Anyhow our hospital system, like our whole health system, is crumbling under the weight of population growth, decades of cuts and underfunding, privatization, and insufficient infrastructure.

This announcement reads like an off-brand bandaid being slapped on a gaping wound.

So the whole thing from the ER all the way through is a mess. I don't have much confidence that their "targeted investments" will be sufficient to deal with a hospital that is so strained at every point.

I'm lucky the benadryl slowed things my throat wasn't too swollen for me to breathe by the time I got to the 2nd set of chairs, where my friend flagged a nurse because my face was puffing up again. Things moved a lot faster from there.

I have some extra Royal Alex anxiety and an epipen now.

And the ER is a mess. I went there in anaphylaxis a couple of weeks ago. I'd never been in that situation before and didn't know how to recognize the signs (I just knew my eyes were swelling shut). Triage was too overloaded to ask the right questions and gave me a lot of benadryl. I waited hours.

What are these "targeted investments" at the Royal Alex, and are they actually going to help?

My father died in horrible pain at the Alex because the entire facility is overloaded. The ER definitely is a problem, but the whole facility is in a bad state and too many families have horror stories.

It's highly likely that more continuing care spaces = more private spaces.

More mental health beds won't improve access for the many, many Albertans who can't access or afford mental health services but don't need in-patient care. Many of those people still have acute needs.

Capital planning to add beds is also not the same thing as adding beds. Creating a plan does not mean money will ever be invested into construction or staffing.

There are a lot of "new schools" that only exist on paper because they've only received design funding.

Regaining our elimination status will require more than angrily shaking our fists at those who we have deemed "anti-vaxers."

The reality is much more complicated, and much of it is based in rebuilding Canadian health care.

Childhood vaccinations have declined since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

But what also happened in 2020 was irreparable damage to our public health system that has never recovered.

How many of you are currently without a family doctor?

Alberta Sovereignty (to implement a very bad vaccination strategy) Within a United Canada(ian measles epidemic because viruses don't care about provincial borders) Act.

It's mainly in Facebook groups and Reddit. You're probably smart enough to stay away!

Yes. They think it can be used to override anything — overturn court rulings, suspend elections, etc. It's conspiracy theorist thinking.

Suspending fundamental human rights is already bad enough. We don't need to go inventing things to scare ourselves.

There are similar provisions for override in those pieces of legislation, but in general, when people talk about the notwithstanding clause in Canada, they mean S.33.

Also those are laws that can be amended by the province at any time, whereas the Charter is part of the Constitution of Canada.

There is an overview from the Department of Justice here: www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/...

No. It is very specifically Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is only applicable to Section 2 and Sections 7-15 of the Charter. It can't be used to override anything else other than what is contained in those sections.

Still a big deal but not blanket authority to veto everything