Because not telling the truth to the voters is not acceptable

My last post was about government MLA Griffiths threatening that someone’s head was going to roll because the helipad in his riding that was closed by the Alberta Health Board, on the premise that changes by Transport Canada, meant that the helipad didn't meet new requirements.

When the story about rural and the Royal Alex heliport closures first broke, Transport Canada (TC) denied that they had made any changes that would affect Alberta's heliports, which the Alberta Health Board (AHB) was claiming closures were due to Transport Canada; the helipads didn’t meet Transport Canada requirements, they (the AHB) told us. In the following days, the Alberta Health Board stood by their original story, continuing to claim that safety concerns due to Transport Canada standards required the closing of the heliports.

STARS also had no advance notice of the closures. Sources say that notice was given to the affected parties on about June 25th or 26th, for the July 1st closures of rural and Royal Alex Helipads.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Unspecified+safety+concerns+behind+Alberta+helipad+closures/1744740/story.html


Further disturbing inconsistencies in the information about the closures from the Alberta Health Board:


Sundre Mayor Roy Cummings learned only Saturday evening -- three days before the local hospital's helipad was set to close--that it will not be approved for use pending an evaluation by the province.

"We're one of the busiest STARS locations in the province," Mayor Cummings said. "This just blew me away."

Alberta Health Services said letters were sent out nearly two weeks ago informing mayors, reeves and MLAs in the communities affected by the ‘temporary landing pad closures.’

"Every effort was being made to contact people," said Alberta Health Services spokesman Bruce Conway. "There was a process in place to inform them by letter, but obviously in this case (Sundre) it didn't happen and we're sorry for that."

Helipad closure angers Sundre mayor Calgary Herald June 28, 2009 http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Helipad+closure+angers+Sundre+mayor/1741216/story.htmlJuly 14, 2009

Griffiths representation in my recent post reputes this statement, as he sent his letter to Town Council on June 25th, announcing closure on June 30th:

“In a letter to Wainwright town council, dated June 25, Battle River-Wainwright MLA Doug Griffiths alerted the town that Alberta Health Services (AHS) will close the helipad, along with seven others in Alberta, effective June 30, because the helipads do not meet Transport Canada standards.”

He investigated: "Griffiths called Transport Canada himself.

“According to Transport Canada, they didn’t order this,” said Griffiths. “Everything is fine, as far as they are concerned.”

Griffiths explained that according to the people he spoke to at Transport Canada, they haven’t undertaken any assessments that would have caused the closure of the helipads."

http://starnews.squarespace.com/starnews/2009/7/3/confusion-over-closure-of-stars-helipad.html


The Alberta Health Board line about the blame being with Transport Canada continued, according to a news story on June 29th:

"Alberta Health Services, which operates 64 helipads in the province, ordered the closure after inspection reports determined eight were not up to Transport Canada regulation standards. In addition to the one at the Royal Alexandra, helipads in Barrhead, Castor, Consort, Didsbury, Sundre, Wainwright and Westlock were also ordered closed. The closures begin on Tuesday and continue until fall.
Bruce Conway, Alberta Health Services spokesman, said officials will spend the next two months examining the sites and compiling a report of recommendations for each helipad. "That means either going forward with the necessary remediations at certain helipads and continuing as helipad facilities, or it could mean offering other levels of service," he said.
Conway said this could mean some helipads could be closed for good."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2009/06/29/9966546-sun.html

In Westlock, Ken Kowalski's riding, the Westlock News quotes the Transport Canada representative, in confirming that the closures have nothing to do with Transport Canada,
http://www.westlocknews.com/news/2009/0707/news1.htmw

"Bruce Conway, spokesperson for Alberta Health Services, said the eight heliports were closed because they weren't compliant with federal standards, noting there are a total of 64 heliports throughout the province.

He could not elaborate on how the heliports contravened Transport Canada's regulations, though he suggested it may have to do with sight lines or proximity to the health care centre.

However, Maryse Durette, spokesperson for Transport Canada, said Alberta Health Services' decision to close the heliports was not as a result of Transport Canada inspections or new regulations."

Suddenly the week of July 7th, all of these rural helports are now reopened, BUT only with some unknown strategy for meeting an extension purportedly granted by Transport Canada (TC) to the ‘unknown’ failures to meet TC requirements, and final decision to be made in the fall after some undescribed review by the Alberta Health Board.

Today, Dr. (not medical) Stephen Duckett, says, while on vacation, all of this was as a result of a decision he made based on “bad information."Spokespeople for Alberta Health Services, as well as board chairman Ken Hughes, repeatedly said Transport Canada had set a June 30 deadline to fix site problems that posed safety concerns for pilots, patients and those on the ground, or close the heiports. What those problems were has never been revealed.
The Alberta Health Board flip-flopped and reopened the helipads within days, claiming that Transport Canada allegedly given the AHB a reprieve.

Throughout this debacle, the federal department in charge of helipad standards said it had no serious concerns with the landing pads, and hadn't even inspected three of the sites.”

Today, July 14th, Dr. (not medical) Stephen Duckett admits that the helipads were closed in “error.”
Alberta health board CEO admits helipad error
Transport Canada hadn't given deadline
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton Journal July 14, 2009 http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Alberta+health+board+admits+helipad+error/1789287/story.html

Had there not been several official comments regarding the closures being the result of Transport Canada standards, and had there not been the blatantly untrue statement about the reopenings being a result of TC providing the AHB with a time extension to bring the helipads up to standards, and had two Tory MLA’s (Doug Griffiths and Ty Lund) not gone on record about having no previous or insider knowledge about the closures or the reasons for them, then this whole fiasco might have gotten a whitewash.

As an aside, and perhaps more telling, Dr. (not medical) Duckett is on holiday less than 3 ½ months after starting the job. He started his well paid position on March 23rd of this year, introduced an 80 some page organizational chart, got rid of around a hundred managers and announced that he now personally signs off on each and every new hire. And he’s now on vacation???

Heads should roll on this one.

This wasn’t an unverified email that was acted on and apologized for the next day.

This was an orchestrated series of events, over a period of time, based on invented circumstances and designed to change an aspect of health care in Alberta while keeping Albertans in the dark. Albertans were deliberately mislead by the false information given to them by The Alberta Health Board, it’s communications people, and by the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Ken Hughes, on July 9th when he clearly told a reporter that Transport Canada was prepared to give the Alberta Health Board and extension on the heliports.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Health/Helipads+reopen+rural+hospitals+Ottawa+relents/1766664/story.html July 14, 2009

Either Dr. (not medial) Duckett is utterly incompetent, a puppet of his masters above, or just untrustworthy. Whichever it is, Dr. (not medical) Duckett has proven himself unworthy of his position as the captain of the Alberta Health Services ship.

Mr. Hughes has proven that he is prepared to treat Albertans with disdain by being an Alberta Health Board public spokesperson with position and authority for the July 9th article in the Calgary Herald in which he misstated the true facts and mislead Albertans. Whether he did in fact have ‘bad infromation’ as Duckett claims he had, and didn’t bother to verify it, or whether he knowingly told untruths, he has shown that he is not competent to oversee such a complex and multifaceted system as our public health care system.

Health Minister Liepert’s actions in the next few days will tell us a lot. If he was unaware of Dr. (not medical) Duckett’s actions and misinforming the people of Alberta, than he has a CEO that is out of control. If he was unaware of the full extent of Mr. Hughe’s actions, then he is incompetent as Health Minister. If he is complicit in what happened with the heliports and the mistruths repeatedly told to Albertans, than he will do nothing.
In the end, the buck stops at Ed Stelmach's office. His response to this scandalous situation will say a lot about the man, and about his ability to govern.