THE HOBBIT
COMING HOME
A dazzling epic — but why does it have to be so long? D1
Canadian Juniors cut Dumba B1
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
FRIDAY, DEC. 14, 2012
HOMELESSNESS
Funding for outreach services boosted LOCAL AGENCIES WILL RECEIVE A TOTAL OF $3 MILLION — UP $615,000 OVER LAST YEAR BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF Homeless people in Red Deer will get assistance to get off the street sooner with an increase of provincial funding for outreach services. Local agencies will receive a total of $3 million for outreach support programs — an increase of $615,000 over last year — as part of Alberta’s 10-year Plan to End Homelessness. The money from the government’s Human Services Department will fund a new triage program at the homeless shelter run by the Central Alberta Safe Harbour Society. It will also help maintain other existing programs offered by the society, the Red Deer Native Friendship Centre, Central Alberta Women’s Outreach, Canadian Mental Health Association and others. Mayor Morris Flewwelling is happy to see the funding influx, predicting “it will help make life better for a lot of people.” The mayor sometimes hears from critics that Red Deer is attracting more homeless people than its population warrants because of good local housing programs. “My response to that is — is that a bad thing?” said Flewwelling, who feels people should be glad to have a supportive community that helps vulnerable people turn their lives around. “If not Red Deer, where?” the mayor asked. With the funding increase, Red Deer South MLA Cal Dallas said the provincial government is recognizing that programs to help the homeless are critical for the creation of healthy communities and citizens who contribute positively to society. Among the reasons for more local hope is the new triage program, said Stacey Carmichael, director or housing and outreach services for the Safe Harbour Society. A new triage worker was hired at the shelter last month to assess the needs of each incoming homeless person, and find out how to best connect the individual to appropriate services and programs. The worker will discover what each client’s urgent needs are and help them get past whatever barriers they face.
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Town of Rimbey Volunteer Fire Department chief John Weisgerber says volunteer firefighters are stretched to the limit because of lengthy ambulance wait times.
Stretched to the limit RIMBEY VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS ARE FREQUENTLY BEING CALLED OUT TO SITUATIONS THAT THEY’RE NOT TRAINED TO HANDLE BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Increasingly lengthy ambulance waits are too often leaving Rimbey volunteer firefighters to respond to medical calls they aren’t trained for, says the fire chief. John Weisgerber said often Rimbey ambulances are called away to Red Deer or other communities. “It’s regular for one unit to be gone all day, for sure,” Weisgerber said. “If the other unit has to go out on a call then suddenly we’ve got nothing.” “We do way more ambulance calls than we’ve ever done,” he said. Sometimes, there are ambulance staff around who can join firefighters on a call, but too often the volunteers must go on their own. And when they get there they are limited in what they can do. Rimbey’s volunteers have first aid and CPR training but not more advanced medical skills. “We’re basically making decisions on what we
should be doing. And that’s not fair to the patient and that’s not fair to the volunteers.” Weisgerber said some volunteers are already screening their calls to avoid responding to situations they are not trained to handle. He’s worried that he will start losing volunteers. “The province isn’t willing to even consider that that’s something that’s going on, but it’s happening. “There’s lots of (volunteers) saying I’m not trained to do that. I’m not going to do that — period.” Weisgerber said the problems started when Alberta Health Services went to its borderless system two years ago. Ambulances are still located in each community, but they are shifted about more often to meet demands in other municipalities. The situation is getting “progressively worse,” he said. “As the units are needed elsewhere, there’s less of them here.” Rimbey isn’t the only community that has had ambulance concerns.
Please see VOLUNTEERS on Page A2
Please see FUNDING on Page A2
Vacancy rates down, rental rates up across region BY HARLEY RICHARDS ADVOCATE BUSINESS EDITOR If you live in rental accommodations in Red Deer, you’re probably paying about $40 more a month now than you were a year ago. And you have fewer alternatives to choose from. The average apartment rental in the city was $804 in October, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s fall rental market survey. That was up more than five per cent from $764 for the same month in 2011. In the case of bachelor units, the average October rent in Red Deer climbed to $568 from $548. One-bedroom suites were $736, up from $696; two-bedroom apartments increased to $867 from $823; and larger accommodations were renting for an average of $961,
PLEASE RECYCLE
up from $916. The higher rents reflected the fact that vacancy rates were down from last fall — to 1.2 per cent from 3.2 per cent, overall. Although the availability of bachelor suites improved slightly, all other apartment types were scarcer. In the case of one-bedroom apartments, the rate decreased to 0.9 per cent from 2.5 per cent; two-bedroom apartment vacancies fell to 1.5 per cent from 3.9 per cent; and the vacancy rate for units with three or more bedrooms was down to 1.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent. “Increased employment levels and gains in net migration were the largest contributors to the reduction in vacancies,” said Richard Cho, a senior market analyst with CMHC. The CMHC survey looked at 17 Alberta communities with more than 10,000 people, including Sylvan
WEATHER
INDEX
Clearing. High -6. Low -20.
Five sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3,A9 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A7,A8 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E1-E4 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D6 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B9
FORECAST ON A2
Lake and Lacombe. The average October rent in Sylvan Lake dropped 10 per cent, to $720 from $799. In the case of twobedroom apartments, the figure slipped to $747 from $827. Meanwhile, the overall average vacancy rate in Sylvan Lake in October was 1.1 per cent, down from five per cent a year earlier. In the case of two-bedroom apartments, the October rate was 1.4 per cent, down from 5.1 per cent. However, CMHC was unable to provide comprehensive data for Sylvan Lake because the information it collected was in some cases not statistically reliable or had to be suppressed to protect the confidentiality of sources.
Please see VACANCY on Page A2
ALBERTA
ADVOCATE VIEW
SHERMAN HELPED COLLEAGUES
SPARING THE ‘HORSES’
Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman says he has written prescriptions, given advice and diagnosed politicians who dropped by his legislature office, but says it was not queue-jumping. A3
MacKenzie Porter and Aidan Quinn star in ‘The Horses of McBride’ on Sunday on CTV.
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