MD of Bighorn

“A couple of weeks ago, a patient with a serious heart condition had to wait 33 minutes for an ambulance. I believe this to be a threat to public safety requiring collaboration and action.”

After four decades as a doctor in Canmore, Dr. Rick Balharry is retiring and ready to spend more time with his grandchildren.

“We’re really happy, we’re really optimistic and really hopeful to see this known solution to this known problem. … This is a landscape that’s very busy and wildlife need all the help they can get."

“It is so competitive now. The HR people are responsible for rate of pay but they have been asking management and ownership more and more about paying more. Now, they are coming back to us and jobs that were paying $18 [per hour] are paying $20 or $21. It is definitely going upwards.”

“This is going to create more chaos and it will make it more difficult to find more doctors and fill those staffing shortages,” said David Shepherd, NDP Critic for Health. “What health care worker wants to come to work in a province where they see the government views our health care workers as disposable.”

For the first time in at least two decades, the Bow Valley area is dealing with a physician shortage and housing appears to be the main culprit.

“When it started, I thought it was a nightmare. We couldn’t sleep. We were just together, reading the news, hearing of the bombings, artillery shelling. … I’m waiting for my mom to text me ‘I’m alive’. That was my two weeks of hell."

“Somebody buys a luxury property on the Bow River, pays a significant amount of money and then comes 5 a.m. in the middle of summer when they’re trying to relax they will be looking across the river at heavy mobile equipment in operation and later that day they will feel a blast that will vibrate their house."

“Everyone plays a role in the community to help us build a thriving valley. We’re all better off when we work together to support newcomers and diverse team members to succeed. We can open a lot of doors for people, but we need local businesses to help us make those connections with newcomers in the community. This is a really exciting opportunity for businesses.”