Media releases

EDMONTON—Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta spoke out today about the crisis in Alberta’s homecare system and called on all political parties to explain how they are going to solve the issues that are impacting on seniors and their families.

Two families presented disturbing stories about their terrible experiences with Alberta’s homecare system.  These stories illustrate how systemic shortages of homecare support are causing huge stress on families and contradict government promise to support seniors to stay in their own homes as long as possible.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta is releasing A Fair and Just Alberta: Priorities for Change, designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in the coming provincial election.“The election presents a major opportunity for those who care about public services to make a difference in our province,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “It is important that we all take advantage of this chance to advocate effectively for much-needed revenue reform that will provide the foundation for much stronger public services, and to state clearly what should be the priorities for change.”

EDMONTON—The Alberta Government’s 2015-16 budget was released today and brought in some modest changes to our revenue system that will increase the tax load on average Albertans without touching the huge tax benefits for wealthy individuals and corporations.

“Alberta could have fixed our unfair tax system, which still leaves us $10.6 billion lower in tax revenue than the second-lowest tax jurisdiction in Canada,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Instead, Alberta’s families will feel the impact of larger class sizes, fewer students enrolling in post-secondary education, seniors losing their drug benefits, and cities losing much-needed infrastructure funds.”

EDMONTON—A woman was evicted from the care centre she has been living in for five years and transferred to hospital without the family’s prior knowledge or consent because a family member was publicly questioning the quality of care her sister was getting at the facility.  Public Interest Alberta has raised similar concerns with the Ministry of Health, the Health Advocate’s Office, and AHS about the lack of due process for many families who have been banned or threatened to be banned for raising concerns about the quality of care for their loved ones.

EDMONTON—The results of the Alberta government’s survey clearly shows that the majority of Albertans do not want the government to cut public services and instead are calling for a progressive income tax and an increase to corporate taxes. “By rejecting any increase to corporate taxes out of hand, the Minister is clearly showing he is not listening to the priorities of Albertans,” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta has released documents obtained through a freedom of information request that raise a number of serious issues and questions about the Conservative government’s policy of funding corporations to provide seniors care. The documents provide an insight into the very close relationship between the corporate seniors-care industry and the Alberta government and their development of a new continuing care policy that has not yet been released. The government and key industry leaders held meetings for over a year to make "longer-term system renewal and an overarching provincial framework for the future of continuing care.”(p 132) Unfortunately, the minutes and even the agendas of these meeting were redacted from the FOIPP document, so it is not possible to know what policy changes the industry reps were proposing."

EDMONTON—Representatives of Public Interest Alberta (PIA) today released a report summarizing what the organization heard about unacceptable classroom and school conditions around Alberta in a recent online survey. The survey was conducted in November and December of 2014, and asked teachers, parents, educational staff and students to describe the situation in their classroom and school.

EDMONTON&mdashPublic Interest Alberta launched the first of five animated commercials today to build public pressure on Premier Prentice to fix Alberta’s flawed and unfair tax system so that we can invest in public services like full-day kindergarten in the future.

“If we don’t challenge the Premier to establish a progressive income tax and fair corporate taxes today, then in future years we not be able to invest in important services that matter to Albertans,” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta’s Seniors Task Force released a Long-Term Care position paper today that calls on the Prentice government to fix the growing crisis in seniors care. The sixteen organizations are deeply concerned that the Prentice government will not change the government policy that caps the number of long-term care beds and continues to fund seniors care 19% below the national average.

EDMONTON—A rally was held in front of MP Peter Goldring’s office today, International Human Rights Day, to demand answers to why the Conservative government is pushing through legislation that will allow provinces to deny refugee claimants access to social services. “Historically, Canada has had a reputation of helping vulnerable populations get back on their feet, so we were shocked when Peter Goldring asked why the families could not just go to a homeless shelter,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Given refugee claimants must already demonstrate great need in order to qualify for provincial income assistance and that it takes months for refugee claimants to get work permits, it is cruel to deny them the support they need to survive when they first arrive in Canada.”