 break the poverty cycle are less likely to get sick, to drop out of school, to rely on government services such as employment insurance and given that these same individuals are more likely to pursue a postsecondary education, find long-term employment, and invest their time in community involvement, not to mention contribute taxes whereas before they were a destination for tax dollars, is the minister aware that financially it is actually less expensive to make an initial investment to bring an individual out of poverty than it is to leave them in poverty?

Mr. Lukaszuk: Well, Mr. Speaker, a very similar question to those before to my colleague in Health. The fact of the matter is that this province has a poverty reduction strategy. We simply don't call it that. In a nutshell our poverty reduction strategy is employment. We have many programs that lead Albertans towards employment. Frankly, that member would be very hard-pressed to find Albertans who want to remain on government programs and who don't want to be employed. Do we have a strategy? Yes, we do. We have 59 offices that provide support to Albertans. That all leads towards employment. If this member insinuates that we should be providing . . .

The Speaker: The hon. member, please.

Mr. Taylor: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, employment is a key part of any good poverty reduction strategy, but it is just one key factor out of perhaps 10 or 12. Will the minister commit to engaging in broad-based public consultations involving all sectors of Alberta's society - business, the not-for- profit sector, the faith community, and on and on, especially people experiencing poverty - to create a poverty reduction strategy, much the same as was done in creating the various 10-year plans to end homelessness in and around this province?

Mr. Lukaszuk: Mr. Speaker, again, the member is behind the eight ball. I'm the one who reviewed the low-income benefits and literally met with thousands of recipients of low-income benefits. Very recently I met with municipal leaders who are engaging in addressing low-income issues in their municipalities. The fact of the matter is that I will be reviewing the report of the legislative committee. I will be making an announcement on minimum wage. If the member is only interested in my announcing a name of a strategy that already exists, I find that pointless. We have strategies in place under a different name.