Red Deer Minute: Recovery Community, Physician Agreement, and No Shelter Update

Red Deer Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Red Deer politics

This Week In Red Deer:

• On Tuesday, at 5:00 pm, there will be a meeting of the Red Deer & District Family and Community Support Services Board. The Board will hear the Program Specialist’s Report as well as recommendations from an Indigenous Stream Priority Setting Conversation. Spring funding recommendations will be discussed in-camera.
  
  
• The Nomination Committee will meet on Wednesday at 2:00 pm for an in-camera discussion.
  
  
• Red Deer RCMP are trying to help residents reduce license plate thefts. They are providing free anti-theft screws. Red Deerians can arrange for an officer to install one by contacting the Red Deer RCMP’s Youth and Community Action Team.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• Red Deer City Council has failed to provide the public with an update on the location of a homeless shelter. After a four-hour, in-camera meeting, Council issued a press release that said more work was needed to answer the Province’s questions about whether the location is the right one. This is the third time the release of information has been postponed despite a location having been selected on September 12th. The Province must approve the site selection, and while it seems that they are hesitant, Mayor Ken Johnston denied this was the case. No timeline has been provided for approval or for the release of more information.
  
  
• Health Minister Jason Copping was in Red Deer to announce a new agreement with doctors. The Province and physicians agreed to an average pay increase of 4% over a three-year contract term with some specialties seeing even larger increases. In addition to higher rates of pay, the Province agreed to invest $252 million in targeted areas that include recruitment, retention, information technology, and rural initiatives. In exchange for the Alberta Medical Association dropping its lawsuit against the government, the Province agreed to repeal the legislation which allows it to unilaterally rip up its contract with doctors.
  
  
• Premier Jason Kenney and local MLAs toured the Red Deer Recovery Community, which is nearing completion. Clients could begin using the 75-bed facility as early as mid-November. The Recovery Community provides people with resources to help them recover from addiction and allows clients to stay for up to a year to access services. Treatment will be free for Albertans.

-----

Donate:

Common Sense Red Deer doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please email this post to your friends, share it on Facebook or Twitter, and help make sure every Red Deerian knows what's really going on at City Hall.