MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Mountain View County council has approved a resolution calling for the provincial government to provide enhanced support for rural health care.
The move came by way of motion at a recent, regularly-scheduled council meeting.
The “Rural Participating on the Integration Council for Refocusing Alberta’s Health Care System” resolution will go before the central district of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA).
“We are not asking for anything that doesn’t already align with the delivery of the new rural health action plan,” said reeve Angela Aalbers. “This is really just asking for representation.”
The resolution itself calls for the premier and the minister of health to “immediately establish a separate and dedicated rural generalist to be appointed as a voting member to the Integrated Council and within the new health board leadership structure to ensure rural Albertans have an appropriate and continuous voice to their health care.”
The province established the Integration Council in 2024 to “identify means of integration of a single functioning health-care system at the highest level of governance and identify efficiencies and means to remove barriers to the health system integration and to the patient journey.”
The council does not currently include a designated rural generalist or representative who can provide critical insight into the realities of rural health care.
“A rural generalist’s presence on the Integration Council and the new health care leadership board would provide invaluable perspective on the challenges faced by rural patients, from effective communication in referrals to navigating broader social determinants of health, the county said in the resolution.
“It is critical that rural communities, which often rely heavily on team-based care models, have a voice in shaping health-care policies and systems that affect them.”
A rural generalist is a general practitioner who provides primary care services and emergency medicine.
The resolution will now go the central district RMA for consideration. If approved at that level, the resolution would go before the provincial RMA.
During the late January council meeting, council also agreed to second two other resolutions.
One resolution put forward by Wheatland County calls on the province to “require that housing management body boards adopt a governance model that ensures proportional representation based on each member municipality’s financial contributions.”
The second resolution, put forward by Lacombe County, calls for the province to “expand the use of ordinary mail as a means of serving offence notices under the Provincial Offences Procedure Act and allow municipalities to authorize service by ordinary mail of their bylaws, provided reliable address records are available through sources such as Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services.”
