AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STARS WIN
Blasts from the past Honeymoon Suite, Harlequin ready for Westerner Days
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Red Deer Advocate WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
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‘Neglect on a massive scale’
BARN DANCE
REGIONAL HEALTH FACILITIES NEED MORE THAN $100M IN MAINTENANCE BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF Central Alberta health facilities need more than $100 million in maintenance work, the Alberta Liberals say provincial documents show. The deferred Alberta Health Services maintenance in the Central Zone includes more than $23 million in work needed at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. Alberta Liberal Leader Dr. Raj Sherman called it “neglect on a massive scale.” And former party leader and current health critic David Swann said that poor infrastructure leads to poor patient outcomes. Overall in Alberta, the opposition Liberals said the deficit for health facility maintenance is $637 million. The Liberals obtained the documents detailing the maintenance deficit under freedom of information rules. The Liberals say the deferred maintenance project list includes those originally planned to be implemented prior to 2013-14. A total of $23,836,292 in maintenance was deferred at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, as well as $179,632 for the Red Deer Nursing Home. Parker Hogan, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Wayne Drysdale, said Alberta Infrastructure needs to book things as they go through their lifecycle. Often deferred maintenance can refer to projects that aren’t immediately necessary, but are kept on the books to keep track of their age and replacement cost. “If there’s a boiler or furnace and when it gets installed it is a 20-year furnace, we need to book starting at the end of that 20th year the replacement cost of putting in a new furnace,” said Hogan.
Please see MAINTENANCE on Page A2
Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate staff
The Country Pride Dancers perform at the Peavey Mart Barn Dance Tuesday evening. The second annual barn dance, held on Little Gaetz, was one of the off-site events for the 2014 Westerner Days, and featured live entertainment and the Copper Cowboy, and Country Pride Dancers.
Air Spray busy during fire season BY HARLEY RICHARDS ADVOCATE BUSINESS EDITOR
With forest fires raging in Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories — as well as in the United States — Air Spray Ltd. has been moving its aircraft like chess pieces in an effort to defeat the flames. The company has dispersed its fleet of air tankers and bird dog planes from its operations base at the Red Deer Airport to locations in Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Although the damp spring reduced the early need for Air Spray’s services in the two western-most provinces, there was no such reprieve in the Northwest Territories. “It’s been very busy up in the Northwest Territories since Day 1,” said Paul Lane, the company’s vice-president and chief financial officer.
The Yukon has remained quiet, but recent fires in Alberta and British Columbia now has all of Air Spray’s eight Canada-based L-188 Electras and support bird dog planes hopping. “We’ve got everything going,” said Lane. One of the wildfires Air Spray has been battling is the blaze near Banff National Park, south of Hwy 11. Rocky Mountain House has served as its base of operations in that effort. The company has also moved a plane and crew from the Yukon to assist in British Columbia, where a number of fires are burning. And an Air Spray air tanker in Penticton, B.C. has been flying missions into Washington State — travelling nearly as far as Spokane. Lane explained that Canadian firefighters help their southern counterparts when needed. With the Electra’s 4 ½ hour flight time and 11,400-litre tank capacity — enough for a dozen fire retardant drops — it can attack
fires deep into the U.S. without touching down there. “It’s actually easier for them to fly back to Penticton, reload and come back again,” said Lane. “If they did land in the U.S., unfortunately they’d have to go through immigration.” Air Spray also has an Air Tractor AT-802F water tanker under contract in Oregon, with another available for backup. These have been helping suppress wildfires in that state and Idaho. This year, said Lane, Air Spray has assembled a spare crew that travels around to spell off their counterparts as needed. This helps keep the planes in the air, he explained. “In prior years, we’ve seen it when our groups get timed out,” he said, referring to the daily and weekly flight time limits that crews are subject to. Ensuring adequate rest is important in the fire-fighting business, said Lane. “These are pretty high-stress environments that they’re in.” hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com
Drug recognition experts look to take more impaired drivers off the streets BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by CRYSTAL RHYNO/Advocate staff
Red Deer RCMP Const. Lee Watt demonstrates a roadside sobriety test at the detachment on Tuesday. Watt is one of four drug recognition experts at the detachment. Const. Liam Shiels played the bad guy who tries to walk a straight line.
WEATHER Mainly sunny. High 30. Low 14.
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INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D5 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . C6 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B8
Busted. A police officer only needs “mere suspicion” that a driver has drugs in his system before conducting roadside standardized field sobriety tests. Should the person perform poorly on the tests and alcohol has been ruled out, he or she could be arrested and taken back to the station to undergo more tests by drug recognition experts (DREs). This new expertise on the Red Deer City RCMP force is something officers say will take more impaired drivers off the streets and ultimately make the roads safer for everyone. City officers demonstrated standard roadside sobriety and drug evaluation
testing for media on Tuesday at the Red Deer North Detachment. Four Red Deer police officers are now trained in drug recognition and certified by the International Association of Police Chiefs through the RCMP. They are able to identify drugs within seven categories such as hallucinogens, depressants, stimulants, cannabis and inhalants after performing a battery of tests. Cpl. Mike LaBelle, one of the city’s four drug recognition experts, said there is a critical need for them in Red Deer and Central Alberta. He said police are finding more people impaired by drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol than traditionally impaired by alcohol.
Please see DRE on Page A2
Garland charged with Calgary murders Douglas Robert Garland’s appearance is unassuming, but late Monday he was charged with three murders. Story on PAGE A3
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