Alberta
City of Edmonton has a spending problem
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Kris Sims
Between 2014 and 2023, total spending at the city went from $2.2 billion to an estimated $3.4 billion, a spending increase of about 54 per cent. The population of Edmonton increased by about 17 per cent over that same period.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Edmonton City Hall to rein in its salaries and spending splurges in the wake of its 6.6 per cent property tax hike.
“Ordinary working people didn’t get a nearly seven per cent pay increase this year, so what makes Edmonton city hall think these folks can afford this property tax hike?” asked Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “The city clearly has a spending problem and it’s wasting taxpayers’ money on electric buses that don’t work.”
Edmonton city councillors passed a 6.6 per cent property tax increase at city hall Tuesday afternoon.
Budget documents show spending at Edmonton city hall has jumped.
Between 2014 and 2023, total spending at the city went from $2.2 billion to an estimated $3.4 billion, a spending increase of about 54 per cent. The population of Edmonton increased by about 17 per cent over that same period.
Meanwhile, the city has a growing list of spending issues.
Reports show Edmonton spent about $60 million on a fleet of electric buses, but about 75 per cent of them are stuck in maintenance bays, needing constant repair and adjustments. The company that manufactures parts for the electric bus fleet has since gone bankrupt.
Last year, Edmonton City Hall decided to spend $100 million on bicycle lanes, in a city that can see snow on the roads from September to May.
After taking a raise this year, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi is paid a salary of $211,488 per year, while the city’s 12 councillors are each paid $119,484. The premier of Alberta, by comparison, is paid $186,180 per year.
“The people of Edmonton should remember they have the option of recall legislation and they can force a byelection for their city councillor if they think they’re doing a bad job,” said Sims.
Alberta
Fortis et Liber: Alberta’s Future in the Canadian Federation
From the C2C Journal
By Barry Cooper, professor of political science, University of Calgary
Canada’s western lands, wrote one prominent academic, became provinces “in the Roman sense” – acquired possessions that, once vanquished, were there to be exploited. Laurentian Canada regarded the hinterlands as existing primarily to serve the interests of the heartland. And the current holders of office in Ottawa often behave as if the Constitution’s federal-provincial distribution of powers is at best advisory, if it needs to be acknowledged at all. Reviewing this history, Barry Cooper places Alberta’s widely criticized Sovereignty Act in the context of the Prairie provinces’ long struggle for due constitutional recognition and the political equality of their citizens. Canada is a federation, notes Cooper. Provinces do have rights. Constitutions do mean something. And when they are no longer working, they can be changed.
Alberta
Pharmacist-led clinics improve access to health care: Lessons from Alberta
News release from the Montreal Economic Institute
In Canada, 35 per cent of avoidable emergency room visits could be handled by pharmacists.
Emulating Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinic model could enhance access to primary care and help avoid unnecessary emergency room visits, according to a new study from the Montreal Economic Institute.
“Pharmacists know medication better than anyone else in our health systems,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, senior public policy analyst and Alberta project lead at the MEI. “By unlocking their full potential in prescribing and substituting medications, Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinics have helped avoid tens of thousands of unnecessary emergency room visits.”
Pharmacists in Alberta have the largest prescribing authority in the country, including the ability to prescribe schedule one drugs with special training.
Unlike in Ontario and Manitoba, Alberta pharmacists are authorized to substitute prescribed medications, which can help address issues such as adverse reactions caused by interaction with other treatments.
The study explains that this can help reduce pressure on hospitals, as prescription-related issues account for more than 10 per cent of emergency room visits.
Alberta’s first pharmacist-led clinic, in Lethbridge, sees between 14,600 and 21,900 patients per year since opening in 2022.
It is expected that there will be 103 such clinics active in the province by the end of 2024.
The researcher also links the success of the pharmacist-led clinic model in Alberta to pharmacists’ expanded scope of practice in the province.
Among other things, Alberta pharmacists are able to order and interpret lab tests, unlike their counterparts in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
A 2019 peer-reviewed study found that pharmacists could handle 35 per cent of avoidable emergency room visits in Canada.
“By enabling pharmacists to play a larger role in its health system, Alberta is redirecting minor cases from emergency rooms to more appropriate facilities,” said Wittevrongel. “Just imagine how much faster things could be if pharmacists could take care of 35 per cent of the unnecessary load placed on Canada’s emergency rooms.”
The MEI study is available here.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policy-makers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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