EDMONTON – Some funeral homes in Alberta are seeing an increase in demand during the fourth wave of COVID-19.

Kirstie Smolyk, Park Memorial president, told CTV News that many funeral homes across the province are starting to feel the effects of an increasing number of deaths.

“Our staff are tired,” Smolyk said. “(We’re) definitely busier than we were this summer.

“There’s COVID, there’s cancer, there are drug overdoses – unfortunately, we’re seeing a lot of those,” she added.

In September, an emergency protocol between funeral homes and Alberta Health Services was activated twice to keep hospital morgues from surpassing capacity.

“If the capacity of the hospital morgues are maxed out, they call all the funeral homes to see how we can help,” Smolyk said.

“Within hours it was brought back to normal and everything was handled as it could have,” said David Roots, Alberta Funeral Service Association board of directors member.

From November to January, Smolyk says her staff served twice the number of families they normally do. Roots estimated funeral homes in the province experienced 20 per cent higher demand than normal, depending on the location of the facility.

As COVID-19 cases and death rates rise, Smolyk said her staff are worried.

“It’s scary,” she shared. “The medical professionals are cracking, and it’s a trickle-down effect to everyone in our whole community.

“We’re looking after people in their darkest hours when they’ve had a loss. Whatever we can do to accommodate them to make the service happen on the day they choose, and the time they choose, we’re going to continue to do so.”

Roots echoed Smolyk’s fears, adding that he’s also worried about the other types of deaths funeral homes are seeing, like drug overdoses.

“We’re definitely seeing situations occur and definitely seeing an increase in deaths and having to serve more families,” he said.

For Root and Smolyk, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the industry to adapt.

“(We’re) getting used to managing that pace and working through it,” he said. “Even as competitors within the same market, we are commonly working together to try and help families deal with some of the situations that are there.”

An unexpected issue starting to crop up for funeral homes is proof of vaccination. While mandatory in Calgary due to a city bylaw, the Restrictions Exemption Program is optional across the province.

“In some of the rural settings, we’re seeing them not elect to follow the exemption program,” Root said.

While the industry is experiencing a staff shortage now, Root told CTV News that the pandemic has brought about a 30 per cent increase in some of the funeral service courses he teaches.

“The class sizes I’m instructing,” he said, “are the largest I’ve ever seen.”

EDMONTON – Up to eight Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) nursing officers will be ready on Monday to help  Alberta’s beleaguered health-care system, but some medical experts believe the provincial government must take more action.

Bill Blair, the federal minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that the CAF members will be in place by Monday, Oct. 4, and be ready to provide care for COVID-19 patients.

In addition, Blair said planning to send 20 medical professionals from the Canadian Red Cross to augment ICU staff is still underway. No timeline was given as to when the federal minister expected the medical staff to be in place.

“We are always ready to help Canadians across the country during difficult times, and this pandemic has been no different,” Blair said in the statement.

“The Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Red Cross, and health professionals have stepped up time and again over the past 19 months to answer the call to protect people, and I want to thank all those on the front lines who continue to keep Canadians safe.”

HEALTH-CARE DEMAND CONTINUES

As of Friday, the province had 263 patients in ICUs with COVID-19 – the fourth-highest amount of patients to date. More than 1,060 patients were in hospitals. Another 53 patients were receiving care in ICUs for non-COVID-19 related needs.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said the province had 374 total ICU beds – including 201 additional surge spaces, a 116 per cent increase over the normal baseline of 173 beds.

According to AHS, the provincial ICU capacity as of Friday was 84 per cent. Without surge capacity, that number would be 183 per cent.

The Edmonton zone has the most patients in hospital, with 316, and the most in ICU, 115. The Calgary zone and Central zone have 284 and 186 patients, respectively.

No other zone has more than 100 patients in ICU, while Calgary has 91.

On Friday, AHS revealed that the Elk Point Emergency Department would be without physician coverage from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday in October due to a shortage of on-site physicians.

“This is a temporary measure,” AHS said. “We will keep the community updated as physician recruitment efforts continue and more information becomes available.

Nursing staff will remain at the site to provide triage and referrals for patients to surrounding communities. AHS said residents of Elk Point and the region the emergency department serves will be re-routed to St. Paul – 35 kilometres away – if they require care.

“We are thankful for the support of surrounding health-care centres and medical staff and would like to thank the community for their patience and understanding during this time,” AHS said.

Elk Point is located on Highway 41 and is about 215 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

As of Friday, AHS said there were 22 other active temporary bed or space reductions at facilities across the province, most having to do with staffing pressures, including Red Deer, Ponoka, Edson, Grande Prairie, and High Level.

HEALTH-CARE STAFF WORRY OUTSIDE HELP IS NOT ENOUGH

Despite numerous calls for temporary closures or firebreaks, Premier Jason Kenney said the province is not planning on implementing any.

“What we are seeing as a general trend is an apparent plateauing of cases,” Kenney said at a media availability on Thursday.

Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician in Calgary, disagreed with the premier’s statement.

“It’s not like we’re plateauing at 20 cases a day,” he told CTV News. “We’re plateauing at 1,700 cases a day.”

Public health expert Lorian Hardcastle believes Kenney is continuing to downplay the situation Albertans are facing.

“You really get a sense (from him) that this is an issue we can contain, we can increase capacity,” Hardcastle said. “It doesn’t send the urgent message that I think is needed.”

Dr. James Talbot, former chief medical officer of health for Alberta, told CTV News that the way the province is handling the COVID-19 pandemic is “callous.”

“We’d like to know how much longer we can expect to see 15 to 20 people die (daily) in Alberta,” he said. “We’d like to know how much longer we can expect to see that stress on hospitals.

“We’re grateful for the outside help, but it’s not going to buy us time.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Touria Izri 

EDMONTON – A Saskatchewan woman says she is worried she will lose her eyesight or possibly die after a surgery scheduled in Alberta for a rare cancer in her face was cancelled because she’s not a resident and hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

Sharon Durham said she was driving to the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton from her farm near Wynyard, Sask., on Monday when she received a call about the 18-hour surgery she was to have the next day for the invasive cancer in her nose and under her eyes.

“They said it was cancelled because they’re not doing surgeries on out-of-province people right now, even though I’m a patient (in Alberta) and have already (had) two surgeries by my doctors there,” Durham, 54, said in a phone interview.

“The cancer has already spread down to the corner of my left eye, so (the doctor is saying), ‘You’ll probably be losing your eyesight.’ I can deal with that but, if it goes into my brain, I can’t deal with that and neither can my family.

“That’s game over.”

Alberta Health Services did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Last month, the health provider announced that non-essential surgeries were being cancelled as hospitals and intensive care capacity were filled beyond normal limits because of the province’s crippling fourth wave of COVID-19.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, has said a majority of patients in intensive care units have the infection and are unvaccinated.

Last week, Saskatchewan suspended its organ donation program due to a lack of staff and intensive care beds – also consequences of the pandemic.

Durham said she can’t have the surgery in her home province, because no one is specialized enough.

She’s scared and angry that Alberta hospitals are prioritizing the health of unvaccinated individuals who are now sick.

“We’re just so angry with people not getting vaccinated,” she said in tears. “I have family who’s not getting vaccinated. I told (them) right out: ‘It’s because of you and all the other unvaccinated why I’m in this position right now.”’

In April 2020, Durham had a 23-hour surgery to remove the cancer in her nose. A surgeon then reconstructed her nose with the help of a screw. She had three more surgeries after that.

Last May, her doctor in Saskatchewan booked an appointment for her to see an Edmonton surgeon to have the screw removed, Durham said.

Three months passed without a call, but she wasn’t too worried, she said.

“It looked like it was getting infected, so (the doctor) wanted to take that screw out … but (he) was pretty sure there was no cancer.”

She was finally able to book a consultation in August. When the surgeon saw her, he told her the cancer had returned.

Last Saturday, she was told to prepare for her now-cancelled surgery the following Tuesday. Doctors were going to remove the cancer, remove the remainder of nose and begin to reconstruct it.

Durham said she has been calling local members of the legislature every day to try to connect with someone who will listen.

“Just from reading the lab reports … it’s growing quite fast,” she said.

“My (mind’s) been so busy that I really haven’t had a chance to sit and really think about it, and I try not to because I don’t want to die.”

Durham said an assistant for Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping told her he would pass along her story to him.

Copping’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“I’m suffering and I’m dying,” Durham said.

“I don’t know what else to do.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2021.

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has reinstated his decision to subject a thermal coal mine expansion in Alberta to a federal review after a court ordered him to rethink it.

Wilkinson said the Alberta First Nation whose objections led to the court order concerning the Vista mine project have now withdrawn their concerns.

“We consulted very extensively with Ermineskin (First Nation) and Ermineskin has actually sent us a letter essentially withdrawing their objection to us going through the designation process,” he said from Milan, where he is attending a climate conference.

Wilkinson repeated his pre-election warning that new thermal coal projects will have to surmount a high bar for approval.

“In a world that must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the first most important step that we can take … is to phase out the use of thermal coal,” he said.

“We will not be looking for new thermal coal mines to be developed in Canada.”

Coalspur Mines is seeking to expand its existing surface mine near Hinton in north central Alberta. The expansion would make Vista the largest thermal coal mine in North America. The company also plans an underground test mine on the site.

A federal environmental review is required when a mine expands its footprint by 50 per cent or more, or if it plans to produce more than 5,000 tonnes of coal a day. In the early stages of its development, Vista would come in just under those thresholds and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada ruled in 2019 that Ottawa wouldn’t get involved.

But in 2020 Wilkinson decided that the footprint was close enough and that production would eventually exceed the level triggering a federal review. He revoked the agency’s decision and ordered a joint federal-provincial process, considered to be a more rigorous than a purely provincial assessment.

That decision was challenged in Federal Court by Coalspur and Ermineskin First Nation.

Ermineskin supports the project for its economic benefits and argued its treaty rights were violated when Wilkinson failed to consult with them. Court agreed with Ermineskin and ordered Wilkinson to reconsider.

Since then, the agency has met with 44 First Nations, including Ermineskin.

“The agency documented and included the feedback from Indigenous groups consulted during the reconsideration process to ensure their views were included in the analysis provided to the minister,” said a statement from agency spokesman Stephane Perrault.

A spokesman for Ermineskin was not immediately available to comment.

Coalspur’s application to Federal Court was thrown out after the Ermineskin ruling. A spokesmanfor the companywasn’t immediately available to say if that application would be refiled.

Wilkinson’s latest decision is based on reasons similar to those he initially cited.

He said Ottawa’s involvement is justified by the size of the planned expansion and its potential threats to areas of federal jurisdiction, such as contamination of waterways and habitat loss for species at risk. He also said the expansion would affect the treaty rights of other First Nations who oppose the project.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2021.

EDMONTON – While many mayoral candidates vying for votes have previous experience as city councillors, Cheryll Watson believes her business knowledge and outsider perspective will help propel Edmonton forward.

Watson, born to a single mother, grew up in Beverly and worked as a tech innovator with IBM and Intuit. She described being faced with a decision after 15 years of work at Intuit to either move to Silicon Valley or stay in Edmonton.

“I decided to stay,” Watson told CTV News Edmonton. “I really wanted my skills and experiences to help move our city forward. So, I went to work on our economy.”

She then went on to found Innovate Edmonton and co-found the Alberta Innovation Corridor.

It was those experiences that led to her decision to run for mayor. While she led Innovate Edmonton and worked for the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Watson described how she would meet with the mayor and city administration, and present to council. Watson said those four years opened her eyes to the important role city council plays.

“I really understand how city government works,” she said. “(I saw that) the city’s policies and plans are not being created by the users of the services, or by the people that these policies, bylaws, and supports are meant to serve.

“Now more than ever, I believe we need an outside perspective in how we are moving our city forward.”

‘WE NEED PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS’

Watson’s platform focuses on supporting Edmontonians whose basic needs are not being met.

Some of her commitments include improving access to public washrooms, water, free and accessible hygiene items – including menstrual products and sharps disposal – at public facilities, and review policies that criminalize poverty-related activities or excessively ticket those without means to pay.

“We need practical solutions,” Watson said. “I don’t think we are helping anyone when we make commitments that we aren’t able to achieve.”

Her campaign for mayor began in October last year. Since then, Watson is most proud that she was the first candidate to announce a policy solely committed to downtown Edmonton.

“Make business simple,” is Watson’s guiding principle for downtown and the entire city.

“It’s really about creating a more accessible downtown,” she said.

According to Watson, that includes extending free parking downtown from 30 to 60 minutes, developing a central business neighbourhood downtown to support innovation and entrepreneurs, expedite business permit approvals and new processes to escalate permitting issues.

“We have an incredible future ahead of us if we really recognize that we need to create the best possible environment for the companies that are being created here,” she added.

BUILDING BETTER AND SAFER NEIGHBOURHOODS

When it comes to city infrastructure, she plans to ensure every part of the city receives investment when it needs it.

Watson expressed concern over newer suburbs receiving recreation centres while mature neighbourhoods like Eastglen have their pools closed.

“We have an inequality in how many amenities are being created in certain communities,” she said. 

 “We need to create great communities and neighbourhoods no matter where you live.”

Watson also wants to make Edmonton safer for women and girls by installing better lighting on high-use community pathways, increased safety improvements for the LRT and transit, and pass municipal street harassment bylaws empowering authorities to ticket or respond when necessary.

“I want to build a city that works for all Edmontonians, no matter where in the city you live, no matter where you come from – whether you are a born and raised Edmontonian or you are a newcomer.”

If elected, Watson wants the city to focus closer on core services and move away from things that the province or federal government normally provide, or enter into better collaborative and cost-sharing agreements. That way the city can provide services better and ensure it can invest in responsible climate adaptation.

“Let’s be good enabling partners,” Watson said. “That is the type of mindset, and, ‘yes, and,’ mentality that our city needs to have.”

GET TO KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE

What is your favourite meal in the city?

“That is easy,” Watson said. Her favourite foods are chicken wings and pizza, with The Mercer being her favourite place to enjoy those foods.

Best summer activity in the river valley?

“All of them,” she said. “Our river valley is so incredible, and there are so many things that we can do (there).”

She listed attending Folk Fest and enjoying the trail system while walking or biking as her top activities.

Favourite viewpoint or public art piece in Edmonton?

“The Talus balls,” Watson shared. “I like them because they are such a surprise.

“You’re really not expecting them to be there; you aren’t really expecting that kind of art piece there in the river valley.”

Do you have any unknown talents or hobbies?

“We have a family band,” Watson said, that includes her husband and four children.

“I sing backup and have been known to play the tambourine,” she added. “That’s one of the things that we like to do as a family.”

What was the last book you read?

Shantaram: A Novel, by Gregory David Roberts.

Watson, who has been to India 15 times, describes the novel as one of her favourites as it shares insights into the beauty of Indian culture.

What sport do you enjoy playing or watching the most?

Watson said her favourite sports to play are tennis and slo-pitch.

“There are those that would question my skills in both of those sports, but I do like to try,” Watson added, as she laughed.

She enjoys watching Oilers games with her family.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

In high school, Watson described how she followed her friend group into hairdressing.

“Very quickly, I discovered that I had no hairdressing ability,” she said. “So that dream was quickly crushed.”