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Stelmach says opponents spreading fear over health care

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach wrapped up a tumultuous fall legislature session Thursday, accusing his political opponents of spreading fear over long wait times in health care.

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach wrapped up a tumultuous fall legislature session Thursday, accusing his political opponents of spreading fear over long wait times in health care.

“They have a job to do, I guess, but part of that job is not to create the situation or put fear into people that they may not be able to access any health services in this province,” Stelmach told the house during question period.

“We have a very good system. It needs improving. It will. We have the money in place.”

The five-week session ended as it began — with opposing politicians pointing fingers and heaping scorn and abuse on each other over stories of patients suffering and even dying in emergency rooms waiting for care.

Opposition Liberal Leader David Swann told Stelmach that the health file has destroyed the government’s credibility.

“Actions speak louder than words. You, sir, have lost the trust of Albertans. You’ve certainly lost the trust of health professionals. I believe you’ve lost the confidence of most of this legislature,” Swann said as Stelmach’s backbenchers hooted and laughed.

“That’s exactly what the public is looking at — this kind of (opposition) theatrics,” Stelmach replied.

“We’re going to stay the course and we’re going to get the job done.”

The legislature has been rocked by bureaucratic and political paroxysms that began in late October when Dr. Paul Parks, Alberta’s top emergency room doctor, warned that overcrowding had put the emergency ward system on the verge of collapse, and that patients were suffering and even dying waiting for care.

In the weeks that followed, the province’s top health bureaucrat, Stephen Duckett, agreed to leave his post after he argued with reporters on the emergency situation, saying he was too busy eating his cookie to talk, and gesturing that he would shove the biscuit in a reporter’s mouth.

After parting ways with Duckett, four of the 14 board members tasked by Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky to deliver health care quit, suggesting they had been strong-armed by Zwozdesky.

Raj Sherman, the parliamentary assistant for health and an emergency room doctor, was also booted from caucus for criticizing former health minister Ron Liepert and others on the health file. He then accused them of a whisper campaign to smear him as mentally unstable.

The Tories introduced a revised health act that became the subject of an all-night opposition filibuster. Some members slept at their desks while others talked from sundown to sunrise on an amendment to put definitive surgical wait times in law. The motion failed.

This week, a leaked government policy document suggested the Tories plan to broaden privatized medicine under the public health umbrella. Zwozdesky denies the government will take such steps.

In the midst of the turmoil, the health minister introduced a new five-year plan to cut surgical wait times across the board and bring more beds online.

Opposition NDP Leader Brian Mason said the session was telling.

“Certainly in the 10 years I’ve been here in this legislature I’ve never seen the government so dishevelled, confused and off balance,” he said.

“You could see on the faces across there just a different look in their eyes. One of real fear.

“Change is going to come and I think this government knows it.”

A number of other bills were passed during the session, highlighted by changes to traffic laws that will ban drivers from talking or using hand-held electronic devices while driving.

Other new legislation sets out the ground rules on carbon capture and storage. The province has agreed to take long-term liability for the projects, which will see waste carbon dioxide pumped underground rather than allowed to escape as a greenhouse gas. The province is funding four test projects at a cost of $2 billion.

The electoral ridings have been redrawn to reflect demographic shifts and a population increase. In the next election, expected in spring 2012, there will be 87 ridings rather than the current 83.

Some ridings have been renamed. Calgary-North Hill for example, will be called Calgary-Klein to honour former premier Ralph Klein.

New rules will update and standardize procedures for those who launch complaints against the police, and a new Wills Act replaces outdated statutes, some of which went back to the 1920s.