MUST-SEE TV Summer blockbusters may be fading from theatres, but for anyone who loves action, this fall’s television season has plenty
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Red Deer Advocate WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7, 2015
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CELEBRATING DYEVERSITY
FEDERAL ELECTION
Seniors issues top forum agenda BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF After opening statements focusing specifically on seniors issue, the forum at the Golden Circle Senior’s Centre quickly changed gears to broader election issues. Seven of the 10 candidates in both Red Deer-Lacombe and Red Deer-Mountain View attended Tuesday’s forum at the seniors centre in downtown Red Deer. The forum was hosted by the Central Alberta Council on Aging. Before opening the floor to questions, the candidates were given five minutes to touch on several seniors issues including dementia care, seniors housing, a national senior strategy, a national pharmacare program, assisted death legislation, a health-care accord and seniors home care. Conservative candidates Blaine Calkins, Red Deer-Lacombe, and Earl Dreeshen, Red Deer-Mountain View, touted Brain Canada and the $100 million of funding over six years the government provided. They said the non-profit is doing work related to dementia research. Calkins said the party has promised another $100 million if elected. Jeff Rock, Liberal Red Deer-Lacombe, and Doug Hart, NDP Red Deer-Lacombe, talked about the importance of first minister meetings. Calkins said the federal minister of health would have to work with the provinces towards bulk buying of pharmaceuticals. He said this was the best way to get value for health-care dollars. Hart pointed out that since Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected, he has held only two meetings with the first ministers of the provinces. None of which focused on seniors care, health care or social issues. Paul Harris, NDP Red Deer-Mountain View, said municipalities needed to be involved in the pharmacare discussion. He spent much of the forum drawing on his experience as a Red Deer city councilor. It was during the pharmacare discussion that the issue of the Trans Pacific Partnership was raised, with only Hart touching on it and saying it could impact the cost of pharmaceuticals. The yet to be ratified trade agreement was finalized on Monday. The health accord, in effect from 2004-14 was a hot topic. Over those 10 years, the federal government provided six per cent increases to health care funding to the provinces. Calkins trumpeted the Conservatives work to tie the increase to economic growth instead of an “unsustainable” six per cent. Dreeshen said the six per cent was to make up for the Liberals cuts in the 1990s.
Please see FORUM on Page A2
WEATHER Sun and cloud. High 16. Low 4.
FORECAST ON A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
From the left, Cayley Jacobsen, MacKenzie Dulc, Ceanna Feldberg, Alyssa Huston and Kaitlyn Fleury found themselves covered in powdered dye as they took part in the Lindsay Thurber DYEversity Relay on Tuesday. The DYEversity Relay was all in the name of celebrating and promoting diversity. During the event participants were encouraged to walk and run the track, play a variety of games, and take in the live entertainment on the stage near the track and repeatedly run a gauntlet of dye-flinging volunteers.
NDP blaming Tories for major delay in school construction
City composting program honoured BY ADVOCATE STAFF
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY — Alberta’s education minister says it’s not the NDP government’s fault that there will be a major delay in completing new schools and modernizing others. Dave Eggen told a news conference in Calgary that about 100 projects which were to be completed starting next September are behind schedule. He said the delays range from a few months to a full year. The minister said the blame should be squarely focused on the former Progressive Conservative government which was defeated in last May’s election. “People have been asking about where’s the skeletons from the previous government? This is a big one,” Eggen said Tuesday. He is asking the province’s auditor general to investigate. “The former government failed to set out realistic construction timelines and pushed project timelines through without long-term planning to keep them and make sure they would bear out to fruition,” he said. “As a result, at a time when Alberta was growing rapidly, the previous
INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Business . . . . . . . B1-B3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . A6 Classified . . . . . . D1-D2 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . D4 Entertainment . . C4, C6 Sports . . . . . . . . . B4-B6
‘PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING ABOUT WHERE’S THE SKELETONS FROM THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT? THIS IS A BIG ONE.’
government did not build a sufficient supply of schools to meet the needs of children.” The former PC government said the province would spend $5 billion to build or upgrade 230 schools. It promised in 2012 to build 50 new schools and modernize 70 more by 2016. Then-premier Jim Prentice added 56 new schools and 21 more modernizations to be completed by 2018. “We saw this shell game going on for months, or even years, where there was a sign with a picture of a school but no school,” Eggen said. “I’ve asked the auditor general to look into what has happened with these school projects and why there are so many that are so far behind and to give us advice on how to do better in the future.”
The City of Red Deer’s Composting at Home program earned top honours at a waste reduction conference in Banff last week. The city received the 2015 Social Marketing Award from the Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA). The awards recognize outstanding contributions to waste reduction, recycling and resource conservation in Alberta. The Composting at Home Program gives participants the tools and training they need to start backyard composting, in exchange for a commitment to compost for one year. Since the program launch in 2012, 839 households have committed to composting with approximately 72 per cent of households maintaining their composting practices one year later. “We are so proud of this accomplishment,” said Lauren Maris, Environmental Program Specialist. “Not just of our team that has helped to promote the composting program, but also of our residents who have embraced composting and are putting in the time and effort to make it an ongoing practice.”
Please see SCHOOLS on Page A2
Please see AWARD on Page A2
— DAVE EGGEN EDUCATION MINISTER
Big win for small science A professor emeritus is a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on tiny particles known as neutrinos. Story on PAGE A6
PLEASE RECYCLE