Red Deer Advocate, May 06, 2014

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PENGUINS SHUT OUT RANGERS TO TAKE 2-1 SERIES LEAD

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A bagel-baking frenzy

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Red Deer Advocate TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2014

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Failing grade TEACHERS’ UNION PANS RECOMMENDATION FOR REGULAR COMPETENCY REVIEWS BY MYLES FISH

TASK FORCE FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE

ADVOCATE STAFF A provincial task force has issued 25 recommendations that it suggests will create teaching excellence in Alberta.

On Monday, it created teacher anger. Mandating regular competency reviews for teach-

Access to midwives limited by funding

ers was the major recommendation in the Task Force for Teaching Excellence that had the province’s largest teachers’ union — the Alberta Teachers’ Association — claiming a “direct assault” on the profession on Monday.

Please see REPORT on Page A2

UPLIFTING CEREMONY

DEMAND FOR CONTINUITY OF CARE REMAINS HIGH BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF MaternityCare Consumers of Alberta Network called attention to the need for more midwives while recognizing the International day of the Midwife on Monday. Lolly de Jonge, network spokesperson, said Albertans actually are challenged when it comes finding any primary care provider for pregnancy whether it be a family physician, obstetrician or midwife. “We’re seeing few family physicians that are doing pregnancy and births. With the profession of obstetrics, the practitioners are getting older, retiring. And of course we have a limitation on the number midwives in Alberta as well,” de Jonge said. Currently midwives have a three-year, $37-million funding agreement with Alberta Health Services that limits the number of “courses of care” midwives can provide. The agreement runs to April 2015. Red Deer midwife Jennifer Bindon, of Prairie Midwives, said the Alberta Association of Midwives is working with AHS to increase the courses of care. “If we look at the numbers based on wait lists, we probably have room in Red Deer for at least six to eight midwives,” said Bindon who has anywhere between 15 and 40 people on her wait list every month. Prairie Midwives, with its three midwives can provide 116 courses of care annually. Elsewhere in Central Alberta, three midwives work at Blessing Way Midwifery serving the Rocky Mountain House area. “Right now we’re doing one to two per cent of the births in Central Alberta. We would like to be doing 20,” Bindon said. She said students graduating from Mount Royal University’s bachelor of midwifery program next April won’t have much opportunity to work unless more courses of care are allowed and there’s probably midwives already practising who aren’t working as much as they’d like.

WEATHER 60% flurries. High 5. Low -6.

FORECAST ON A2

INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . A8,A9 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .B8-B10 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A10 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . .B12 Sports. . . . . . . . . .B5-B7,B11

Clearwater County urging outdoor enthusiasts to think like a sasquatch BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF Forget about the reported sighting of Bigfoot near Squamish, B.C. Bigfoot is alive and well in Clearwater County. At least that’s the thinking behind an educational campaign that asks outdoor enthusiasts to respect the land while channeling the moves of a sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot. Clearwater County Coun. Jim Duncan said there is no better backyard camper than Bigfoot, who treads lightly on the land and leaves little proof, if any, of his existence. “A sasquatch is ultimately the lowest impact camper there is,” said Duncan. About 10 signs featuring the big hairy beast with the message Welcome To Our Backyard. Please Enjoy it with respect are part of an educational campaign that began a few years ago. Duncan said the sasquatch was the obvious choice for a mascot and role model because of its long his-

Contributed illustration

tory in the West Country. In the 1970s when the Big Horn Dam, west of Nordegg, was being built, workers reported seeing a sasquatch roaming the area.

Please see SASQUATCH on Page A2

Kidnapped girls to be sold? Nigeria’s Islamic extremist leader is threatening to sell the nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped three weeks ago.

PLEASE

RECYCLE

Story on PAGE A7

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Please see MIDWIVES on Page A2

Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

Staff and students of West Park Middle School look on as Darien Leidal and educational assistant Kimberly Streit ride the lift into the school’s new bus during a unveiling ceremony on Monday at the school. The bus, the only one of its kind in the Red Deer Public School District’s fleet, was made possible due to a donation $10,000 from the Red Deer Kinsmen Club.


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