Letter To The Editor

healthcare disaster for almost 4 years now. Kenney’s “healthcare guarantee” was blatantly dishonest, and the UCP MLA’s that helped attack our healthcare system are in that same club.

The terrible situation in Cold Lake is a perfect example of how badly the UCP have managed healthcare since the Cold Lake ER has been closed dozens of times in 2022 alone because of a lack of staff! It was even closed for New Years Eve when hospitals and ERs are obviously a critical and lifesaving service, that we pay taxes to receive.

While I can understand why a former UCP candidate like Mr. Copeland would claim that the addition of a clinic will somehow magically resolve the healthcare crisis, like how Danielle Smith claims new empty ambulances with no

EMT operators will fix the ambulance crisis, Mayor Copeland will have to explain how he will find staff to operate his clinic since the Cold Lake ER already cannot find the healthcare staff it needs. Mr. Copeland also needs to explain his logic behind the residents of Cold Lake now paying 3x for healthcare: 1) paying taxes to the province for healthcare delivery, 2) paying taxes to the municipality for healthcare delivery, and 3) paying the exceptional cost for the private healthcare providers the UCP are forcing onto Albertans against our wishes.

This blatant failure of governance, both by the UCP and by Cold Lake, should be a blaring alarm warning to the residents of Vermilion because the Town of Vermilion has previously ALSO made their residents pay for healthcare delivery on top of the provincial taxes we pay for healthcare - when the town residents had to provide housing to bribe doctors to work for Alberta

Health in Vermilion. Then, just as now, the conservative provincial government was too busy greasing the huge profits of transnational oil companies to be bothered with managing healthcare.

Albertans can pay and pay and pay for unavailable and inadequate healthcare that conservatives only ever provide…or we could choose a new and better way when we use our democratic voice on May 29. One thing that is certain, I won’t continue to live and pay taxes in Vermilion if I have to pay for healthcare 3x like the ill-fated residents of Cold Lake. I simply can’t afford it because the UCP have already bled me dry from the “kick-backs” I now must pay to the insurance companies and used car salesmen that funded the UCP last election. I hear there are entire neighbourhoods of Albertans in BC now…and the auto and home insurance is a bargain compared to here.

Darcey Shyry Vermilion

Open House

County of Vermilion residents and stakeholders are invited to attend a come and go Open House. Get information, share concerns and ask questions about the latest happenings around the County. County Councillors and Department Directors will be in attendance.