Toews talks health during campaign stop
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 28, 2022.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
United Conservative Party leadership candidate, Travis Toews speaks to reporters after his meet and greet session Tuesday at Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre.LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com
United Conservative Party leadership candidate Travis Toews made a campaign stop in Lethbridge Tuesday for a meet and greet at Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre.
“What was really enjoyable is to actually sit down this morning and meet with a whole lot of seniors and share my vision for the province, more importantly hear their perspectives,” said Toews.
While speaking to the media he was asked what he would do in terms of being able to have more doctors come to Lethbridge.
“There’s a number of things we need to do. Number one, we need to ensure that we have enough regional incentives, rural incentives and that they are applied in the right regions so that we can attract and retain physicians,” said Toews.
He said he is aware that many physicians prefer to stay in the bigger centres while smaller centres suffer from shortages.
“When I look in my community (Grande Prairie), the doctors that served residents in my community maybe 20 years ago worked 82 to 100 hours per week and the next generation coming in behind them are good with maybe 50-hour weeks, and I don’t blame them, they’ve got a different work life balance,” said Toews.
He said one way of solving that is to ensure that our post-secondary institutions have enough capacity in their medicine faculties, so that we are training enough positions going forward.
“The other thing we need to do as well when it comes to physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals, we need to review the credentialing requirements, credentialing criterion of our credentialing bodies in healthcare and ensure that we’re pulling in as many foreign trained healthcare professionals as possible,” said Toews.
He said the province has thousands of foreign trained professionals who are not practicing in their field of expertise, and therefore there is much that needs to be done in terms of strengthening healthcare.
Another strategy Toews has in mind is the appointment of an associate minister of healthcare.
“I’m convinced that right now associate minister healthcare capacity could move the meter on expanding healthcare capacity in this province at a time we really need it,” said Toews.
He explained that he has experience with having an associate minister while he was the minister of finance and it yielded great results.
Toews said the Alberta healthcare budget is over 40 per cent of the province’s budget. He believes it is a massive effort for one minister by themselves to be able to navigate it expertly.
“Right now we’ve got a capacity crisis in the province and so for that reason I would appoint an associate minister of healthcare capacity, every day their job and the job of their team would be to work to ensure that we have adequate healthcare capacity in every region of the province and that’s absolutely critical,” said Toews.
Other areas where Toews is focusing includes removing the GDL designation for Alberta drivers to save drivers the hassle of having to go through another test and the cost of it.
“I think it’s pretty clear that program is not providing safer roads with 500,000 Albertans still driving with their GDL today,” said Toews.
He is also committing to implement a personal tax credit of $2000 per child, to assist families in this time of great affordability issues.
“Right now families are struggling often to make ends meet by the end of the month, this will provide some additional relief,” said Toews.
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Did Mr. Toews make any mention , or provide any possible solution to the homeless crisis affecting citizens of Lethbridge and other communities throughout the province?
Has any of these candidates identified a plan /solution to address the issue?I’m sorry, I genuinely don’t know. I have not been taking the time to follow the campaign.
Based on what the UCP has done thus far and not done (i.e. listen to the people) I do not think any of the candidates are worthy of any further consideration.
Can a leopard change it’s spots? Mr. Toews may be a genuinely, decent person. I am sorry, but it is hard to to consider these “leadership” candidates as anything but Kenney clones. That they are the ones to fix the mess they created is insane.