Dear editor,
As an active Alberta Friends of Medicare member, I applaud Canada’s Environment Ministry recent Bill C-28 to protect Canadians’ health from adverse environmental effects.
Still, this measure doesn’t go far enough.
Apart from obvious water pollution from coal mines, the continued use of fossil fuels (including those used to extract coal) threatens a very disturbed planet in multiple ways that – ultimately – affect the health and well-being of everyone: fires, floods and other catastrophic climate events.
Thus, an emissions target of at least 60% below 2005 levels must be achieved by 2030. Yet Canada’s related Bill C-12, including any climate solutions therein, has been stalled. Good health depends on clean air, water and soil; we are not separate from the planet that sustains us.
Letter: We must better protect our frontline health-care workers
Poll
Yes
A letter to Health Minister Tyler Shandro:
A recent Medicine Hat News article, “Local paramedic says certain hospital workers left out of vaccine rollout” prompted the Board of Palliser Friends of Medicare to contact the issue’s advocate, health-care worker and HSAA member, Jason Soklofske, for more information. For we were astonished by his report of the disregard shown to hundreds of frontline health-care workers in the current vaccine rollout plans. More sadly still, we subsequently learned from Soklofske that his concerns over patient care and community spread by unvaccinated frontline workers had been met with disinterest by one of the MLA’s offices in Medicine Hat. We urge the Health Ministry to right this wrong immediately by moving workers in all health sectors ahead of the general population in the province’s vaccine rollout plan.