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It’s frustrating to listen to the guardians of the galaxy when they denounce changes to their failing universal health-care system. What I can’t fathom is their hypocrisy.
Has anyone ever seen a high-performance athlete wait for health care? If a Flames player is injured during a game, it’s not unusual to get an in-game update following X-rays or an MRI in the clubhouse. If required, surgery is scheduled within hours, a rehabilitation program outlined, physiotherapy, nutrition and psychological expertise is provided, followups and monitoring is provided.
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Why is this world-class private health care available to those able to pay while I’m forbidden from accessing the same services based on my ability to pay? Why are the Friends of Medicare so regressively silent?
Paul Baumberg, Dead Man’s Flats
Alberta has double standard on energy
After failing to hold oil companies to account for required cleanup of their wells, it seems the UCP is suddenly concerned about cleanup of renewable energy sites — so worried that they put a six-month freeze on their development, forcing delay on many applications awaiting approval.
Such ill-thought-out policies would leave us unprepared for the future. Alternate energy sources can help slow climate change.
This is another kick in the teeth to Alberta’s future from a nostalgic UCP trying desperately to continue Alberta’s oil boom.
Holly Slavik, Calgary
Renewables need more study
Re: UCP’s six-month moratorium on new green energy projects is baffling, Opinion, Aug. 5
Don Braid misses two essential issues on renewable power that must be dealt with if renewables are to become truly sustainable. The first is the “duck curve” where the peak generation of renewables occurs when demand is the lowest. Wind and especially solar drop off when the evening demand kicks in. As a result, utilities or the grid have to contend with too much power when they don’t need it and keep backup generation for heavy demand periods. All this translates to higher costs for consumers.
The second is the “orphan well” problem. Developers usually sell off their fields after initial payback periods to less well-financed operators who usually walk when the cash flow starts reaching end of life. Ask yourself why so many developers are rushing into deregulated Alberta to build these projects while our established utilities are not fully engaged.
AESO and AUC are doing the right thing trying to figure out how to manage all this. If they don’t, we will progressively get ourselves into the expensive mess that you see in California and Germany.
Chris Tworek, Calgary
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