SUNDRE – The municipality has taken a stance in solidarity with the position expressed by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta that is requesting the provincial government find ways to expand the capacity to train health-care facility lab technicians.
Providing council with background information, Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, said during the regular Feb. 21 meeting that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) had during its annual conference last year passed a resolution requesting the provincial government immediately expand by 20 the number of seats available to train Combined Laboratory and X-Ray Technologists for rural Alberta by increasing the capacity at NAIT while exploring the possibility of creating an additional 20 seats either at NAIT or another accredited Alberta-based institution.
While the RMA welcomed a previous announcement for funding being allocated to programs to train nurses and lab professionals, the organization also expressed a desire for additional information explaining in more detail “how these seats are being allocated to each program and to what extent they are expanding these for rural Alberta,” reads a portion of the letter.
“Further, Alberta Advanced Education’s responses indicates that they have not yet received a proposal for the Combined Laboratory and X-Ray Technologist programs. RMA would like to see Alberta Advanced Education collaborate with NAIT and other relevant expert stakeholders on how to expand this,” the letter concludes.
Having already passed, the RMA’s resolution will eventually be making its way to Alberta Municipalities for consideration during the latter’s September conference, with a deadline of May 31 for municipalities that wanted to stand in solidarity, said Nelson.
The matter was brought before Sundre council as a request from the Wellness Advocacy Committee to draft a resolution that mirrors the one passed by the RMA, she said.
Council unanimously carried a motion directing administration to submit the recommended resolution to Alberta Municipalities no later than May 31.
