I am outraged with the UCP government of Alberta, Premier Jason Kenney, Health Minister Tyler Shandro and our local MLAs Jason Nixon and Nathan Cooper.
Since 1994 I have been a resident of Mountain View County. Since I have been a resident of this region, health care has always been a concern.
Over that period I struggled to find a family doctor and have seen at least a dozen different doctors in both Sundre and Olds. Often there was an acute shortage of doctors in the region.
A few years ago I was fortunate to become a patient of Moose and Squirrel Medical Clinic in Sundre. I feel that I am now getting the best care that I have had in my life on a personal level.
Working in agriculture -- like most of the other dominant industries in the region including forestry and oil and gas -- you are working with your hands and body.
The risk of injury or accidents is real and sooner or later you are going to need some medical attention.
Having an emergency room in our local hospitals in Sundre and Olds may mean the difference between life or death.
My fear is that the Kenney UCP government has ulterior motives based on ideology rather than the needs of the citizens of Mountain View County and Alberta.
I fear that with doctors having to withdraw their services from rural hospitals we will see the closure of many of these hospitals.
• RELATED: Sundre physicians provide details of hospital service withdrawl
Premier Kenney hired the former finance minster for Saskatchewan, Janice MacKinnon, to sit on his Blue Ribbon panel. Her legacy in Saskatchewan was to shut down 52 rural hospitals. I fear that the same will happen in Alberta.
The UCP government is adding more stress to our doctors at this serious time.
The UCP government should suspend changes to doctors’ compensation until the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic passes and then reopen negotiations with Alberta doctors on future compensation.
If you don’t have your health, you have nothing. Hopefully Mountian View County and rural Alberta will prove to be one of the better places to be during this pandemic.
We need to be thankful that we had an NDP government previous to the UCP that did not do drastic cuts to our health-care system during their time in government.
We still have a good health-care system. But, that is changing.
Universal health care is one of the cornerstones of a just society. We only need to look south of the border during this pandemic to see the differences a universal health-care system makes. Currently the per capital death toll from COVID-19 in Canada is about one quarter of that of the United States.
A robust health-care system, which has the foresight to look at preventative medicine, good public health policy and a system that has the capacity to deal with a crisis like COVID-19 is what I want.
My life, my health and the health of my family is more important than all the money in the world.
You say we can’t afford that, consider the alternative.
I would like to call on our local MLAs Nathan Cooper and Jason Nixon to show some backbone and look out for the citizens that they represent and their needs, instead of towing the party line and the bowing to the leader and a health minister who care more about the bottom line than the health of Albertans.
The health and well-being of the thousands of citizens they represent is paramount.
Peter Haase,
Eagle Hill area of Mountain View County
