Evergreen EdgE - Calgary Evergreen Community Association

Community
Your Official Newsletter
Civic Chat
Dave Rodney,
MLA Calgary-Lougheed
Serving Woodbine,
Woodlands, Evergreen
& Bridlewood
#311A, 2525 Woodview Drive SW,
calgary.lougheed@assembly.ab.ca
Visit: daverodney.ca
Phone: 403-238-1212
Legislation to protect young
Albertans focus of renewed Tobacco
Reduction Strategy
As Alberta’s Assoc Minister of Wellness, I was honoured to
launch our new provincial tobacco reduction strategy with my
honourable colleague, Health Minister Fred Horne. Our new
strategy proposes legislation to further protect young people
from tobacco, actions to prevent tobacco use, & enhanced
support to help Albertans quit using tobacco products.
“Creating Tobacco-Free Futures: Alberta’s Strategy to Prevent
and Reduce Tobacco Use 2012-2022” will focus on the
following priorities over the next three years:
• introducing legislation restricting the sale of flavoured
tobacco;
• introducing provincial legislation to prohibit tobacco sales
to minors;
• enacting legislation to protect children from second-hand
smoke in vehicles;
• increasing social marketing around the harms associated
with tobacco use;
• enhancing tobacco cessation training for health
professionals;
• expanding workplace, school-based & community
tobacco-cessation programs.
Other initiatives that our government will consider over the
next 10 years include point of sale health warning signage,
tobacco tax increases, further restrictions on smoking in public
areas, & expanding the availability of tobacco cessation products
& resources.
Funding for the strategy will come out of the existing Alberta
Health Services tobacco reduction budget. In addition, the
government has committed $500,000 a year for three years
for a social marketing campaign under the Addiction & Mental
Health Strategy.
Overall smoking rates in Alberta have fallen from 25% in
2001 to 19% in 2010. The targets for 2022 set out in Creating
Tobacco-Free Futures include a decrease in smoking rates
for Albertans aged 15 & older from 19% to 12%. To view
the strategy, please visit: health.alberta.ca/initiatives/tobaccoreduction-strategy-2012.html
Alberta Leads the Country in
Attracting & Retaining Doctors
A recent report released by the Canadian Institute for Health
Information (CIHI) has found that Alberta has seen the greatest
growth in physician numbers among provinces--by far--over the
past decade. The total number of physicians in Alberta grew by
over 3,100 (60%) between 2001 & 2011. That’s far ahead of all
other provinces, & two & a half times greater than the national
growth rate of 23.9%! Other Alberta highlights include:
• 8,258 physicians practiced in Alberta in 2011; an increase
of 3,104 from 2001.
• The family physician growth rate for Alberta from 2001-11
was 56.8%– far ahead of all other provinces & ahead of
the Canadian growth rate of 24.1%.
• Alberta’s physician growth rate over the past five years
was the best among the provinces – 19.8%, well above the
five-year national growth rate of 13.9%. The gains came
during a time when Alberta had the highest population
growth in Canada at 7.7%.
• Migration numbers for 2011 show that more physicians
moved into Alberta from out of province & internationally
than any other province, resulting in a gain of 69 physicians.
• AB has 216 total physicians/100,000 people, a 2.4%
improvement from 2010, & ahead of the national ratio of
209. Since 2001, there has been a 29% improvement in
AB’s physician-to-population ratio. Meanwhile, physicians
in Alberta & Newfoundland & Labrador were the youngest
in 2011, with an average age of 48.1 years in each
province.
• Between 2007 & 2011, AB had the highest increase in the
number of female physicians (29%)
• To read “Supply, Distribution and Migration of Canadian
Physicians, 2011” visit: www.cihi.ca
Pg. 21 January 2013 The Calgary Evergreen Official Community Newsletter