Fort McMurray faces the most serious threat to the well-being of its residents since the 2016 wildfires. Mr. Kenney's brutal cuts to our healthcare system means that our town's only "After Hours Clinic" (AHC) will no longer be able to operate from Mondays to Fridays effective April 1st, 2020. This Clinic is a vital resource to a community where many people work grueling 12+ hour shifts and may not be able get in to see their doctor during regular business hours for urgent things like a bad chest infection.

Now instead they'll be forced to go to an ER that is already stretched to its limits. Some will choose to just stay home and just get sicker, and let's make no bones about it: more people will end up dying.

Not only are the government's cuts repulsive from a human perspective, but it makes no sense economically. Not only is a visit to the ER more than 10 times more expensive to the system than a visit to the AHC, but there will be tremendous costs in terms of lost working time and productivity. Fort McMurrayites are here to WORK - we don't want to wait 10+ hours sitting in an ER waiting to get an antibiotic for a chest infection. We want to get the treatment and then get back to work.

Mr. Kenney ran on a pledge to revitalize our oil sector, but it's about more than just pipelines and refineries; it's about the hard working men and women of this community who tough it out day in and day out through often brutal working conditions to make sure that our province can bring the oil to market.

When Fort Mac voted overwhelmingly for the UCP in last year's elections, we expected that they would give us a "hand up", not a slap in the face. We refuse to take this lying down. We will fight for our AHC and for our healthcare. All across the province, medical centres like the AHC are at threat because the government is going after our healthcare system with a butcher knife.