Alberta
Red Deer loses beloved citizen, City Councillor, and iconic historian
Councillor Dawe remembered as true community leader
Michael’s family has informed us that he passed away on December 24, 2023, and at this time, we must honour his life, and all the good he contributed to this city and to those who surrounded him.
Michael was an insightful and thoughtful community leader who loved the city of Red Deer with his whole heart. He was devoted to the service of the city, and he made it his life’s work to tell the story of Red Deer and to share the rich history of this community with everybody around him.
His roots in this city run deep. He was a proud Albertan, and a proud Red Deerian. But even more important, he was a colleague and friend who will be deeply missed by not only The City of Red Deer and City Council, but by the many who knew and loved him.
Michael served at the Red Deer City Council table starting in 2017, but his time on Council isn’t his only foray into public service. He committed his life to public service, serving on innumerable boards and for many public organizations, including The City of Red Deer. In fact, Michael was one of the founding members of the Alberta Society of Archivists – an important organization committed to ensuring Alberta archives are championed in their communities. Michael truly lived the idea that “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life”. It was simply who he was. He was a public servant, a storyteller, an author, a councillor, a colleague, a community leader and most importantly, a friend to everyone who knew him.
Michael Dawe will be truly missed by me, and by his Council colleagues. I cannot express the loss we feel in knowing he will not join us at the Council table in January, and I also know this loss cannot compare to that which is being felt by his beloved family at this time.
Today, and as we step into a new year without him by our side, I invite our community to think about the many contributions of our dear friend Mr. Michael Dawe. On behalf of City Council and everybody at The City of Red Deer, I want to express our collective sorrow and to share our heartfelt sympathies with his family and friends. He will be sorely missed, and he leaves an indelible mark on our community that loved, and still loves him so much.
The flags at Red Deer City Hall will be brought to half mast, in the coming day, in recognition of Councillor Michael Dawe’s passing.
Mayor Ken Johnston
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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