Seniors

EDMONTON The Health Quality Council of Alberta report “Continuing Care Wait List: First Available Appropriate Living Option” that was released today demonstrates that there continues to be a serious shortage of spaces for seniors requiring long-term care. The result is that many seniors are waiting too long in acute care hospitals and in their homes. However, the report fails to explore underlying systemic issues with the private seniors care model.

"Public Interest Alberta seniors task force chairman Noel Somerville said the report failed to address the underlying lack of public long-term care beds in the province. 'The government needs to invest in building enough capacity in a public seniors care system rather than giving millions of dollars to corporations to build lower care assisted-living facilities,' he said in a statement."

"The dollars are there. With no tax increases, everyday Alberta families could see smaller class sizes, more child-care facilities and long-promised nursing care spaces for their elderly parents. What’s more, says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, hard-working Albertans earning anywhere from $25,000 to $90,000 per year would actually pay less income tax. That could happen, he says, if the Alberta government collected income tax in the same way as every other province."

"Public Interest Alberta recently began a year-long campaign called 'Alberta Could' in order to talk with Albertans about improvements that could be made in the province if a progressive tax rate was reintroduced. 'In a lot of people’s minds, they think that Alberta’s flat tax equals Alberta’s low taxes,' says PIA’s executive director Bill Moore-Kilgannon. 'But they don’t realize that it’s actually low- and middle-income earners who are paying a higher percentage of the total amount we would pay in taxes than if we had a progressive tax system.'"

Our Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon was recently on Alberta Primetime debating our new "Alberta Could…" campaign with a representative of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation. The campaign advocates for a progressive income tax and fair corporate taxes in Alberta to invest in better public services.

New advocacy campaign shows Alberta Could invest in public services with a progressive income tax and increased corporate tax

"'Yes, we need to have the investments, but they have to be done on a much bigger level,' said Bill Moore-Kilgannon. 'We hear too many stories of seniors out there who get only an hour here or two hours there, when what they really need is enough home care to allow them to stay in their homes.' Moore-Kilgannon stressed the big picture. 'When they go announcing these – what sounds like potentially big numbers – put that into context of just how many seniors there are in the province.'"

"Public–private partnerships, which have been thoroughly discredited in the United Kingdom, are 'the big engine' of a massive privatization of public services that is sweeping the world. That’s what Allyson Pollock, professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary University of London, and one of the United Kingdom’s leading authorities on public–private partnerships and the privatization of public services, told participants at Public Interest Alberta forums in Calgary and Edmonton."

Our Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon was recently on CBC's The Current to talk about the issue of visitors being banned from seeing their loved ones in long-term care facilities in Alberta. He was joined on the show by two Albertans who have had that experience happen to them. Public Interest Alberta is calling on the Alberta government to establish policies to ensure there is a fair process in place to ensure no one is unjustly disallowed from seeing their loved ones in care. [VIDEO]

EDMONTON—“While last year's budget could be characterized as a chicken little 'the sky is falling' because of the bitumen bubble, this year's budget is just a 'little chicken,'” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Rather than addressing the priorities expressed by Albertans in the consultations last fall and following through on many of their election promises, the Redford government is taking only a few baby steps.”