Alberta
Owners of unique stolen property likely in Alberta or BC
From Edmonton Police Service: Police seek original owners of recovered property
The Edmonton Police Service is seeking the original owners of property which is believed to be stolen, following the arrest of three suspects in a reportedly stolen vehicle.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 25, 2019, officers with the EPS Specialized Traffic Apprehension Team (STAT) conducted a vehicle stop in the area of 118 Avenue and 103 Street. The vehicle, a 2017 Ford U-Haul cube van, was determined to be stolen after it was reportedly rented in Innisfail, Alta. using stolen identity documents.
As a result of the vehicle stop officers recovered a large quantity of allegedly fraudulent documents and stolen property including mail, financial documents, credit cards, forged identity documents and stolen identity documents, such as driver’s licences & social insurance cards. Investigators also recovered break-and-enter tools. With the assistance of the Innisfail RCMP and Calgary Police Service, a second vehicle that was reportedly stolen by way of identity theft in Calgary was also recovered in Innisfail.
Investigators believe the individuals committed a series of crimes across British Columbia and Alberta from late 2016 to early 2019, beginning in lower mainland British Columbia and moving through the southern interior of British Columbia and southern Alberta, until they were arrested in Edmonton. As a result, the personal items recovered may belong to citizens from several communities in either province, including but not limited to, Squamish, Surrey, Delta, Langley, Vancouver, Okotoks, Calgary and Edmonton.
Among the recovered personal items were numerous pieces of jewelry, specialty spoons, comic books stamps and a camera. Police believe that these items, along with many of the recovered identity and financial documents, were stolen during break-and-enters or thefts from vehicles. Often only a small number of these items are listed as stolen. While some recovered items were returned to their owners, several remain unclaimed.
Photos of some of these items are included below. Additional photos of the recovered stolen property can be found on the EPS Pinterest page in hopes the original owners will come forward and claim them. Anyone who believes the stolen property may belong to them is encouraged to email EPSPinterest@edmontonpolice.ca
Following a thorough investigation, 130 charges were laid in relation to the Jan. 25, 2019 arrest.
Jennilee Weiler, 30, was issued 47 charges including possess stolen credit card, obtain/possess identity information, , possess stolen property andpossess offensive weapon dangerous to the public. Weiler was also arrested for 45 outstanding warrants from Alberta and British Columbia, including theft, break-and-enter, mischief, VIN tampering and possess stolen vehicle over $5,000.
Jason Fletcher, 32, was issued 45 charges including made/possess identity document, obtain/possess identity information, possess stolen credit card, theft of motor vehicle and fraud over $5,000.
Adam Laderoute, 37, was issued 38 charges including made/possess identity document, possess stolen credit card, possess stolen property, obtain/possess identity information and possess offensive weapon dangerous to the public.
“Discovering large quantities of stolen or forged identity and financial documents in the course of conducting stolen property investigations is unfortunately becoming increasingly common,” says Const. Brendan Power with STAT. “Often citizens may be unaware that their identity documents are being used to commit crimes, including frauds and thefts.”
Officers would like to remind citizens to keep their identity and financial documents in a secure location and avoid leaving them, along with any other valuables, in vehicles. If you’re victim of a break-and-enter, theft from vehicle, or if government identification is otherwise lost or stolen, report it to police as soon as possible.
“Unfortunately these documents are frequently not reported missing or stolen to police,” says Power. “Reporting can significantly reduce the time it takes to return these documents and other property to their rightful owners.”
If you have information about stolen property or have had property or identity documents stolen, please contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.
From the Fraser Institute
On Monday, the Smith government announced that beginning next year it will change the way it funds surgeries in Alberta. This is a big step towards unlocking the ability of Alberta’s health-care system to provide more, better and faster services for the same or possibly fewer dollars.
To understand the significance of this change, you must understand the consequences of the current (and outdated) approach.
Currently, the Alberta government pays a lump sum of money to hospitals each year. Consequently, hospitals perceive patients as a drain on their budgets. From the hospital’s perspective, there’s little financial incentive to serve more patients, operate more efficiently and provide superior quality services.
Consider what would happen if your local grocery store received a giant bag of money each year to feed people. The number of items would quickly decline to whatever was most convenient for the store to provide. (Have a favourite cereal? Too bad.) Store hours would become less convenient for customers, alongside a general decline in overall service. This type of grocery store, like an Alberta hospital, is actually financially better off (that is, it saves money) if you go elsewhere.
The Smith government plans to flip this entire system on its head, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. Instead of handing out bags of money each year to providers, the new system—known as “activity-based funding”—will pay health-care providers for each patient they treat, based on the patient’s particular condition and important factors that may add complexity or cost to their care.
This turns patients from a drain on budgets into a source of additional revenue. The result, as has been demonstrated in other universal health-care systems worldwide, is more services delivered using existing health-care infrastructure, lower wait times, improved quality of care, improved access to medical technologies, and less waste.
In other words, Albertans will receive far better value from their health-care system, which is currently among the most expensive in the world. And relief can’t come soon enough—for example, last year in Alberta the median wait time for orthopedic surgeries including hip and knee replacements was 66.8 weeks.
The naysayers argue this approach will undermine the province’s universal system and hurt patients. But by allowing a spectrum of providers to compete for the delivery of quality care, Alberta will follow the lead of other more successful universal health-care systems in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and create greater accountability for hospitals and other health-care providers. Taxpayers will get a much better picture of what they’re paying for and how much they pay.
Again, Alberta is not exploring an untested policy. Almost every other developed country with universal health care uses some form of “activity-based funding” for hospital and surgical care. And remember, we already spend more on health care than our counterparts in nearly all of these countries yet endure longer wait times and poorer access to services generally, in part because of how we pay for surgical care.
While the devil is always in the details, and while it’s still possible for the Alberta government to get this wrong, Monday’s announcement is a big step in the right direction. A funding model that puts patients first will get Albertans more of the high-quality health care they already pay for in a timelier fashion. And provide to other provinces an example of bold health-care reform.
Nadeem Esmail
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
From the Montreal Economic Institute
Alberta’s move to fund acute care services through activity-based funding follows best practices internationally, points out an MEI researcher following an announcement made by Premier Danielle Smith earlier today.
“For too long, the way hospitals were funded in Alberta incentivized treating fewer patients, contributing to our long wait times,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI. “International experience has shown that, with the proper funding models in place, health systems become more efficient to the benefit of patients.”
Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.
Under the government’s newly proposed funding system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered.
An Economic Note published by the MEI last year showed that Quebec’s gradual adoption of activity-based funding led to higher productivity and lower costs in the province’s health system.
Notably, the province observed that the per-procedure cost of MRIs fell by four per cent as the number of procedures performed increased by 22 per cent.
In the radiology and oncology sector, it observed productivity increases of 26 per cent while procedure costs decreased by seven per cent.
“Being able to perform more surgeries, at lower costs, and within shorter timelines is exactly what Alberta’s patients need, and Premier Smith understands that,” continued Mrs. Wittevrongel. “Today’s announcement is a good first step, and we look forward to seeing a successful roll-out once appropriate funding levels per procedure are set.”
The governments expects to roll-out this new funding model for select procedures starting in 2026.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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