The dust has finally settled in Edmonton with Jim Prentice's cabinet named and the new PC government attempting a return to functionality.
What comes with a new government? A whole new set of promises.
Over the next few days, weeks and months Albertans can expect Prentice and his new cabinet members to start creating new task forces, policies and statements promising bigger and better things for our province.
Last week a promise was made by new Minister of Health Stephen Mandel to give rural communities more of a voice in healthcare decision-making.
“There has been a great deal of centralization of the (healthcare) system that has taken place and I found and heard from rural Albertans in every corner of Alberta, a need to reconnect the administrations and decision making in our hospital system with rural Albertans,” said Mandel.
“We need to find out what the impact is on changing these facilities and listen to the communities and make sure that what we are gong is not a horrible damage to the communities as far as their ability to grow and deal with their residents.”
Part of the promise was to create a panel of healthcare experts who's mandate will be to take an in-depth look at rural healthcare and the struggles rural communities across the province face.
In my opinion this is exactly what the rural healthcare systems needs. I haven't been in Alberta that long but even I have picked up on some of the flaws and struggles the system faces - challenges like attracting and attaining doctors, lengthy wait times, and traveling long distances for care and specialist services.
Local representatives, including high-ranking hospital officials, need to have more of a say in what goes on in rural facilities. One of the worst things the province did was start centralizing decision-making.
With this announcement I feel communities such as Bonnyville need to be loud and make sure the panel and government can hear the region's concerns. A group came together to fight for the local pathology department. Now even more people need to stand up and be the voices for the region and regain local control of important healthcare decisions.
While in theory this promise to bring a voice back to rural centres may seem great, history says that one should be skeptical when being promised something from the provincial PC government.
It is up to Albertans to make sure this promise is different and actually gets fulfilled.
This process could lead to big changes for the healthcare system and we all need to make sure the panel sees what this community needs to deal with.
Mandel is new to provincial politics and has a clean slate, who knows, maybe he can actually get this done and improve the rural healthcare for not only Bonnyville, but all of Alberta.
