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Don’t believe MLA’s twisted ‘facts’ |
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Written by Lela Martens
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
Re: Greg Weadick’s column, June 26, Herald.
In his column, Mr. Weadick twisted the message of the crowd of around 250 concerned people at the rally. Perhaps he doesn’t understand the message. He wasn’t there.
The message is to keep St. Michael’s going on as it was intended, not slowly closing the doors while opening doors to warehousing — private warehousing. Private is for profit. This means low wages for too few and under-trained staff for the heavy responsibilities that go with much senior care. This means fewer services unless high charges to seniors, for services such as laundry. This means bathing more than once a week costs extra. This means cheap, substandard meals and less assistance in the eating. This means clients parked in a chair in a corner for most of the day. Our seniors should not be a commodity used to profit.
This Alberta government has backtracked, deliberately misled and spied on its citizens too often on too many issues for us to call their offices for the “facts” Mr. Weadick suggests. I personally will take my queries to some of those concerned and knowledgeable people at the rally — the people in the trenches: the registered nurses; the clients and families of senior care; the doctors; the Friends of Medicare; the psychologists; and the staff of senior facilities.
Mr. Weadick says “Alberta will always have long-term care beds for the people who need them.” The Tories telling us this does not make it so. They also do not say if that would be local, close to friends and family, or mention quality of care. Nowhere in his column did Mr. Weadick mention respect for the seniors who built our area and gave us the gift of our envied Canadian medical system.
If the voters of Alberta ever decide to elect a party that doesn’t pander to big oil, they might learn we can well afford to care for our seniors, children, homeless, students, etc.
Other governments with less can and do.
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