Paul Hinman

[hayburner]

Coppertop What I want to see changed ; property rights, the direction on education,health care. Attitude within the government as you described about the arrogance and silos. Vaccum thinking in all these committee. Get something done instead of sitting in committees for years and by the time you have have come up with a answer the problem is so far beyond repair and outdated you forgot what the problem was to begin with.

[coppertop]

hayburner the wheels of government move slow. One thing that is impressing me with the new committees that Premier Stelmach has initiated is many of them have all party representation which certainly allows for input from those who represent all Albertans vs just those who have a PC MLA.

I think there will be some movement on the health care issue once the committee that is reviewing all boards and agencies has completed their work. This committee is also reviewing the Health Authorities which is long overdue.

In my opinion the Regional Health Authorities was one of the biggest mistakes of the Klein era. The costs of the huge bureauocracy to run these regions is one of the key reasons for the huge increase in health care delivery.

[hayburner]

I agree on reginal comment. What I would like to see things get moving a little faster than the old Klein days. Ed has to prove he has a backbone and make some important decisions darn fast to satisfy all the rural folks that voted for him in the leadarship.

[coppertop]

The upcoming PC Convention will provide the government with direction on priorities. Unfortunately, these conventions are costly to attend and come at a time when many rural Albertans are busy with other activities that affect their livelihoods.
On another note, I did check out the Alberta Alliance website, and was disappointed that they do not have any policies. They are soliciting potential candidates to run in the two upcoming by-elections, so they are hardly organized enough to think of even being the opposition party let alone form the government in the next provincial election.

I attended the Premier's Dinner last evening in Edmonton, and for what its worth, it had the highest attendance of any premier's dinner to date.

The format was greatly improved, the Premier and his wife were introduced, the Premier gave his address and once the meal was complete, he and his wife and all MLA's in attendance mingled with the guests for the remainder of the evening.

He didn't give out much information on the upcoming budget but one thing he did allude to was his intentions of placing a certain percentage of the provincial income each year in a special fund to build and replace infrastructure in the province. That was met with huge applause, because that sort of long term planning is long overdue.