Opinion
Is Red Deer on the road to insignificance as hinted at by Alberta Health Services?

Is Red Deer on the road to insignificance?
There have been many signals that Red Deer is not a player in this millennium.
Population decline while the county and neighbouring communities are growing. Alberta Health Services has once again taken Red Deer off the priority list. The next high school will be built in Blackfalds. Stars Lottery has a 2018 dream home prize in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge but not in Red Deer like they had in other years.
Federally Red Deer has been broken up into 2 different electoral districts based out of rural centers. The city had been slow to react to federal plans to split the city and was unconvincing at the 11th hour to prevent it.
Last year we found out our city’s population declined by 975, while Blackfald,s population grew by 700. Did we stop to think or did we just blame the province? The province took the blame, even though the province grew during this period as did Penhold, Sylvan Lake and the county.
Blackfalds, 4 years ago, invested in the Abbey Recreation Centre and the town saw rapid growth. Something like 26% growth while Red Deer has only grown around 1.5% in that time frame. Blackfalds is moving forward on twinning their Multi-Plex to the tune of $12 million. Remember this is 4 years after opening their $15 million Abbey Centre.
The city of Red Deer is delaying discussing building an Aquatic Centre, 16 years after opening the Collicutt Centre.
Blackfalds, population of 9,916 will spend $1,210 per person twinning their multi-plex just 4 years after spending $2,000 per person on the Abbey Centre. 2013 population of Blackfalds was around 7,500.
In just a few years Blackfalds has committed about $3,000 per resident on recreational facilities.
Red Deer, population 99,832 is looking at spending less than $1,000 per resident on recreational facilities in decades.
Blackfalds has the fastest growing population in Canada.
Red Deer is abdicating it’s leadership role in Central Alberta. Penhold, Sylvan Lake and Blackfalds have all invested in their recreational facilities in recent years and have maintained population growth while Red Deer has ceased investing in new facilities, and seen a decline in population.
Red Deer Taxpayers Association have repeatedly acknowledged that Red Deer needs an Aquatic Centre with a 50 metre pool. During next year’s Canada Games which Red Deer is hosting, swimming events requiring a 50m pool will be held in Calgary. We should have built the pool years ago, as it has been almost 17 years since we built the Collicutt Centre’s pools.
We are known nationally for poor air, and high crime but we are nowhere on the lists of health care priorities, or best place to retire, so are we on the road to insignificance? Some one needs to ask.
conflict
One dead, over 60 injured after Iranian missiles pierce Iron Dome

MxM News
Quick Hit:
Iran launched four waves of missile attacks Friday night, breaching Israel’s defenses and killing at least one person. Over 60 others were injured, with the IDF confirming direct strikes on civilian areas in Tel Aviv and central Israel.
Key Details:
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The Israel Defense Forces reported four rounds of Iranian missile fire, with at least ten missiles making impact inside Israel.
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One person was killed and 63 wounded, including several in critical condition, according to The Jerusalem Post.
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The IDF said Iran deliberately targeted civilians, contrasting its own earlier strikes that focused on Iranian military assets.
⚠️RAW FOOTAGE: Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles toward Israel in the past hours.
The IDF cannot, and will not, allow Iran to attack our civilians. pic.twitter.com/IrDK05uErm
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 13, 2025
Diving Deeper:
Several Iranian missiles broke through Israel’s air defenses during Friday night’s attack, striking Tel Aviv and other civilian areas. According to The Jerusalem Post, at least 63 people were wounded and one person was killed after four waves of Iranian ballistic missile strikes hit cities across Israel.
The IDF reportedly said roughly 100 missiles were fired in total. While the Iron Dome intercepted many, multiple missiles made it through and exploded in densely populated areas. Dramatic video showed a missile striking near downtown Tel Aviv, sending fire and debris into the air as people ran for cover.
Army Radio confirmed that ten missiles landed inside Israel between the first two waves. By the time the third and fourth waves hit, injuries had climbed sharply, with several listed in critical condition. The one fatality was reported late Friday night.
The Israeli Home Front Command temporarily allowed civilians to exit shelters but quickly reversed that guidance, urging residents to stay near protected areas amid fears of further attacks.
The IDF emphasized the nature of the targets, calling out Iran for targeting civilians. The IDF also released maps showing where air raid sirens were triggered throughout the night. Though Israel’s Home Front Command briefly allowed civilians to exit shelters, it advised them to remain nearby in case of continued strikes. As of late Friday, Iranian officials claimed a fifth wave could follow.
With tensions still high, Israeli defense officials are preparing for potential further escalation—and weighing how to respond to a direct Iranian attack on civilians.
Fraser Institute
Long waits for health care hit Canadians in their pocketbooks

From the Fraser Institute
Canadians continue to endure long wait times for health care. And while waiting for care can obviously be detrimental to your health and wellbeing, it can also hurt your pocketbook.
In 2024, the latest year of available data, the median wait—from referral by a family doctor to treatment by a specialist—was 30 weeks (including 15 weeks waiting for treatment after seeing a specialist). And last year, an estimated 1.5 million Canadians were waiting for care.
It’s no wonder Canadians are frustrated with the current state of health care.
Again, long waits for care adversely impact patients in many different ways including physical pain, psychological distress and worsened treatment outcomes as lengthy waits can make the treatment of some problems more difficult. There’s also a less-talked about consequence—the impact of health-care waits on the ability of patients to participate in day-to-day life, work and earn a living.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, wait times for non-emergency surgery cost Canadian patients $5.2 billion in lost wages in 2024. That’s about $3,300 for each of the 1.5 million patients waiting for care. Crucially, this estimate only considers time at work. After also accounting for free time outside of work, the cost increases to $15.9 billion or more than $10,200 per person.
Of course, some advocates of the health-care status quo argue that long waits for care remain a necessary trade-off to ensure all Canadians receive universal health-care coverage. But the experience of many high-income countries with universal health care shows the opposite.
Despite Canada ranking among the highest spenders (4th of 31 countries) on health care (as a percentage of its economy) among other developed countries with universal health care, we consistently rank among the bottom for the number of doctors, hospital beds, MRIs and CT scanners. Canada also has one of the worst records on access to timely health care.
So what do these other countries do differently than Canada? In short, they embrace the private sector as a partner in providing universal care.
Australia, for instance, spends less on health care (again, as a percentage of its economy) than Canada, yet the percentage of patients in Australia (33.1 per cent) who report waiting more than two months for non-emergency surgery was much higher in Canada (58.3 per cent). Unlike in Canada, Australian patients can choose to receive non-emergency surgery in either a private or public hospital. In 2021/22, 58.6 per cent of non-emergency surgeries in Australia were performed in private hospitals.
But we don’t need to look abroad for evidence that the private sector can help reduce wait times by delivering publicly-funded care. From 2010 to 2014, the Saskatchewan government, among other policies, contracted out publicly-funded surgeries to private clinics and lowered the province’s median wait time from one of the longest in the country (26.5 weeks in 2010) to one of the shortest (14.2 weeks in 2014). The initiative also reduced the average cost of procedures by 26 per cent.
Canadians are waiting longer than ever for health care, and the economic costs of these waits have never been higher. Until policymakers have the courage to enact genuine reform, based in part on more successful universal health-care systems, this status quo will continue to cost Canadian patients.
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