Alberta seniors deserve better: Seniors call on all parties to commit to Priorities for Change
EDMONTON - Today Public Interest Alberta is releasing their Priorities for Change for Alberta Seniors.
“Seniors in Alberta face a wide range of issues and challenges,” said Terry Price, President of Public Interest Alberta and Chair of the Seniors Task Force. “As adult children care for aging parents and find the system impossible to navigate; as seniors whose spouses suffer with dementia are shuffled from one for-profit facility to another; or as Albertans living on fixed incomes make potentially life-threatening choices between rent, food, and medications, they experience firsthand the failure of successive provincial governments to honour the human rights of and to care for Alberta seniors.”
Read more“Alberta Seniors Deserve Better”: Advocacy Organizations Demand Meeting with Minister
EDMONTON - Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta, the two advocacy organizations behind the campaign Alberta Seniors Deserve Better, have sent a letter to Jeremy Nixon, the newly-appointed Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services. The groups are demanding to meet with the minister to urgently address the state of continuing care.
Read moreAlberta Seniors Need Protection from Elder Abuse
Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare are recognizing World Elder Abuse Awareness Day by calling again on the UCP Government to bring back a Seniors Advocate.
EDMONTON - “The UCP government continues to sputter in chaos, as elder abuse remains a real crisis facing Alberta seniors. They deserve better than empty rhetoric from this government,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “The UCP government needs to recognize Elder Abuse Awareness Day by taking action starting with creating an independent seniors advocate.”
Read moreGovernment Should Recognize Seniors’ Week by Bringing Back Seniors Advocate
Today, Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare are recognizing Alberta Seniors’ Week by calling on the UCP Government to bring back a Seniors’ Advocate.
“Alberta seniors deserve better than empty rhetoric from this government,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Seniors in this province are calling for real action on health care, affordable prescriptions, and income security.”
“That’s why we are calling on this government to bring back an independent seniors advocate as a first step to supporting seniors to live in dignity,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. “Instead, this government has ignored the calls of seniors across Alberta and continued their reckless agenda of cuts and privatization.”
Read more“Seniors are suffering”: Campaign launches to demand the government legislate a Seniors Advocate
EDMONTON - Today, on the two year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, a coalition of seniors’ advocacy organizations are launching a campaign demanding that the government legislate a Seniors’ Advocate, a role that the UCP axed early in their tenure in the legislature.
Read moreAlberta Seniors Deserve Better: Further Privatization of Continuing Care Will Leave Seniors Paying More and Getting Less
EDMONTON - The announcement today by Jason Kenney that the UCP government will direct $204 million dollars into their privatization agenda for seniors care will further degrade quality and affordability in continuing care. Public Interest Alberta and seniors advocates from across the province opposed the decision and committed to providing an alternative roadmap for seniors and continuing care that will enhance quality and affordability in the system.
Bill 70 gives dangerous liability shield to for-profit seniors’ care providers during global pandemic
EDMONTON - Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta join organizations from civil society, labour, and senior citizens representing hundreds of thousands of Albertans speaking out against Bill 70: COVID Related Measures Act, which is expected to be voted on by the Legislative Assembly today. Twenty-four (24) organizations have signed an open letter to demand that this legislation not be passed into law because of the dangers it poses to Alberta seniors and their families. The letter was emailed to Premier Kenney, Minister of Health, Tyler Shandro and UCP MLA Richard Gotfried, the sponsor of this bill. The open letter will be tabled today in the Alberta Legislature by MLA Christina Grey, Critic for Labour and Immigration & Official Opposition House Leader.
Read morePublic Interest Alberta's five recommendations for long-term care
The Government of Alberta has recently asked community stakeholders to provide feedback on which actions would improve the disgraceful state of continuing care in Alberta. Public Interest Alberta has responded to the Government’s request to help ensure that Albertans have a continuing care system that works!
Read moreA commemoration of the solemn anniversary of COVID-19 and its disproportionate impact on Alberta's seniors
March 11 was the one-year anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Public Interest Alberta, Friends of Medicare, the United Nurses of Alberta, and the Alberta Arts Action Group held a visual demonstration to commemorate the lives that didn't need to be lost, and to recognize the work that is yet to be done to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.
Read moreCommemoration of the one year anniversary of COVID-19 shows the disproportionate toll the pandemic has taken on Alberta’s seniors
EDMONTON - March 11, 2021 marks the one year anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, and seniors groups, labour groups, and advocacy groups are gathering outside of the Federal Building at the Legislature to install an visual representation of the lives we have lost to COVID-19, especially those of Alberta’s seniors who have been disproportionately affected. The visual will be a collection of roses, made by Erin Alyward, each one colour coded to show the age of the person we lost. The advocates and activists will also be joined by members of Alberta Arts Action Group, a group which blends arts and activism, who will sing and recite poetry as we mark this solemn occasion.
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