Seniors

"Every year for the past several years, the Alberta government’s budget documents have included a graph titled 'Alberta's Tax Advantage'. The graph shows how much revenue the government would raise if it had the same tax structure as each of Canada’s nine other provinces. The graph ought to be more appropriately titled 'Alberta’s Revenue Disadvantage.'"

"Low-income seniors have been shortchanged by a federal government administrative error in calculating Guaranteed Income Supplement payments going back several years, an Alberta government spokeswoman confirmed Monday. Noel Somerville, who chairs the Public Interest Alberta seniors task force, called the error 'a pretty big boo-boo. I am sure there are a lot of seniors in dire financial straits who would really require that money, and I think the government should come clean about what happened and what they should do about it,' he said."

by Frank HorvathMembers of Public Interest Alberta’s Seniors Task force had a cordial and productive meeting with the Honorable Sarah Hoffman, Minister of Seniors and of Health, and 3 members of her staff on July 16, 2015.

"The many Albertans alarmed at the long and steady decline in the quality of seniors care may finally have cause for hope. For too long, we have put the medical needs of seniors in a different category from the medical needs of the rest of the population, with dramatically negative results. There is good reason for encouragement in the NDP platform commitment to build 2,000 public long-term beds over four years."

"Noel Somerville, chair of the seniors task force at Public Interest Alberta, a left-leaning advocacy group that has long opposed privatization and cuts to Alberta’s home care services, said additional funding is 'a very good first step, but we’ll have to monitor and see whether it produces significant improvement, or not.'"

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.

In April 2015, Public Interest Alberta released a report entitled "A Just and Fair Alberta: Priorities for Change," which was designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in Alberta's 2015 provincial election.

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.”

"Bill Moore-Kilgannon of Public Interest Alberta said 'cutting a grant program in favour of a loan program is not actually helping the seniors who need it most. It’s deferred, but you still have to pay it all back…They’re making it easier for seniors to go into debt to fix their homes, but let’s not kid ourselves, they’re not putting any money into supporting these low-income seniors, at the end of the day.'"

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.”