Alberta
Doubling surgical capacity in Rocky Mountain House
Rural Albertans will be able to access surgeries quicker and closer to home now that the expansion and renovation of the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre is complete.
The Rocky Mountain House Health Centre has been providing residents with health care since 1971, including surgical services. Alberta Infrastructure has completed an addition to the facility, which includes a new operating room. This will enable approximately 120 Albertans per month to receive surgery, doubling the number of monthly surgeries. This additional, brand-new operating room is also expected to decrease the wait lists for surgeries.
The expanded Rocky Mountain House Health Centre provides an additional 440 square metres (4,736 square feet) and includes:
- a new operating room,
- 6 additional recovery beds,
- a patient support area, and
- an updated medical device reprocessing department.
The new spaces can be accessed from the existing site thanks to the addition of an upgraded hallway that connects the two buildings.
“Completing the expansion and renovation of the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre is a significant step forward in delivering Alberta Surgical Initiative projects province wide. This investment into health care infrastructure will increase surgical capacity, helping Albertans get treatment when and where they need it.”
The Rocky Mountain House Health Centre upgrade is part of the Alberta Surgical Initiative (ASI), which aims to enhance surgical capacity across the province by expanding and maximizing existing health care space. Over the next three years, the 2024 Capital Plan is providing $313 million for ASI projects throughout the province.
Alberta Infrastructure and Alberta Health Services share the responsibility for delivering ASI projects. Alberta Health Services leads the delivery of smaller projects, while Alberta Infrastructure delivers capital projects over $5 million.
“Albertans deserve timely access to surgeries, and they should be able to get them close to home. The expansion and renovation of the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre will increase its capacity so more Albertans can get the surgeries they need when they need them. Through the Alberta Surgical Initiative, we are improving access to surgical care and funding projects across the province, including in rural communities like Rocky Mountain House.”
Alberta Infrastructure is working on 20 ASI projects in communities across Alberta, including Brooks, Calgary, Camrose, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Innisfail, Lethbridge, Olds, Ponoka, St. Albert and Stettler. Lethbridge will be the next community to benefit from a completed ASI project. The expansion of two operating rooms and more surgical inpatient rooms at the Chinook Regional Hospital is anticipated to be completed later this fall.
“The expanded Rocky Mountain House Health Centre will help ensure more residents can access surgeries and receive the care they need in a timely manner. Investments like these in rural Alberta matter and I’d like to thank Minister Guthrie and Minister LaGrange for delivering on this project that will double our surgical capacity in Rocky Mountain House.”
Quick facts
- The total budget for the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre ASI project was $15 million.
- This Alberta Infrastructure project was completed on time and on budget. Approximately 85 construction-related jobs were created during the project.
- In addition to the new building, other renovations include new mechanical and electrical building systems.
- Alberta Infrastructure is managing other ASI projects at the following locations:
- Brooks Health Centre
- Calgary
- Alberta Children’s Hospital
- Foothills Medical Centre
- South Health Campus
- Camrose – St. Mary’s Hospital
- Edmonton
- Grey Nuns Community Hospital
- Misericordia Community Hospital
- Royal Alexandra Hospital
- Walter C. Mackenzie Centre (University of Alberta Hospital)
- Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital
- Innisfail Health Centre
- Lethbridge – Chinook Regional Hospital
- Olds Hospital and Care Centre
- Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre
- St. Albert – Sturgeon Community Hospital
- Stettler Hospital and Care Centre
- Other ASI projects completed by Alberta Infrastructure:
- Grande Prairie Regional Health Centre (completed in July 2022)
- University of Alberta (completed September 2023)
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
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.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“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.
Alberta
Heavy-duty truckers welcome new ‘natural gas highway’ in Alberta
Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Mullen Group chairman Murray Mullen attend the opening of a new Clean Energy/Tourmaline compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
From the Canadian Energy Centre
New compressed natural gas fueling stations in Grande Prairie and Calgary join new stop in Edmonton
Heavy-duty truckers hauling everything from restaurant supplies to specialized oilfield services along one of Western Canada’s busiest corridors now have more access to a fuel that can help reduce emissions and save costs.
Two new fuelling stations serving compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel in Grande Prairie and Calgary, along with a stop that opened in Edmonton last year, create the first phase of what proponents call a “natural gas highway”.
“Compressed natural gas is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” said Murray Mullen, chair of Mullen Group, which operates more than 4,300 trucks and thousands of pieces of equipment supporting Western Canada’s energy industry.
Right now, the company is running 19 CNG units and plans to deploy another 15 as they become available.
“They’re running the highways right now and they’re performing exceptionally well,” Mullen said on Oct. 22 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the new station on the northern edge of Calgary along Highway 2.
“Our people love them, our customers love them and I think it’s going to be the way for the future to be honest,” he said.
Heavy-duty trucks at Tourmaline and Clean Energy’s new Calgary compressed natural gas fuelling station. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
According to Natural Resources Canada, natural gas burns more cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel, producing fewer toxic pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The two new CNG stops are part of a $70 million partnership announced last year between major Canadian natural gas producer Tourmaline and California-based Clean Energy Fuels.
Their deal would see up to 20 new CNG stations built in Western Canada over the next five years, daily filling up to 3,000 natural gas-fueled trucks.
One of North America’s biggest trucking suppliers to businesses including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Popeye’s says the new stations will help as it expands its fleet of CNG-powered vehicles across Canada.
Amy Senter, global vice-president of sustainability with Illinois-based Martin Brower, said in a statement that using more CNG is critical to the company achieving its emissions reduction targets.
For Tourmaline, delivering CNG to heavy-duty truckers builds on its multi-year program to displace diesel in its operations, primarily by switching drilling equipment to run on natural gas.
Between 2018 and 2022, the company displaced the equivalent of 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of diesel that didn’t get used, or the equivalent emissions of about 58,000 passenger vehicles.
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose speaks to reporters during the opening of a new Tourmaline/Clean Energy compressed natural gas fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose noted that the trucking sector switching fuel from diesel to natural gas is gaining momentum, notably in Asia.
A “small but growing” share of China’s trucking fleet moving to natural gas helped drive an 11 percent reduction in overall diesel consumption this June compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“China’s talking about 30 percent of the trucks sold going forward are to be CNG trucks, and it’s all about reducing emissions,” Rose said.
“It’s one global atmosphere. We’re going to reduce them here; they’re going to reduce them there and everybody’s a net winner.”
Switching from diesel to CNG is “extremely cost competitive” for trucking fleets, said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.
“It will really move the big rigs that we need in Western Canada for the long distance and heavy loads,” he said.
Tourmaline and Clean Energy aim to have seven CNG fuelling stations operating by the end of 2025. Construction is set to begin in Kamloops, B.C., followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.
“You’ll have that Western Canadian corridor, and then we’ll grow it from there,” Littlefair said.
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