Tragic Death Restores Some Faith

We are hard pressed these days to identify a single one of our public institutions that has not let us down or betrayed our trust in one way or another. The RCMP and the Air India Inquiry, their pension fiasco and the Maher Arar case are all disappointing examples. The churches and our government betrayal of our values over treatment of children and families in Residential Schools and you can go back to the tainted blood scandal and the Sponsorship Scandal just to name a few high profile cases.

Cover ups, legal manoeuvrings, political manipulations, withholding evidence, abuse of power and authority along with many other tricks and techniques result in breaches and abuses of our trust and undermines public confidence in our institutions.

Then in a very recent and sad personal tragedy we get a ray of hope. The recent death Denise Melanson, an Alberta woman who was mistakenly given an excess of chemotherapy drugs is just such an example. Again we unfortunately see the institutional culture that initially misses the mark on earning our trust because a policy for public protection and service was not followed. Investigations into the death show that the family did not get notice of the error for five days and senior management was not advised of the error for 18 days. All this was in spite of a policy requiring immediate notice is to be given in each instance. This has become the typical kind of "response" we have come to expect from too many of our institutions these days.

Then we have the hope that results from the responsible reaction of the people and professionals involved who showed quality character and leadership. They have given us personal examples of how things should be handled, and can be handled, when good people step up and deal with bad situations properly.

Let me outline some facts to show what I mean. There was a swift, confidential and satisfactory settlement of liability and an assessment of damages that was done with out legal manoeuvring or posturing. That is a tribute to the Melanson family and their lawyer Rosanna Saccomani. Accolades go to the hospital, the Cross Cancer Institute too for how they handled this aspect of the consequences of the error as well.

Then we have Denise Melanson’s personal courage and character in how she responded to this terrible situation. She is reported to have had no ill will towards the nurses who administered the mistaken dosage that caused her death. Her family also took steps to reassure people of the care, compassion and treatment she received at The Cross. Sadness and sorrow and the suffering of a great personal loss did not distort their perspective and judgement either.

Then we have the example of quality leadership from Dr. Tony Fields, Vice President of the Alberta Cancer Board. Field’s approach was to be open, transparent, forthright and responsive to the mistake. The quality of his leadership was also shown by taking full responsibility up front and swiftly instead of the usual secrecy, delay and denial reactions we see so often in such circumstances.

Investigations have revealed some changes in procedures need to be made and they are being undertaken. We found that this kind of tragedy is not an isolated incident. Dr. Fields is reported have said “One of the hardest things to hear was that this mistake had been made elsewhere and resulted in deaths elsewhere. We were not able to learn from the mistakes of other, but we’ll ensure others can learn from ours.”

Tony and Rosanna likely did not know each other before this incident. For the record, I am proud to say Tony and Rosanna are both friends of mine. I would not be surprised if they became friends of each other as they worked through their professional roles and responsibilities both trying to do the right thing in these difficult circumstances.

I want thank them for giving us all a shining example of how such devastating, difficult and sad circumstances ought to be dealt with. We have an institution like The Cross Cancer Clinic, and people like Denise and her family, and professionals like Tony and Rosanna who each responded appropriately to this tragedy in their own way. The result was better service of the public interest and better outcomes for the greater good. That is all too rare a result these days.

Forestry Issues and the Mountain Pine Beetle Update

As a follow up on the ForestEthics taking on West Fraser Timber over the woodland caribou, I have come across a new blog that caught my eye. ForestWisdom gives long and detailed history of some Environmental Non-Government Organizations activities in the forestry policy area in Alberta. There is lots of history obviously. The question I have is more about the future of the forest as we face the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation.

I have just returned from Grande Cache today where I was meeting local community, regional and business leaders about how to sustain their communities after the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation ravages the pine forest in Alberta. My firm is working for the Grande Alberta Economic Region in helping the local forestry related communities in the region come to grips with the implications, for them and their towns, of the Beetle infestation. It is not pretty.

These are somber and sobering times for those communities and many of them are going to need to be particularly innovative and adaptive to deal with these new threats. I don’t think there are any climate change deniers amongst the people I have spoken to in these region communities. The MPB never reached so far north because our cold winters killed them off. But now with the much milder winters, the Beetles are thriving in new areas throughout northern BC and now well into Alberta.

The most recent data I have seen shows the MPB infected over 3 million trees last year and is now as far east as the Slave Lake area. It can’t be prevented and all human efforts right now are on mitigation by burning, harvesting and salvage activities. This activity is only buying time, and the anticipated bill for MPB mitigation this year, by Alberta alone, is budgeted at $55m up from a mere $5m spent last year.

All this mitigation activity underscores that we can’t beat it. It demands that we must find new ways to adapt to life with the MPB and all its implications. Not easy. Not simple…but very necessary. The economic, ecological and social well-being consequences for humans and the impacts on wildlife are enormous. The MPB may well spread throughout the entire boreal forest across the entire country before it is done.

Pembina Institute Poll Shows Albertans Reject Intensity Targets for GHGs

While one can argue over the sample size of only 500, the results are so conclusive that margin of error makes no difference in the final result of some key findings of the Pembina Institute recently sponsored poll.

One finding from the poll is being billed in the Blogs as Albertans rejecting John Blair’s green efforts on intensity standards for GHG emissions. The polls shows that 70 per cent of Albertans support absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, compared to 20 per cent who support intensity-based targets. So much for the caricature of the ugly Albertan too often seen as the non-caring capitalists, especially in relation to Canada’s environment.

In fact my firm did some in depth values based research for the forestry industry in the fall of 2005 with over 3000 participants in Alberta. We found then that 84% of Albertan’s believed that environmental protection had to trump economic growth. More information on our work for the Alberta forest industry is at http://www.yourforest.org/, if you are interested.

Alberta’s Minister of the Environment, Rob Renner, says intensity standards for GHG emissions are only interim measures and legislated absolute emission targets are the goal. I wonder if the Federal Minister of the environment, John Baird is on the same page and I surly hope so.

As for nuclear energy as a heat source in Alberta, some rumblings of using geothermal are also out and about. I would think that solution presents more benefit economically, environmentally and even in terms of reliability and safety that nuclear.

I don’t know who is behind the nuclear option scenario and have no problem that it be investigated. The Albert PC party wants the Alberta government to look at nuclear as an option. I hope the Alberta government looks at geothermal as an option to natural gas and nuclear at the same time and with equal or greater enthusiasm.

Notes from the Alberta Progressive Conservative Convention

I saw lots of energy in the meeting rooms, hallways and hospitality suites at the Alberta PC AGM this weekend. At last April's AGM in Calgary, the party decided to tell Ralph Klein it was time for him to retire, and he did. It was an example of the membership taking back its power as a political party. It was a decision that shocked the status quo players and astonished most of the media...but it had to be done.

This convention there was still more changes happening, that may not be as dramatic as last year, but will be just a profound and potentially just as far reaching.

New Faces Elected to the Executive:
The party executive election results underscored the displeasure of the party delegates with the performance of the party executive and the continuing focus on change. They chose a new face for VP Calgary over old regime options and a much younger new face option for VP North over an older experienced party stalwart.

The defeat of Joe Lougheed for party president by a 90 vote margin of the 900 voting delegates will be seen by Calgary as another slap. It is not. This vote result was not and Edmonton over Calgary choice but the old guard power brokers in Calgary may have trouble believing that right now.

I think the selection of St Albert lawyer Marg Mrazek for president was the party opting for a proven organizer and a respected party activists. She is going to lead the PC Party through the next series of changes they clearly want. I know her and believe she will implement these changes very carefully, without any hesitation - and she will definitely not lead reluctantly. She will be independent from undue influence from the Premier's office too. This has been a serious problem in the past as far as I am concerned.

She will be steady and wise hand at the tiller as we shake things up and get set to sail into the next election under new leadership. Speaking of the new leadership, some 1500 delegates attended the AGM. That shows the transition to the new leadership is well in hand but there is lots of post leadership fence mending still to do. Ed Stelmach is clearly on top of that challenge but it is not a done deal yet.

More Change Coming:
There were other notable events at this weekend AGM with serious implications that offers insight into the hearts and minds of the PC Party of Alberta. Policy development and discussion is a big part of any successful political party and it was front and centre at the AGM.

Policy Process Proposal Rejected:
A centralizing and narrowing policy process option presented by the executive was rejected. The new executive will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to design an effective, inclusive, open and comprehensive policy development process. A unilateral party executive decision to double membership fees to $10 per year was rejected too.

Delegates Demand More Leadership Campaign Funding Disclosure:
Delegates were not impressed with the disclosure and accountability standards of the recent leadership around campaign funding disclosures. Delegates made it known they want serious and binding changes in place to assure transparency and accountability in such matters in the future. A legislated approach to apply to all political parties was the recommendation.

Democratic Reforms Well Received:
The new democratic reforms for all-party committees and the new processes and powers recently put in place were well received as positive and necessary democratic reforms. Internet streaming video of the entire legislature session and now even some committee proceedings will be streamed in video on the Internet to further enhance citizen’s access so they can see how they are being governed were innovations that were applauded.

Housing Crisis is Serious - Rent Controls are not the solution
Housing issues were top of mind. Rent controls were soundly rejected as an option but the shelter problem for Albertans was now seen to be a crisis and delegates wanted the government to come up with better solutions and fast.

Study Nuclear Energy Option for the Oil Sands
Then we have nuclear energy. A Calgary constituency put forth a resolution to look at the option for the oil sands exploitation. There was lots of controversy but in the end, it was pretty clear that the PC Party believes something has to be done and all options are worth studying.

There will be lots of spin and misinformation circulating over this nuclear power decision I expect. For the record, here is the wording of the nuclear power option resolution that what was passed:

Resolution to immediately set up a committee to study and come up with
recommendations for the construction of nuclear power plants for use in tar sands
development, including public consultations with experts from the private sector.

PC Party is Late in Adopting new Technologies:
Finally, it was pretty obvious that this political party has some technological literacy issues when we are told we only have e-mail address of about 20% of members. Part of that would be the result of instant party members who want only to participate in the leadership selection and not the life of the PC Party. Still, it is astounding that so few members have put their email addresses on record. On a positive technology note, the Premier's AGM speech was actually taped and uploaded on You Tube – it is a start and shows that some one is thinking ahead.

The Importance of Involving Youth in Political Parties.

I just finished moderating a panel on how to engage youth in political parties at the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association AGM in Edmonton this afternoon. There was about 165 individuals in the room so the interest in the topic was encouraging.

The major themes I grasped coming out of the event that were generative enough to move forward were the need for mentoring, the adoption of technology, inclusiveness, and meaningful participation and building stronger and lasting relationships.

It became obvious that the most common way people get involved in the political process at the party level is because someone asked them and invited them. I expect this is true of all political parties. How utterly simple and obvious but yet we do not do it very well. People need to be asked to participate in civil society, including political parties, or so it seems. So we better start asking them.

The other interesting observation was the nature of youth involvement in a political party. It is about apprenticeship or it is about being fully active from day one, regardless of age and experience? The answers there seemed to be both but the determining factor ought to be the wishes of the individual and not some cultural party norm that ends up being a barrier to any real and meaningful participation.

Mentoring needs to work both ways too. Older more experienced party activitist can teach young people the ropes of how the political policy making processes works in our democracy. This needs to be taught at the grassroots level in practical term and be focused on political parties and also in government terms. We need people to become empowered and to see how they can make a difference using politics as a vehicle for change.

Equally as important is younger people teaching and mentoring more senior party members about the uses and advantages of technology, including building social relationship opportunities. The technophobia of so many older people has to be overcome. They have to be introduced to technology, taught how to use and become comfortable with applications like Facebook and even Blogs, so they come to see how it helps for political outreach, even on a personal basis.

The current state of wide spread indifference to down right cynicism over political parties and politics in general cannot be healthy for our democracy. We citizens have to take back the power of politics and put it into the hands of ordinary people who will hopefully choose to re-engage and who can see the value in doing so. It was a wonderful session to be involved with and I look forward to some actual follow up happening to get some of the suggestions we heard into practical action plans.