www.crowsnestpassherald.ca • 403-562-2248 •passherald@shaw.ca
April 29, 2020 ~ Vol. 90 No. 17 $1.00
Crowsnest Pass
Herald Serving the CnP SinCe 1930
Shawn Oudshoorn photo
A big thank you to this week’s Home Page photos submitter Shawn Oudshoorn! Shawn is a journeyman electrician that lives near Fort Macleod. He loves hiking and the outdoors, from which his hobby of photography stems. Most of his work can be found on his Instagram page @shawnjameso. Keep submitting your photos to have them shown in a future edition of the Pass Herald!
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2 – cRowSneSt PASS HeRALD – Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Health Minister Shandro provides update on Rural Health Government rolls out mandate to aid rural health care and clinic in the province DAviD SelleS Pass Herald Reporter
Alberta’s Minister of Health, Tyler Shandro, provided an update on what the province is doing to aid rural health workers and clinics. Below is a list of all current plans. Effective immediately, the $60,000 cap on the Rural and Remote Northern Program (RRNP) will be abolished. This program will now be the most generous in the country. All four communities of the Crowsnest Pass are part of this program and have a 15.4 per cent variable fee premium. Overhead changes announced earlier this year will be paused for urban physicians while an extensive review by AHS with physician involvement is completed. Rural physicians will be exempted from any changes permanently.
Medical liability rates for all rural physicians, including obstetrics, will be frozen at $1,000. Rates for all family physicians in Alberta will also be frozen at $1,000. Rates for all other urban physicians will range from a low of $1,200 to a maximum of $4,000. On-call rates for all rural physicians will range from $20 per hour to $23 per hour, increasing payments to more than 1,500 physicians who are on call in rural Alberta. $6 million will be used to pay for the schooling of 20 medical students over the next three years to incentivize young Albertans from rural communities to return to practice in their home communities after completing medical school. The following initiatives are also being implemented: Having the ability to earn more through the
RRNP, effective immediately. The cap and flat fee components of the program will be removed and eligible communities will be reviewed. Immediately increasing on-call rates for rural family medicine physicians with special skills from $11 per hour to $20 per hour, and for rural oncall from $20 per hour to $23 per hour. Exempting rural physicians from the new overhead policy. Implementation of the overhead policy will be delayed for urban physicians until a complete policy review. Freezing the Medical Liability Reimbursement Program deductible for all rural physicians and all family physicians at $1,000.00. Engaging physicians on how to improve health care in rural communities. • Internationally recognized clinical researcher Dr. Lee Green has
been contracted to provide advice on how to modernize alternative compensation models for physicians working in communitybased primary care practice. Dr. Green is a professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. He is also a practicing physician, with academic research focused on the pillars of the Patient’s Medical Home model of primary care. • Creating a new salary model for primary care. • The Provincial Primary Care Network Committee will be asked to form a working group to provide recommendations on how to improve primary care in rural communities. • Alberta Health is spending about $81 million this year to address rural physician recruit-
ment and retention through programs, including: RRNP – provides direct financial incentives to physicians who live and practice in underserviced communities. Rural Health Professions Action Plan – works with communities to enhance the attraction and retention of health professionals for rural practice. Rural Medical Education programs – supports medical students and residents’ experiences with rural health care, with the goal of increasing interest in, and ultimately choosing a rural medicine career path. Physician Locum Service Program – ensures that communities with four or fewer physicians have access to continuous medical coverage if a physician is unable to provide services due to shortterm absences. Rural On-Call Pro-
gram – provides remuneration to physicians providing emergency on-call services at eligible facilities in rural areas. • There are about 1,000 rural physicians practicing in Alberta. Minister Shandro says these changes will ensure rural Albertans have access to safe and high quality care today and into the future by supporting rural doctors and strengthening recruitment and retention. “Over the last several weeks, discussions with rural caucus and rural physicians have made it clear that there are unique challenges to recruiting and retaining physicians in communities outside of Alberta’s major cities. These changes recognize that difference and will significantly improve access to heath care for patients in rural communities.”
Stakeholder priorities addressed in 2020-2021 LRSD budget LRSD The Spring 2020 Provincial Budget's impact on Livingstone Range School Division means the Division will need to cut $2 million from our oper-
ating budget over the next 3 years. Despite changes to our funding, high-quality education for students remains a top priority in LRSD. As part of budgeting
and planning for the 20202021 school year and beyond, LRSD Board of Trustees sought stakeholder engagement. We asked staff, students, parents, and community
members to provide input on setting priorities for the 2020-2021 budget and review of our 3-Year Educational Plan. Through a short, anonymous online survey between March 12 and 22, 399 respondents provided meaningful feedback on focus areas for the Division. Below are seven priority areas that ranked highest among responses, along with how LRSD has or will address them. 1. Stakeholders said they want small class sizes. We continue to prioritize classroom instruction and support by including the Alberta Commission on Learning recommendations for class sizes in the calculation of our instructional funding formula. We will retain a consistent number of K-12 Educational Assistants to provide critical in-class support, despite a $900,000 funding deficit. Historically, LRSD has had one of the lowest student to teacher ratios in the province and our planning for 2020-2021 maintains these ratios. 2. Stakeholders emphasized the importance of academics, including literacy and numeracy. We have built literacy and numeracy capacity in our schools and continue to prioritize our academic focus by providing meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers, offering exam preparation courses for students, and using inte-
grated technology resources in classrooms and at home. We are committed to providing our youngest students with a good start and have been working with our Early Learning Coordinator and Kindergarten teachers over the past several years to identify struggling learners and provide them with strategies for success. 3. Stakeholders said they want classroom supports, including Educational Assistants, to be emphasized. We continue to prioritize classroom instruction and support by retaining a consistent number of K-12 Educational Assistants and Child Youth Care Workers to provide critical in-class support, retaining FNMI support staff, and increasing Family School Liaison Counsellors despite funding reductions. 4. Stakeholders want high-quality teaching in our schools. We continue to prioritize high-quality teaching through recruitment excellence, impactful professional development opportunities for staff, and ongoing supervision and mentorship opportunities for our new teachers and administrators. 5. Stakeholders said a great school culture is important. We continue to emphasize and support safe and caring schools that are inclusive and focus on relationship building. Through ongoing professional development op-
portunities for staff, leadership training, and staff initiatives each school in Livingstone Range School Division develops and promotes its unique school culture and place-based focus. 6. Stakeholders emphasized mental health supports. We continue to prioritize mental health support by increasing the number of Family School Liaison Counsellors in 2019-2020 and maintaining those staff in 2020-2021 and future years. 7. Stakeholders said options programming is important in our schools. We are committed to providing programming that meets the needs of students. While we are unable to provide all programs in all schools, we do offer high school French and Spanish, Ski Academy, Hockey Academy, band, drama, art, welding, construction, automotives, wildlife studies, and more. The LRSD 2020-2021 budget will be finalized at the Board of Trustees meeting on May 27, 2020. We are confident that despite provincial funding cuts, we will continue to provide an exceptional educational experience for our students. We thank parents, grandparents, students, staff, and community members who participated in the survey and provided us meaningful feedback that has helped guide our budgetary and administrative decisions.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 - Crowsnest PAss herAlD - 3
In the lIne of fIre Between April 20 and April 27, Crowsnest Pass RCMP responded to a total of 43 calls for service including the following reported incidents.
Theft On April 20th, 2020, there was a complaint of theft of a Pique 3 bike stolen from the Crowsnest Mall area.
One (1) break and enters (other), one (1) fraud/forgery, one (1) mischief (vandalism), three (3) thefts, one (1) disturbing the peace, two (2) other criminal codes, four (4) other provincial statutes, seven (7) driving complaints, one (1) motor vehicle collision, six (6) assistance to general public, six (6) suspicious occurrences, five (5) assistance to other agencies, one (1) false alarm, one (1) animal call and three (3) municipal bylaws.
Suspicious Email On April 22nd, 2020, there was a complaint of a suspicious email from a person attempting to get money from the complainant. The complainant was advised to change his passwords and nit contact the sender of the email.
Break and Enter On April 20th, 2020, there was a complaint of a break and enter at a Municipal workshop. Numerous tools were stolen including two chainsaws, a generator, tool sets and other items.
Theft On April 25th, 2020, there was a complaint of theft of a computer from a vehicle parked near Lundbreck Falls. Effective immediately the RCMP office will be limited to persons attending detachment. If you need to attend the detachment, there will be limited persons at the detachment including front counter. Please call to make appointment at
~ rCMP news ~
403 562 2867. Be aware of a new scam. Victims get phone calls from someone pretending to be from Service Canada or another government agency, saying their social insurance number (SIN) has been blocked, compromised or suspended. The call might be one of the latest variations on caller ID in which fraudsters disguises the number seen on the ID display in order to trick victims into answering phone. The person will ask for SIN and other personal info, such as date of birth, address, etc. Victims who provide personal info are at risk of identity fraud. Also, Do not say yes to any questions if you are unsure of who is calling as people can use voice recognition to access other information. Anyone with information regarding any crime is urged to contact the Crowsnest Pass RCMP Detachment at 403-562-2867, or
The Simple Raven’s Post by Avner Perl
What kind of world is it, anyways? Poverty marked my earliest days. My parents survived the war, but that was all. There were no good jobs, they had only basic education and no one to provide any help. All our friends were about the same. We saw some people who had much more, even talked with them, but the only hope we had was to move to America where “the streets are paved with gold.” My earliest memories include stories about aliens coming to destroy us. Some were fierce creatures from another world while others were uniformed people under a red flag, depending on the comic book. At the age of six, I was sure that the dreaded atomic bomb would destroy us. To us, humans were destined to live in poverty and watch those who had it all. It was “Romantic.” Stories about princes and heroes were popular. When I was a teenager, my parents stumbled upon the opportunity to emigrate to Canada. My dreams were to make my riches very quick and join the upper class. Like most of the people reading this, we know that coming to America or Canada was just the beginning. Thankfully, there was an opportunity to work hard, study, and have the most basic needs met. Very few made it higher, mostly the second or third generation. To my mind, the world could be heaven if people use what is provided by nature and our work, equally. It seems to make sense. We are born with nothing, buried with nothing, and should be able to live life. After all, we use the earth and its bounty by working. People always did. However, we work extra hard to make life easier. Funny isn’t it. Work harder to make it easier? YES. In my lifetime, the amount of labor required to obtain what we need shrank significantly. We no longer have to cut strips of newspaper and crumple them to make toilet paper, for example. It would be nice if all people could share things equally, but it’s not in our nature. Some people make greater efforts and should reap better rewards, while others should enjoy mediocre lives and be happy. The problem starts when we introduce inheritance. That is when people who don’t make extra efforts or take higher risks get ahead of those who do. We all try to help our children without considering those who don’t have help from parents. They may work harder yet stay down.
Crimestoppers to remain anonymous at 1-800-422TIPS. Reminder to residents of computer scams, credit cards scams, Grandparent scams, Revenue Canada scams asking for money or cash cards and saying warrants out for arrest, do not give out personal information to persons you don't know. DO NOT OPEN EMAILS if you are suspicious of its origin. Do NOT purchase gift cards for payment to Revenue Canada. Do not send monies to person claiming you have won a prize and need to send money for delivery. Crime mapping is available online to residents who are interested can login online at Municipality of Crowsnest Pass website (RCMP crime map for Crowsnest Pass). Crime mapping shows property crimes that occurred within the past two weeks in our area.
DiD you know? A group of frogs is called an army.
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This injustice is evident with families or even nations. A German person, for example, naturally will have better prospects in life that a Nigerian child. A white child in the US will do better than an aboriginal or African American child. Ability or determination will not make much difference. If we continue that way perhaps we should consider punishing kids for the sins of their parents, but we don’t, so let’s not reward them for the parent’s success. I think that the rules of the free market, based on effort and fair competition, should apply. What we should aim towards is building a social structure that will offer humankind the best chance of surviving into the future. Now we are facing a new situation and we don’t have lessons from our past to teach us what to do. A few people own mostly everything and a large portion of humans are living hand to mouth. Some can still borrow, but it’s coming to an end. It is true for individuals as well as countries. It took a virus to expose the situation. While we were waiting for “someone” to do something, we failed to notice the sad reality. Out of seven and a half billion people, about six billion lack much hope. They don’t even have an escape route. The streets anywhere are not paved with gold and the world reached its credit limits. Now with mass fear of death people quit working and the importance of the little workers became self-evident. The next step is scary. The whole economic system currently in place is centered around oil, which lost its dominance. Docile large countries became a threat both economically and militarily. People are waking up and realizing that everyone need not work most of their waking hours just to fulfill the basic needs while also understanding that life is possible without consuming and throwing away so much. Life can be a blessing just by spending it with your family and neighbors, hardly wasting anything. If the people who are not inheriting or otherwise hoarding all available wealth magically disappeared, society could function. If the workers/consumers would be gone, there wouldn’t be the “world as we know it.” If the poor people who don’t possess most of the world’s wealth march against those who do, they will not even notice when they trample them under. The brainless killer virus is a better teacher than the most sophisticated computer. I fantasize about a world where all human beings are valued but we reward those who make an extra effort, up to a point. Humanity is not better off if Jeff Bezos owns 140 billion dollars. He would live the same and work the same if he had one billion-plus some after heavy tax. We can use the other 139 billion for everyone’s benefits. I would make it illegal to have any money or other wealth dormant. Money must work for people and be taxed for society. If we restricted the high limits of personal wealth the richest people wouldn’t clamor to get tax cuts and sway politicians towards doing things that will destroy the world in the long run. The Earth which is God’s gift to all its creatures will continue its natural function until we are ready for the next step in our evolution. The transition to spiritual existence. Some believe it and others don’t. Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/ Feel free to check other articles and comment.