Alberta Union of Provincial Employees is hosting a series of public meetings to discuss care issues facing seniors in some continuing care facilities in Alberta.
One of those Seniors Care Town Hall meetings will be held in Red Deer at 7 p.m. on April 19 at the Royal Canadian Legion, 2810 Bremnar Ave.
Others will be held in Slave Lake, Vegreville and Lloydminster.
Karen Weiers, AUPE vice president, said Alberta’s NDP government is following in the footsteps of the previous Progressive Conservative government by failing to put standards in place for private, for-profit continuing care facilities and a lack of transparency continues.
“For-profit providers get millions of taxpayers dollars to provide the care. But what we’re seeing is a lot of that funding is to boost profits. They’re not even required to publicly disclose how those dollars are used. This hurts not only seniors but also the staff that care for them,” Weiers said.
“There should be more publicly-funded services and beds, and private facilities actually need to be held accountable for the public dollars they are given and the services they are providing.”
AUPE is hosting its town hall meetings in communities where Points West Living operate. AUPE members at a Points West Living facility in Cold Lake have been locked out since December.
Staff at Points West Living in Red Deer are not part of AUPE.
Weiers said regardless of the company or whether staff are unionized, publicly-funded facilities should not put profit before people.
“What were seeing unfortunately is more and more issues in continuing care.”