Over the last week, the Edmonton Journal spoke with a number of Albertans who participated in the Government’s Consultation Meetings. Here are some of their responses to the meetings:
Redwater Mayor Mel Smith:
“To be honest, I’m just not sure how much I did get out of it,” said Smith who considers himself a Progressive Conservative supporter but who for a moment sounded a tad skeptical if not downright cynical: “I’m not sure this wasn’t one of their steps to say that we’ve had consultations and then they’ll do what they like.”
Wilma Morin:
“We all agreed we’d pay more taxes or pay medicare premiums again to keep our public health care, but you have to be cautious about a new law.”
Sam Gunsch:
What problem are they trying to fix? They don’t say… With these vague, nice principles, like patient-focused care, equitable access, well, they’re making a nice icing and then they go away and bake the kind of cake they want after.”
Edmonton MLA Kevin Taft:
“People wanted to ask the question: Do we need a new Alberta Health Act? And there was also a lot of resistance to the patient charter, but all that was overruled. The group was told there will be a patient charter and asked to comment.”
“People there understood the patient charter won’t address the real immediate problems, for instance, the shortage of cancer doctors.”
