INNISFAIL – Dozens of concerned local citizens showed up at the local constituency office of Devin Dreeshen this morning demanding a meeting with the MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake over the province’s planned cutbacks to doctors’ pay, a move they believe will degrade health service delivery in town and across the region.
Their appearance at Dreeshen’s office came a day after up to 300 concerned citizens packed the auditorium of the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion for a town hall meeting to hear local doctors detail their fight against UCP government cutbacks, as well as controversial contract bargaining tactics since last fall.
“I would like the province to bargain and listen to the doctors. They (government) are making decisions impacting citizens in Innisfail without consultation,” said Jackie Moorhouse, a citizen who joined more than 30 others this morning at Dreeshen’s downtown office. “He (Dreeshen) is not being available to his constituents. He is destroying his relationship with them. He is hiding from them.”
Dreeshen met with local doctors for an hour on March 11. However, he did not attend the town hall meeting at the legion that night.
As for the demonstration during the morning of March 12 at his local office, Dreeshen called it “ridiculous."
“Those types of pressure tactics and putting pressure on my staff is something I think is ridiculous. If people want to come and meet with me and set up meetings they are happy to do it,” said Dreeshen, adding he met with Innisfail doctors on Jan. 3, Sylvan Lake doctors on Feb. 21 and with local doctors again on March 11. The local MLA added he also had a post-budget town hall meeting two weeks ago when health care was discussed with several local doctors in attendance.
“I would tell people from Innisfail that obviously our health-care budget is over $20 billion of our fiftyish billion provincial budget. It is something we take very seriously and any insinuation by union reps or others to say I am somehow skirting being accountable to this is ridiculous.”
The citizens’ march to Dreeshen’s office on March 12 was organized by Jason Heistad, a former town councillor, who appeared at the March 11 town hall to express his own concerns, as well as gratitude to Innisfail doctors for their care during his life-threatening bout with Crohn’s disease two years ago.
“Devin Dreeshen speaks for the people of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake on the concerns within his constituency and we wanted to have a meeting with Devin, potentially to meet him today about the concerns we saw and heard from our doctors last night at a town hall meeting,” said Heistad, adding the intent for the citizens was to have a “respectful” conversation with Dreeshen about their concerns with the future of health care in the region.
“He chose to not be there last night. He should have been there last night. He has a responsibility for all the citizens in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, and I believe the doctors were very fair with him and gave him an opportunity to show up,” he added. “But the doctors last night stated they are willing to do this again and invited him for another town hall meeting with the community so there is open dialogue on health care in Innisfail.”
Dreeshen said on March 12 that he has a “packed” schedule as MLA and minister and did not offer any commitments. However, he added he would try to make himself “as available as he can.”
The 30 or more citizens stayed peacefully at Dreeshen’s Innisfail office for about a half an hour. Most signed their names to a piece of paper to confirm their attendance, and with the hope it would be passed on to the local MLA.
In the meantime, most attended the town hall the previous night to listen to a dozen doctors and nurses explain the controversial battle between physicians and the province. Contract talks were scheduled to resume this week but the mood between the two sides remains toxic.
“The changes that are coming are going to have a significant impact and drastically more so in the rural communities,” said Dr. Jesse Christiansen, who announced at the town hall doctors are starting a petition campaign that will be delivered to Dreeshen and Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro. He told the supportive audience the petition will ask the UCP government to “publicly and formally” repeal Bill 21, which they charge gives the province the ability to opt out and terminate contracts with the Alberta Medical Association at any time.
He said the petition will also ask the government to publicly state it’s not moving forward with any changes at this time until good faith negotiations with the AMA have taken place and doctors can have input on any proposed changes.
“When we talked to Minister Dreeshen he likes to say that government should be run as a business,” said Christiansen. “I said, ‘how is it that any business has the ability whenever they want to opt out of contracts with people they are doing business with?'
“He did not give us an answer to that that I thought was satisfactory. He just said, ‘Bill 21 is not going to be repealed,'" he added.
“I wasn’t really satisfied with that answer.”
Dreeshen confirmed to the Innisfail Province on March 12 that his provincial government would not repeal Bill 21.
