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The list of things that the Alberta Government has done in response to #COVIDー19 is remarkably short. Almost all actions were taken by the Chief Medical Officer of Health, with very few exceptions.
1/ https://twitter.com/citizen004/status/1260304218025410560
1/ https://twitter.com/citizen004/status/1260304218025410560
The Ontario Government, for instance, closed most businesses and parks across the province. The governments of several Atlantic Provinces have banned most non-residents from coming. The Government of Manitoba has a mandatory quarantine for interprovincial travellers.
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The Government of Alberta did none of that. Instead, all measures to limit businesses and gatherings were implemented by the CMOH, despite the fact that the Government had gotten for itself with Bill 10 unprecedented power to take action directly.
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The income support offered by the Alberta Government was mired with technical issues, and many people complained they couldn’t get the support before the programme was abruptly closed.
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Tenants got a last-minute reprieve from the power of landlords to evict them, but only for the month of April.
Calgary’s plans to shelter homeless people was vetoed and replaced with one that offered less safety from infection.
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Calgary’s plans to shelter homeless people was vetoed and replaced with one that offered less safety from infection.
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While other provinces were giving raises to front-line healthcare workers, the Alberta Government only begrudgingly backed down on *some* of the cuts it was making to physician compensation. Cuts made unilaterally after having bypassed the negotiation approach.
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While other provinces have generally avoided adding to the labour woes caused by the pandemic, the Alberta Government broke it had made only weeks prior, leading to layoffs of around 25,000 education workers.
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And while the biggest outbreak in Canada was developing in a meatpacking plant, the Alberta Government ignored the union and the Opposition and boldly claimed the place was safe, just days before a worker died.
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I’m sure that we can find fault with every government in Canada and point to things they could have done better. But the very little that the Alberta Government *has* done has almost invariably been done poorly.
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So, I hope that when people do look at the outbreaks in Alberta and the numbers of people who have died, they wonder if perhaps the Government should have been bolder and shut things down while protecting people’s incomes.
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Because the most certain way to being able to reopen the economy is to have crushed the curve, stopping the spread as much and as quickly as possible. Saving lives is not just morally right, it is the better economic plan.
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