runsmooth

Alberta's Healthcare Workers set to strike on Nov 22, 2025.

While these Workers try to simply re-balance the expanded scope of their jobs with appropriate compensation, Canadians have to wonder how much of the money they ask for was squandered with the UCP's CorruptCare, or the DynaLife acquisition, or the shattering of AHS?

The UCP continues its siege of Alberta's systems. The Minister of Health is noted as restricting the Auditor's access to information, and interfered with the Auditor's ability to complete his investigation. The UCP has publicly disarmed the Office of the Auditor General.

From the CBC's Taylor Lambert:

The report from Auditor General Doug Wylie highlights many issues faced during the investigation, including a lack of co-operation from key officials, obstruction of information by AHS and the province, and the destruction of evidence sought by the auditor general.

The provincial government said the DynaLife contract would save millions of dollars a year, but instead cancelled it less than a year later after numerous issues with service delivery and DynaLife’s own financial problems.

The province ultimately purchased DynaLife in 2023 for nearly $100 million and absorbed it into the public provider, Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL).

...

The auditor general’s report notes the many challenges faced during the investigation, particularly with lack of co-operation from key officials and difficulty accessing evidence.

“Our access to information was restricted by AHS and this restriction was supported” by the Ministry of Health, says the report.

AHS asserted privilege over many documents “without, in some instances, clear rationale or evidence,” and had a team of lawyers conduct a line-by-line review of the thousands of documents sought by the auditor general.

The report also says that “records were password protected and inaccessible, missing, or destroyed when key staff were terminated,” noting a particular instance when AHS destroyed notebooks belonging to a former CEO “despite our request to preserve evidence.”

Canadians will have to live with the idea that humanity has failed to avoid a 1.5 C increase in temperature. We're on course for more violent storms and other climate related challenges. Sadly, we cannot avoid the worst that Climate Change has in store for us, but we can at least start to either incentivize or impose stronger standards to building practices.

These can include neighbourhoods with more robust water engineering/control, resilient roofs, doors, windows, fences against wind or fire, and a re-evaluation of how appropriate it is building 6+ storey condominiums out of wood.

She considered selling, but found herself in a dilemma. As insurance costs have risen, area home values have fallen, dropping by 38 percent since 2020. The roadsides around her house are dotted with for-sale signs.

“They won’t insure you,” Ms. Rojas said. “No one will buy from you. You’re kind of stuck where you are.”

...

“Homeowners don’t appreciate or don’t understand that we are living in a much riskier world than we were 25 years ago,” Dr. Keys said. “And that risk? They have to pay for it.”

After analyzing 74 million home payments — which included mortgage, taxes and insurance and were made between 2014 and 2024 — the researchers found that a rapid repricing of disaster risk had been responsible for about a fifth of overall home insurance increases since 2017. Another third could be explained by rising construction costs.

Canada's got a serious problem - the US is not doing enough to control bird flu.

According to ProPublica's Nat Lash:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture typically attributes bird flu outbreaks to failures of biosecurity — meaning farmers have not done enough to protect flocks from contamination by wild birds.

But my genomic analysis shows wild birds had little to do with this particular cluster of infections. Although the USDA said it tested nearly 1,000 virus samples in wild animals from December to April in Ohio and Indiana, no nearby wild birds were found infected with this outbreak’s strain.

I did find a strong predictor of infection during the first few weeks of this outbreak: whether a farm was downwind from that first contaminated facility. That pattern reinforced the suspicions of egg producers and some local officials that the virus may be spreading on the wind.

...

The USDA insisted that this particular outbreak was “unique” and “not representative” of the entire wave of bird flu that started in 2022, and that the “overwhelming majority” of infections stem from wild birds. The agency said its biosecurity strategy “remains rooted in real-time data, internationally recognized best practices and a commitment to transparency and continuous improvement,” and that it is “proactively assessing” the possibility of vaccinating poultry for bird flu.

Experts told me that understanding what drove this massive outbreak was important, and it didn’t seem like USDA was doing that work. The agency did not evaluate airborne transmission in this outbreak. It also doesn’t make it easy for others to do so, withholding key information that would allow journalists and researchers to evaluate the spread of the virus.

As infections surge again this fall, the USDA continues to urge farmers to improve biosecurity while it dismisses a significant way the virus could be spreading.

MLA Tanya Fir reportedly receives messages from constituents who express their displeasure that the UCP ended the Teachers' Strike with the Notwithstanding Clause.

Apparently while Fir was replying to callers, on one call she left a voice mail message and failed to properly hang up. Fir's overheard on that message saying "Alright, go to this next motherfucker".

CTV reports on the incident, interviewing the "next motherfucker", Doug Firby, who described how the recording "sounded like a tone of contempt."

I didn't get the tone of contempt. I got MLA leaving voice mail messages, and got caught expressing herself freely when the mics are off. But oh, I did it because my UCP bulldozed the human rights of teachers, and I was getting bad voice mail messages.

https://archive.li/HCGvt

So just to recap here, Alberta's UCP hands over $238 M to resolve an issue that was essentially an unforced error to a bunch of Australian coal companies. Given how at least one of those coal companies was noted as belligerent, I trust that they made sure to let us know what they thought when they got the money from the UCP.

https://kopitalk.net/post/24925

[Edit: Vagueness] Among these companies, Valory is catching attention due to how the Alberta Energy Regulator has acted in an unprecedented manner.

From Alberta's Big Payouts to Spurned Australian Coal Miners, by Andrew Nikiforuk,

Valory Resources, which wants to build a massive underground mine near Nordegg under 15,000 hectares of public land, told The Tyee that it has settled its lawsuit.

After the government cancelled its moratorium on coal exploration last January, Valory’s legal claim shifted “from a permanent expropriation claim to a temporary expropriation claim,” said Glenn Vassallo, head of corporate and project finance for Valory, in an email. Given the complicated nature of such a claim, “both Valory and the Alberta Government mutually agreed to settle and discontinue the claim.”

Asked if the Alberta Energy Regulator’s unprecedented cancelling of a public hearing on another Valory project was part of the mutual agreement, Vassallo replied, “No it was not.”

Now, about the AER's unprecedented cancelling of a public hearing, it comes out that

A series of e-mails between the head of the Alberta Energy Regulator, a coal-mining company and the Energy Minister’s office about a mine application has raised questions about the independence of the province’s energy watchdog.
...
Nigel Bankes, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Calgary, said the e-mail exchange calls into question just how independent from government the AER really is.

“What is disclosed I think is very troubling,” Prof. Bankes said in an interview, noting that Mr. Morgan’s request for input from the minister’s office came within hours of Summit’s application to the AER.

While correspondence between the minister’s office and the regulator is to be expected, he said, “there should never be correspondence in relation to a current application before the AER.”

To do so “creates the apprehension … or the actuality of political interference.”

The start of meteorological winter is just weeks away, and some parts of Alberta are forecast to see a decent amount of snow on the way.

Look it's an evergreen issue. Worse, it's so one dimensional to suggest you raise the wages and the old wisdom goes: society will find it very hard to claw back what's already given, there's fewer jobs offered, and people end up stuck where they are.

But it's not just about wages. Alberta's got that extra negative multiplier because its government has been waging war on every sector they're responsible for - from health to education. Who would want to move to Alberta knowing that at the first sign of trouble, the Government of Alberta itself starts with the Notwithstanding Clause?

How about Healthcare? Alberta's got the dubious acknowledgment that it's the reason why Canada lost its Measles Elimination Status. The UCP's implicated in CorruptCare, and they're responsible for shattering AHS. They're also responsible for Compassionate Care, which is essentially Residential Schools 2.0 in 2026.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-measles-status-eliminations-9.6973822

How about Human Rights? Well, looks like the UCP roadmap doesn't look inclusive, no.

https://kopitalk.net/c/canada/p/52162/ucp-base-s-next-demands-for-danielle-smith-change-on-pride-flags-fluoride-abortion-insur

In short, employers like lower wages, but there's a lot in the house falling apart besides the wages.

Cult of Hockey signs off with a message for the Oilers: "Do your jobs"

Oh goody, we're still stuck with Skinner and Pickard.

I feel like Skinner's looking the wrong way for a lot of these shots.

AUPE says talks with its employer, Alberta Health Services and the four organizations that replaced the former provincial health authority, broke down in April. Bargaining between the sides are set to resume Thursday for mediation.

The 16,000 members, who are mostly licensed practical nurses and health care aides, could serve strike notice as early as Nov. 17.

I'll have the full news conference below by Youtube link. I wanted to emphasize what the President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said in the middle of that conference - and I'll paraphrase - that AHS is busted up, the leadership is headless, and no one knows who's in charge.

This isn't just unsafe for the staff, it's completely unsafe and unsound for Albertans.

https://youtu.be/N1Bf_J-wtdA

On Monday morning, the UCP voted to get rid of the guy who’s investigating the health contract scandal.