Around 50 people attended the Vilna and District Chamber of Commerce all-candidates forum on April 10 to hear the campaign news and views of four candidates seeking to serve the Lac La Biche – St. Paul – Two Hills constituency as its next MLA.
PC Ray Danyluk (incumbent), NDP Phil Johnson, Liberal John Nowak and Wildrose Shayne Saskiw gave opening remarks before taking questions from the floor from moderator Ed Shaske.
Reading a written question directed to Danyluk, Shaske asked why two and a half years ago, the chamber submitted an application to open a respite care centre in the Vilna Hospital and received no response from government. “If you were elected, what would your party do to get action?” Adding another written question at the same time, Shaske asked the incumbent “how it makes sense to ship soup in barrels from Calgary when our hospital has a fully functioning kitchen?”
Danyluk said the government has looked at different ways to use the Vilna hospital “to the best of the community’s needs.” The Vilna Lodge is being effectively used with an Alzheimer’s unit, he added. “It boils down to trying to ensure that what services are provided are going to be services that are needed and utilized by the community.”
Danyluk said he was not happy with the food delivered by Alberta Health Services (AHS). “I adamantly complained, adamantly discussed it in caucus.”
“We need to provide the best possible care for our seniors and also for individuals that our part of our hospital Medicare system.” Some changes to the food were made, he said. “Do I like prepared food outside of the area? Absolutely not. I don’t like it because of employment and jobs. I don’t like it because of concern of quality and of course I don’t like it if the patients don’t like it.”
In Two Hills, prepackaged food is shipped to the hospital that “our seniors are forced to eat,” replied Saskiw. “I tasted the food there. It is absolutely atrocious. We have a great cook in Two Hills, but he can’t do anything because they’re shipping this food from Calgary and that has to be changed.”
Saskiw said seniors throw out half the food and family brings in food. “The kitchens already exist. Let’s go back to using the kitchens in our hospitals.” Wildrose would go back to local decision making so local administrators could decide to back homemade meals, he said.
Saskiw said if elected he would support a respite centre in Vilna. “I will make a commitment to fight for a respite centre here in Vilna. That hospital is completely under utilized. Nothing has been done in the last eight years to make use of that existing infrastructure.”
“Instead of Premier Redford’s plan to build $2.4 billion of primary care clinics in Edmonton and Calgary, let’s build here in Vilna and take care of people in our community.”
Nowak said he has worked with the air ambulance. “I have to wonder, when it comes to our loved ones in care, when it comes to these 21-day meal plans, what are we doing to them? You can’t get healthy when you’re eating crap.”
If elected, Nowak said he would work to get rid of the 21-day meal plan. He said he is against centralized services.
Johnson said if it were true the Vilna Chamber received no response to its respite centre request, “it sounds a little outrageous.” Decisions on new schools, hospitals, respite or long term care “depends on how much government likes your MLA, and that’s wrong. It shouldn’t be like that. It should be on who needs it worse,” he said.
Johnson said he wondered where the $2.4 billion for primary care clinics would come from as he didn’t see it in the budget. “I wonder how she’s going to pay for all this stuff. How are we going to pay for it when we’re going paycheck to paycheck? … Why do we have a $3 billion deficit in the Province of Alberta.”
Candidates answered questions on taxation, property rights and energy royalties. For video from St. Paul and Vilna forums, see spjournal.com.
