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EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her plan to “Uber-ize” and replace the province’s online continuing care directory is aimed at making it easier for patients to navigate spaces, and the analogy shouldn’t be taken too far.

It comes a day after Smith announced at a continuing care conference she aims to create a new platform that works much like the app to order rides or meals.

“What we’re talking about is creating a portal so that those (providers) who have spaces available can easily post them, and those who need a space can easily find them,” said Smith at the official opening of a new cancer centre in Calgary on Thursday.

It’s part of the United Conservative government’s health-care system overhaul that will see the responsibility for continuing care shifted from the Health Ministry to Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon.

Smith’s mention of the Uber model sparked renewed concerns from public health-care advocates, unionized health workers and the Opposition NDP that further privatization plans are afoot.

When asked if the shift might mean changes to how some in the sector are contracted, Smith said “there’s no contemplation of changing the provision model.”

Alberta Health Services currently offers an online directory that allows Albertans to search for spaces by name, location and type of care, but Smith said there’s a demand for more transparency to make sure all vacant spaces are posted.

“We’ve heard from our various non-profit and private providers that some facilities have as many as 35 per cent of spaces open,” she said.

At the same time, she said the province is at least 3,500 spaces short of being able to keep up with demand from those who are in hospital or living in communities waiting for placement in an appropriate facility.

The province has a mix of non-profit, for-profit and publicly run continuing care operators.

Nixon noted in a statement Thursday the continuing care system is a mix of private, not-for-profit and government-run facilities.

“The transfer of continuing care is not privatization and there is no intention to privatize,” he said.

He added that private service providers and organizations are crucial to maintaining the system, and government will continue to work with them.

Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare said in a joint statement Wednesday the premier’s announcement signalled a move towards more for-profit care.

NDP seniors critic Lori Sigurdson said the administrative changes do not build a single new continuing care bed or offer more service for those who are stuck without options between hospital and home.

“The UCP’s solution of ‘Uber-izing’ services with a full spectrum of available providers sounds like fancy language for the privatization of health care,” she said in a release.

Thursday, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents some 62,000 members in health care, said Smith is opening the door to health-care profiteering.

“This government continues to pretend it is running a Fortune 500 company instead of a province,” said vice-president Curtis Jackson in a news release.

“What Albertans need are more beds, higher staff to resident ratios, and more front-line home health-care providers backed by a fully funded and publicly delivered health-care system without the undertone of generating profits,” he said.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange announced that Primary Care Alberta is the new organization responsible for overseeing care from family doctors and nurse practitioners.

Another new agency called Recovery Alberta officially took over the mental health and addiction portfolio earlier this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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VANCOUVER – More than a million British Columbians have already cast their provincial election ballots, smashing the advance voting record ahead of what weather forecasters say will be a rain-drenched election day in much of B.C., with snow also predicted for the north.

Elections BC said Thursday that 1,001,331 people had cast ballots in six days of advance voting, easily breaking a record set during the pandemic election four years ago.

More than 28 per cent of all registered electors have voted, potentially putting the province on track for a big final turnout on Saturday.

“It reflects what I believe, which is this election is critically important for the future of our province,” New Democrat Leader David Eby said Thursday at a news conference in Vancouver. “I understand why British Columbians are out in numbers. We haven’t seen questions like this on the ballot in a generation.”

He said voters are faced with the choice of supporting his party’s plans to improve affordability, public health care and education, while the B.C. Conservatives, led by John Rustad, are proposing to cut services and are fielding candidates who support conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and espouse racist views.

Rustad has hammered the NDP on its handling of the toxic drug crisis that has cost more than 15,000 lives since a public health emergency was declared in 2016, as well as the province’s troubled health care system and a deficit that is forecast to hit $8.9 billion this fiscal year.

Rustad held no public availabilities on Thursday.

Elections BC said the record advance vote tally includes about 223,000 people who voted on Wednesday, the last day of advance polls, shattering the one-day record set on Tuesday by more than 40,000 votes.

The previous record for advance voting in a B.C. election was set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when about 670,000 people voted early, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.

Some ridings have now seen turnout of more than 35 per cent, including NDP Leader David Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding where 36.5 per cent of all electors have voted.

There has also been big turnout in some Vancouver Island ridings, including Oak Bay-Gordon Head, where 39 per cent of electors have voted, and Victoria-Beacon Hill, where Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is running, with 37.2 per cent.

Advance voter turnout in Rustad’s riding of Nechako Lakes was 30.5 per cent.

Total turnout in 2020 was 54 per cent, down from about 61 per cent in 2017.

Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, said many factors are at play in the advance voter turnout.

“If you have an early option, if you have an option where there are fewer crowds, fewer lineups that you have to deal with, then that’s going to be a much more desirable option,” said Prest.

“So, having the possibility of voting across multiple advanced voting days is something that more people are looking to as a way to avoid last-minute lineups or heavy weather.”

Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.

Environment Canada said the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.

Eby said the forecast of an atmospheric weather storm on election day will become a “ballot question” for some voters who are concerned about the approaches the parties have toward addressing climate change.

But he said he is confident people will not let the storm deter them from voting.

“I know British Columbians are tough and they’re not going to let even an atmospheric river stop them from voting,” said Eby.

In northern B.C., heavy snow is in the forecast starting Friday and through to Saturday for areas along the Yukon boundary.

Elections BC said it will focus on ensuring it is prepared for bad weather, said Andrew Watson, senior director of communications.

“We’ve also been working with BC Hydro to make sure that they’re aware of all of our voting place locations so that they can respond quickly if there are any power outages,” he said.

Elections BC also has paper backups for all of its systems in case there is a power outage, forcing them to go through manual procedures, Watson said.

Prest said the dramatic downfall of the Official Opposition BC United Party just before the start of the campaign and voter frustration could also be contributing to the record size of the advance vote.

It’s too early to say if the province is experiencing a “renewed enthusiasm for voting,” he said.

“As a political scientist, I think it would be a good thing to see, but I’m not ready to conclude that’s what we are seeing just yet,” he said, adding, “this is one of the storylines to watch come Saturday.”

Overall turnout in B.C. elections has generally been dwindling compared with the 71.5 per cent turnout for the 1996 vote.

Adam Olsen, the Green Party campaign chair, said advance voting turnout indicates people are much more engaged in the campaign than they were in the weeks leading up to the start of the campaign in September.

“All we know … that people are excited to go out and vote early,” he said. “The real question will be does that voter turnout stay up throughout election night?”

The Greens were scheduled to hold a rally in Victoria Thursday with Olsen, Furstenau and environmentalist David Suzuki, who has endorsed the party.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said more than 180,000 voters cast their votes on Wednesday.

OTTAWA – India’s foreign ministry says Canada is trying to smear New Delhi, as the country doubles down on rejecting claims its government officials have worked with criminal gangs in the extortion, coercion and murder of Canadian citizens.

But Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee on Thursday in an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

The case announced by the Justice Department involves Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India. He faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada.

The Indian government didn’t immediately provide comment on the U.S. charge, but earlier Thursday, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal denied that India was in cahoots with India-based mobsters in Canada.

He also raised long-standing cases where Canadian authorities have resisted India’s attempts to extradite criminals to India, suggesting some at the heart of Canada’s allegations are among those India has wanted to prosecute.

“It is strange that people who we asked to be deported” are being blamed by the Canadians for “committing crimes in Canada,” Jaiswal said.

“There is a clear pattern to smear India, for reasons best known to them.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home.

They said top Indian officials were then passing that information along to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.

Canada has also alleged Indian government agents were linked to the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

The two countries each ordered the expulsion of top diplomats this week over the accusations.

The U.S. criminal case was announced the same week as two members of an Indian inquiry committee investigating the New York plot were in Washington to meet with U.S. officials.

Canada says Indian officials have not been co-operative in the Canadian case.

The Nijjar killing has soured India-Canada ties for more than a year, and while Canadian officials say they have forwarded evidence of the allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny it has seen any.

Jaiswal said again on Thursday that Canada has provided no evidence of its allegations surrounding attacks on Sikh activists, contradicting Trudeau’s statements this week that investigators privately shared information with Indian counterparts, who have not co-operated.

At the same time, Jaiswal accused Canada of failing to take action against Sikhs living in Canada who face terrorism charges in India and who are accused of being part of a Sikh secessionist campaign in India’s northern Punjab state.

Jaiswal said India’s 26 extradition requests have been pending in Canada for a decade or more. He also said that several criminals had provisional arrest requests pending with Canadian authorities.

“Some of them are charged with terror and terror-related crimes (in India). So far, no action has been taken by the Canadian side on our requests. This is very serious,” Jaiswal said.

India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of what is known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

Trudeau said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined to him at a G20 summit in India last year that he wanted Canada to arrest people who have been outspoken against the Indian government. Trudeau said he told Modi that he felt the actions fall within free speech in Canada.

Trudeau added that he told Modi his government would work with India on concerns about terrorism, incitement of hate or anything that is unacceptable in Canada. But Trudeau also noted that advocating for separatism, while not Canadian government policy, is not illegal in Canada.

In February, a senior Global Affairs Canada official who oversees Ottawa’s diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific told members of Parliament that Canada had “long-standing exchanges” with India on counterterrorism concerns.

“How India defines extremism or even terrorism does not always compute in our legal system,” Weldon Epp told MPs.

He noted that Canada opted twice against extraditing Nijjar to India in the past decade, over claims he had a role in a cinema bombing and an alleged terrorist camp, due to a lack of sufficient evidence. He added at the time that Canadian officials had done “effectively workshops with the Indian government, to explain what our standards legally would be” for terrorism extraditions.

On Monday, the RCMP said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country and five other diplomats as persons of interest in the Nijjar killing. The force also said it uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadians by agents of the Indian government.

Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot last year in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led near Vancouver. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.

On Wednesday, Liberal MP Chandra Arya said Canada needs to do more to call out what he called “Khalistani violent extremism” in Canada, saying that he required RCMP protection to take part in a Hindu event last week in Edmonton.

“Recent revelations and developments are impacting Canada and India’s ability to collaborate on this issue,” he wrote on the platform X. He said New Delhi should not interfere in Canada, but rather help deal with extremism.

“It is critical that we all recognize the importance of eliminating cross-border threats posed by Khalistani extremism and resume our efforts to address it effectively.”

He added that leaders need to speak out, without directly naming Trudeau.

“I have yet to hear any politician or government official offer reassurance to Hindu-Canadians, many of whom feel concerned and fearful for their safety in light of recent events,” he wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press