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Alberta

Alberta announces one-time funding for family doctors to help manage patients

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Stabilizing Alberta’s primary health care system

Alberta’s government is delivering on a commitment to provide funding to help family doctors with their administrative costs so they can devote more time to seeing patients.

Primary care is the foundation of Alberta’s health care system, and family physicians are fundamental to Albertans getting the care they need when and where they need it. That’s why Alberta’s government is pulling out all the stops to stabilize, strengthen and improve Alberta’s primary health care system.

The additional one-time funding has been provided to the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) as part of a December 2023 commitment of $200 million over two years to stabilize primary health care. The AMA will distribute the funding to eligible family physicians and rural generalists.

“We heard what primary care physicians told us about the challenges they are facing, and we’ve taken action to address those challenges. Alberta’s government is pleased to provide this one-time funding to support family physicians and rural generalists until a new physician comprehensive care model is introduced.”

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health

Approximately 3,000 family doctors are eligible to receive transition funding of $24,000 to $40,000. The amount a family physician and rural generalist will receive depends on the number of patients they have.

The funding is a one-time payment aimed at helping family doctors and rural generalists until a new compensation model is in place. It will be used for administrative and equipment costs related to the number of patients they manage. 

“We are grateful that this funding will help family and rural generalist physicians remain in comprehensive, life-long care as we move to the next phase of collaboration with the minister and her team. For this stabilization investment to reap benefits for Albertans, we must rapidly implement the new payment model that will allow comprehensive care to flourish across the province.”

Dr. Paul Parks, president, Alberta Medical Association

This funding is enabled through the new Canada-Alberta Health Funding Agreement with the federal government. The agreement represents a total of about $1.1 billion in additional health care funding over three years for shared priorities.

Quick facts

  • Stabilization funding is a transitional measure identified through work under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the minister of health and the Alberta Medical Association that was signed in fall 2023.
  • In December, $200 million over two years was announced to help stabilize primary care. This includes the $92 million announced April 4 and $8 million for the residency incentive program.
  • Other recently announced supports for primary health care include:
    • Providing ongoing base compensation for primary care physicians that is expected to be more than $2.3 billion in 2024-25.
    • Committing to create a primary-care organization within the refocused provincial health care system to co-ordinate primary health care services and provide transparent provincial oversight, with the goal of ensuring every Albertan will have a family physician or primary care provider.
    • Investing $40 million over two years to support Primary Care Networks.
    • Investing $12 million for the Community Information Integration and Central Patient Attachment Registry, enabling doctors and their teams to share patient information from their electronic medical record to Alberta Netcare.
    • Committing to implement recommendations from the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System initiative through a phased approach.
    • Creating a primary health care division within Alberta Health.

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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