Since 2021, thousands of wooden ornaments painted with messages of kindness and hope by local youth have adorned multiple trees in Capstone during the holiday season.

One of SPARC Red Deer’s Paint the Town Positive initiative, these kindness ornaments are created by youth from various schools, clubs and community groups.

Beginning on November 27^th, area residents are encouraged to visit Canada 150 Square in Capstone to select an ornament to take home – and gift another to someone in their community. This year, SPARC is continuing its partnership with the City, and is thrilled to expand its presence in Red Deer by sharing Kindness Ornaments in recreation facilities across the community.

Sharing kindness plays a meaningful role in supporting our mental well-being. It gives us hope, warms the heart, and fosters a sense of purpose. Acts of kindness can also inspire others to pay it forward – creating a ripple effect of positivity.

SPARC Red Deer is a local non-profit coalition dedicated to strengthening positive assets and resilience in communities. Paint the Town Positive – the youth-driven chapter – collaborated with Capstone to launch the Kindness Tree with the goal of giving back and spreading kindness throughout the community.

To learn more about SPARC, visit sparcreddeer.ca.

From the Fraser Institute

By Nadeem Esmail and Mackenzie Moir

Alberta’s health-care system may be set for another positive move away from the failed Canadian model. According to leaked draft legislation by the Smith government, Albertans may soon be able to access physician care in a parallel private sector, with physicians permitted to work in both the public and private systems.

The defenders of the status quo were of course quick to frame the approach as unique in Canada, arguing it would harm our universal system. While this potential change may put Alberta’s policies at odds with those of other provinces, it would more closely align with universal health-care systems everywhere else in the developed world. And most importantly, it will make for better access to health care for all Albertans.

First, it’s important recognize just how unusual Canada’s approach to privately-funded health care is compared to other high-income countries with universal health care.

In every one of the 30 other developed countries with universal health care, patients are free to seek services on their own terms with their own resources when the universal system is unwilling or unable to satisfy their needs. One reason may be to avoid long waiting lists, while others simply want to receive more personalized health-care services, meet a personal health need or access newer medical technologies and procedures.

In the majority of these countries, including those with high-performing systems such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia, physicians are also permitted to work in both the public and private sectors.

Canada’s deviation, and Alberta’s, from this international norm has not served patients well. Despite having the highest health spending among the provinces in one of the most expensive universal health-care systems in the developed world, Albertans endure some of the worst access to health care and wait in some of the longest queues for treatment.

A central explanation for why Canadians spend more and get much much less is the lack of a private competitive alternative to the universal public system.

Again, a private option gives patients an option to select care the government is unwilling to provide, either in terms of timeliness or in ways that may be personally important to them. Faster access could allow some people to expedite a return to work and support their family, or to re-engage in important activities without needing to leave the province or the country as they currently must.

By moving people willing to pay for services out of the public queues, the government can help reduce the wait times for patients in the public queues. It’s not surprising that Canada has the longest waiting lists in the developed world given we’re the only country that prohibits privately-funded health care.

Arguments that the private sector will starve the public system of resources (including doctors and nurses) misunderstand what’s actually happening in Alberta today.

Currently, surgeons spend a good deal of time waiting for access to operating rooms or hospital beds for patients. Meanwhile, nurses are leaving the profession in large numbers. Canada also has unemployed medical specialists who could be employed if new opportunities arose. Allowing private access to care or previously unavailable medical resources would increase the total volume of services available to Albertans.

Even beyond this, the opportunity to earn more by working extra hours in a private clinic could encourage physicians to use some of their now non-working hours to treat patients privately. In this regard, the focus on allowing physicians to work in both public and private sectors is a well-informed policy choice that makes better use of Alberta’s existing medical workforce.

Finally, a private parallel option creates incentives for better service in the universal system through competition. Shackling patients to a government monopoly with no alternative choices results in a more expensive system and lower standard of care than would be available otherwise. When no one is permitted to deliver timelier patient-focused care, there’s no pressure created to do so anywhere else in the system. The outcome is obvious just from looking at how poorly the public system in Alberta performs despite its world-class price tag.

While this new leaked draft legislation may have the defenders of the status quo frantically racing to defend the current Canadian model, it promises a better health-care system for Albertans. This change will more closely align Alberta’s policies with those of every other universal health-care country in the developed world. More importantly, it will improve access to health care for all Albertans, and provide Albertans currently stuck with poor service an option to choose differently for themselves without a plane ticket.

Nadeem Esmail

Director, Health Policy, Fraser Institute

Mackenzie Moir

Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute