Jeff Burgar
Those tuned in to Lesser Slave Lake MLA Danielle Larivee’s telephone town hall meeting last Wednesday got much the same storyline as the previous phone in.

For those unaware, it is basically a big conference call. The phone rings, you answer and tie in to the meeting, and listen while Larivee answers questions and talks. And talks! And talks!

A few times listeners might have been confused. Was that a pre-recorded speech dubbed in, in answer to a question, or just more of the same polished remarks?

MLA Larivee, much like her predecessor Pearl Calahasen and so many other politicians, is getting very good at talking a whole lot, without saying very much.

A question about attracting doctors to Slave Lake brought a long answer how hard it is to bring doctors to Northern Alberta. This topic in itself is worth many long meetings and phone ins.

In fact, High Prairie had exactly that meeting a few months ago. The answers from government then were about the same as what Larivee gave last week.

There was a slight twist to include the town of Slave Lake. Gee, it is so very hard. Gee, we are exploring ideas. Gee, the Family Care Clinic is a really attractive model. Gee, we sure lost a lot of doctors in the fire and just can’t seem to get traction ever since. Gee, we are working so very, very hard.

This might be news to a newcomer to the dismal politics of physician attraction. For anybody actually beating the bush and trying to attract doctors instead of telling stories, like former High Prairie mayor George Keay, it’s just another paragraph in a 25-year-long story that keeps repeating over and over and over.

The phone-in format was not set up for follow-up questions or debate. In that, it really wasn’t quite the “town hall” atmosphere Larivee and organizers might be trying to achieve. That’s good for the New Democrats, but not so good to really tap the public mood.

However, as part of that “tapping”, listeners got to vote on some hot topic items. Not surprisingly, jobs and the economy are the biggest concern of listeners. Larivee is optimistic the economy has turned for the better, and better times are ahead. We are too, even with continued high unemployment and storm clouds ahead.

In that, all the hot topic items like education and health care still deserve attention. Education, in particular, adult training, re-training and upgrading, keeping youth in school, and matching southern Alberta school results. Health care, in particular showing some honesty in what the real issues are in physician recruitment, instead of bamboozling and bafflegabbing a concerned public.

Despite the shortcomings, we liked the phone in. Larivee seemed sincere. We would have preferred less talk from her, more questions from listeners and more survey topics. Depending on how the phone-ins are developed, they could become interesting, informative and fun for listeners, and a big help to our MLA in bringing us the good government we want. We look forward to more.