LADIES IN FRONT
WILD COUP Minnesota lands not one but both of NHL’s top free agents B6
Women are discovering motorcycles are more fun as the driver B1
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2012
Battered boats
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
With winds blowing at 60 km/h and gusting to 90, the waves on Sylvan Lake were crashing against the east end of the lake at Lakeshore Drive Wednesday morning. Along the length of the beach several boats that had torn loose from moorings ended up battered on the beach. This catamaran rescued by Trevor Burns, John Umlah and Dave Schirru broke free of its boat lift structure and was damaged as it collided with other boats at the Sylvan Lake Catamaran Club spot at Petro Beach. After this boat was safely up on shore the men pulled in several other boats that were also in danger of being battered by the wind and waves.
Twister rips past farm buildings CLEANUP BEGINS THROUGH ALL CENTRAL ALBERTA AS IN TUESDAY’S RAIN AND HAIL STORM BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF Several properties in Mountain View County are cleaning up after a suspected tornado ripped through the area during Tuesday’s intense storm. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the tornado touch down about 13 km south of Olds, northwest of Didsbury, at about 2 p.m. Ryan Morrison, manager of infrastructure projects and technical services for Mountain View Coun-
ty, said several farm buildings were damaged. Some siding and roofs on houses were ruined. Didsbury RCMP and local firefighters checked on residents in the area to make sure they were OK. A number of trees were ripped down as a result of the storm’s fury. Damage was fairly localized. “We started clearing trees from about 3 p.m. to about 6 p.m. (on Tuesday),” said Morrison. The municipality has already spoken with representatives of the provincial government’s emergency financial aid program.
“Right now, they want everyone to go through their private insurance companies and see where that goes,” said Morrison. “A lot of times the insurance companies put the pressure on the government to provide assistance.” At Sylvan Lake, volunteers were busy on Wednesday morning pulling power boats and sailing catamarans being battered against the shoreline due to intense winds.
Please see STORM on Page A2
Province throwing money at health care in the dark: auditor-general Olsen tells DRUNK DRIVING
operating on a trial basis. The premier has not set a deadline to get the other 137 in place. Government members are having informal discussions with stakeholders this summer. Saher said lack of information on primary-care networks should give
that means some clinics stay open nights and weekends, others provide recorded messages that rediEDMONTON — Alberta’s audirect people to emergency wards. tor general says the government is When it comes to helping a papreparing for a multibillion-dollar tient through the system, he said, expansion of primary health-care some networks actively do so, while services without even knowing if others just provide patients they work. with phone numbers. The province has never ‘WE FOUND SIGNIFICANT The networks must have done a thorough, ongoing multidisciplinary teams in WEAKNESSES IN THE DESIGN AND study on their effectiveness, place, but there is no set exeven though primary-care ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS FOR pectation on what skills they networks have been around should have. THE (PRIMARY-CARE NETWORK) for seven years, Merwan SaA key component is treather said in his latest report PROGRAM . . . EVALUATION ing chronic diseases which, released Wednesday. if allowed to worsen, can “We found significant INITIATIVES TO DATE HAVE NOT BEEN harm not only the patient but ADEQUATE GIVEN THE MAGNITUDE weaknesses in the design cost the system $10,000 per and implementation of the OF THE PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND patient per year — more than accountability systems for twice the cost of treating a THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE . . . the (primary-care network) cancer patient. program,” said Saher. “EvalPROGRAM.’ But the networks aren’t uation initiatives to date told which chronic diseases have not been adequate — AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT to focus on, aren’t given mingiven the magnitude of the imal expectations on how to public investment and sigpoliticians pause before embarking treat them and don’t have to follow nificance of the . . . program.” basic clinical standards or guideThe province has 40 primary-care on the family-care model. For instance, he said, while the lines, Saher said. network clinics which are to receive With no expectations, he said, $170 million in public funding this government has set up five objecyear for a total of $700 million since tives for the networks, it never de- some primary-care networks can veloped targets and measures need- meet the mandate of treating chronthey began operating in 2005. The clinics are privately run by ed to determine if objectives are ic illnesses through active treatment while others can simply hand out doctors. Teams of specialists treat met. The networks are supposed to pamphlets. patients with illnesses and other Health Minister Fred Horne says health issues before they worsen. draw from patients in certain geoThe clinics are designed to save tax- graphic zones, Saher pointed out, the government accepts the recompayers money by keeping patients but the result has been mass confu- mendations and will act on them as out of clogged emergency rooms and sion over who is in charge of deliv- it moves forward with family-care ering demographic information. It’s clinics. hospitals. Premier Alison Redford has an- also unclear whether each list is “I’ve had some of these concerns nounced plans to create 140 new based on where patients live or on and I have discussed them. Ultifamily-care clinics. They will per- where they traditionally go for care. mately, now as minister, it’s my reAnd the rules are too loose, he sponsibility that we deliver on the form essentially the same services as primary-care facilities, but will suggested. accountability, and I will do that.” The clinics are supposed to pronot be privately run. Three family-care clinics are vide around-the-clock care. While Please see HEALTH on Page A2 BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
PLEASE RECYCLE
WEATHER
INDEX
Risk of afternoon storm
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5,C6 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D5 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6-B8
FORECAST ON A2
Parole Board he’ll never drive again BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF A young Central Alberta man said he has no desire to ever drive again after killing a Red Deer couple as they drove home in February 2010. According to Parole Board of Canada documents obtained by the Red Deer Advocate, Chad Mitchell Olsen, 25, of Sedalia told the parole board on June 8 that he had driven a vehicle in the past when he didn’t have a valid driver’s licence. “You (Olsen) said this would not occur in the future as you no longer have any desire to drive,” said the parole board’s written decision. “Given the circumstances of the current offences, you have expressed that you don’t have the right to drive again.” Olsen pleaded guilty in April 2011 to two counts of impaired driving causing death after Brad and Krista Howe, both in their mid 30s and parents of five children, were killed on the city’s south side during the early morning hours of Feb. 7, 2010. He was driving at nearly three times the legal blood alcohol level when he sped through a traffic light and hit the Howes’ car. The parole board did express some concern that Olsen planned to return to the same location where the fatal car crash occurred.
Please see PAROLE on Page A2
SCIENCE
WORLD
‘MISSING CORNERSTONE OF PHYSICS’ DISCOVERED
BLACKOUT MAKES FOR HOT FOURTH OF JULY
Scientists at the world’s biggest atom smasher hailed the discovery of the Higgs boson, which could help explain why all matter has mass. A7
It was a little like the old days without electricity Wednesday, as the nation’s capital region celebrated Independence Day the better part of a week into a widespread blackout. D5