EDMONTON - Today the Parkland Institute issued a new report, Losing Ground: Alberta's Residential Elder Care Crisis, which shows a clear need for reforms of Alberta’s seniors’ care system.

EDMONTON - Today the Parkland Institute issued a new report, Losing Ground: Alberta's Residential Elder Care Crisis, which shows a clear need for reforms of Alberta’s seniors’ care system.

“The evidence shows that Albertans receive the best care possible when they live in facilities run by public operators,” said Public Interest Alberta Executive Director, Joel French. “Private, non-profit organizations and for-profit corporations simply spend fewer dollars on care for residents.”

The Alberta NDP’s 2015 election platform committed to building 2,000 public long-term care beds during their term. Public beds in Alberta are operated by Alberta Health Services, Carewest, and Capital Care. One and a half years into the government’s term, none of the promised public beds have been built or even announced.

“The clear course of action for the government should be to immediately begin following through on their promise to build 2,000 public long-term care beds,” said French.

It is widely speculated the lack of progress on the government’s commitment is due to Alberta’s current fiscal situation, highlighted by a drop in resource revenues of more than $10.3 billion.

“All of Alberta’s political parties need to provide detail to the public on their proposed solutions to Alberta’s chronic revenue shortage,” continued French. “Until the revenue problem is solved, our capacity to improve public services like long-term care will be severely limited.”

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