From: Paul Siller
To: Jeff Henwood
Thank-you for taking to the time to answer our survey. The redford
team is the only campaign group that provided a response.
We waited until our deadline before reviewing the responses.
Unfortunately, I am a little confused by the response. It sounds that
once Alberta seniors get into nursing or seniors homes, then somehow
all medical transportation needs will cease.
Unfortunately this is directly opposed to the situation we encounter.
The residents of seniors lodges and rural nursing home are a very
large source of the demand. For example, we roughly a dozen people in
Cochrane who need transportation to cataract surgery in Calgary. 75%
are in residences or nursing homes. All of them cannot get to there
day surgeries without us ( I am not proud to say that with our limited resources, we are the transportation of last resort)
Seniors housing and seniors care facilities have no resources to
provide such transportation. The facilities call on non-profit groups
such as ourselves or the local municipality ( as happens in Ms.
Redford's home riding) and there is no provincial support to make the
connection happen.
I'm sure this is a new topic on the radar for most candidates but
special needs transportation really is a significant problem in rural
and small town Alberta (the cities struggle with it too). Generally
speaking, we are disappointed that most of the candidates didn't try
to provide an answer (the only other candidate's response is
summarized as "look at our website, we are to busy to answer")
Once again, we are grateful for your team's prompt response amongst a
severe lack of interest regarding this province wide issue. Maybe a
leadership campaign is only about selling memberships and not about
small issues that can affect 100 Alberta communities.
Best of luck in the polls.
Paul
(note: portions of this response may constitute part of our media
coverage)
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