Anyone who knows Lethbridge knows that we have a very large seniors population, and we have a number of long-term care assisted living and lodge facilities in the city. Seniors are an important part of our community. We have two very vibrant seniors organizations and senior centers as well.

We also know that seniors are the most vulnerable group when it comes to the Coronavirus. So that’s why I am so concerned about the rising number of outbreaks in seniors facilities across the province that haven’t come to Lethbridge yet. But I’m also really worried that as the UCP moves to relaunch the economy, we don’t have some of the basic fundamentals in place to protect seniors even during the worst of the pandemic, let alone in the relaunch where we need to be able to contain this virus.

On April 10, Alberta Health ordered that staff could only work at one long-term care or assisted living facility so that nurses and other essential staff weren’t moving between facilities and potentially exposing themselves and their patients to additional vectors of the virus. The deadline for that decision was set to be April 23. I know I heard from families even here in Lethbridge who were concerned even at that time — in that time before April 10, they wanted to see this action taken — and they couldn’t understand why it happened in other jurisdictions but not happened in Alberta. Families had to wait, apparently, until April 23.

But the night before this restriction was set to go into place, Alberta Health rescinded the deadline. The UCP government hasn’t provided a new one. So that means that our health care workers that are assisting seniors, our nurses and health care aides, have no clarity on how they’re their job, and their scheduling is going to go moving forward. It also means that our seniors who live in these facilities who are the most vulnerable to Coronavirus are continuing to be exposed to the virus as staff move between facilities.

That is a clear failing on the part of this UCP government of the needs of Lethbridge seniors.

So that’s why I’m joining my NDP Caucus colleagues and calling for this government to provide some meaningful action to protect our seniors and alleviate so much of the stress and worry on the part of families that I know I’ve heard from in my constituency and that we have heard from province-wide.

1. We need a single-site staffing timeline, and we need the government to stick to it this time. This will undoubtedly prevent infections, save lives, reduce the pressure on our health care workers. This is why most other jurisdictions who are being successful in fighting the spread of the Coronavirus have this restriction in place. Alberta Health and this Health Minister needs to get his act together and get it done.
2. We need to be compensating workers in our continuing care facilities to acknowledge that the work being done is important and that often times these restrictions on one facility means a loss in wages for those workers. So to start with, we need to increase wages by an average of $4 an hour, which will help make sure that any workers negatively affected by single-site staffing don’t lose money as a result of this change.
3. Our continuing care facilities need consistent shipments of personal protective equipment. We still have some unevenness with respect to access to the kinds of equipment that people need to keep themselves safe, both the residents and the workers.
4. Our continuing care facilities need more frequent in-person spot-check inspections during the public health emergency. We’ve been asking the UCP, and I know families of people in long-term care have been asking the UCP government for these changes for weeks and nothing. We need this government to step up and take the necessary steps to protect our most vulnerable citizens.

As we relaunch the economy, it is these areas that are most at risk for increased outbreak, and we will not be successful, and we will be back to square one unless the UCP government takes these steps of protecting our seniors seriously and rolls up their sleeves and gets the action done now.

They will only do this — they’ve proven it — they will only act if we push them to do so.

You need to write to those UCP government MLAs.

Please take action.
It’s for your parents.
It’s for your neighbours.
And it’s potentially for yourself if you live in one of these facilities.

We need to push Jason Kenney and his UCP MLAs, who have so far been silent on this issue, to action.