I guess when you’re the most wealthy province, there’s plenty of room for a five fold expansion in the extraction of a non-renewable resource expected to appreciate significantly in value over the decades.
Why though, doesn’t Alberta have the ability to shelter abused women, especially ones with children who get caught in abusive relationships?
The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters says more and more abused women are being turned away in the province, a trend being called the dark side of the economic boom.
According to the council, more than 13,000 women and children used shelters in 2006, but another 16,000 had to be turned away because the shelters were full — a 16 per cent increase over the year before.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s shelters received nearly 100,000 crisis calls in 2006, a nearly 50 per cent increase over the last two years.
So, only 45% of women who needed emergency assistance were able to obtain it. That means if we roughly quintuple the number of incidences (but let’s be conservative and only double), that means just over 1 in 5 women who are in danger (many who will have children) and are seeking government help to get away from their abuser, will get the help society wants to give them.
Full steam ahead Alberta! Get that oil sold before it devalues, and make sure your essential social programs don’t grow in the process!
I know, let’s make those women work in the oil patch. I’m sure the kids can play around the rigs safely enough. Or EnCana and other companies can set up massive daycares with some of the money the Conservatives are giving them to develop the resource. Hey, it seems Harper is providing a daycare plan after all, he’s just leaving it up to private businesses like Shell and Syncrude to start offering it. I’m sure Ralph Klein would approve of that too, if he were still in charge of the province.
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Rosie | 09-Mar-07 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
but shouldn’t the free market take care of that?
Holly Stick | 09-Mar-07 at 6:23 pm | Permalink
Yeah, there is so much money to be made in helping battered women escape from their abusers.
Here is an article from April 20, 2006 explaining how it works:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/04/20/edm-housingabuse20060420.html
“People who work with abused women say Alberta’s booming economy is keeping families in violent homes because they don’t have options for affordable housing.
Jan Reimer, the co-ordinator for the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, says the province is desperately short of low-cost transitional housing…”
I believe Stelmach has raised wages for social workers, because there are not enough of them in Alberta; but it will take a lot to repair the years of neglect and cutting under Klein and his flock of Conservatives..
Tanya | 09-Mar-07 at 9:19 pm | Permalink
When I was trying to escape from my abusive ex with my two young’uns I had to stay with friends because the shelters had a long, long wait. It sucked noodles and for people without family support it would be impossible to leave an abusive situation. I really feel for people in this situation.
Tanya | 09-Mar-07 at 9:42 pm | Permalink
Hey saskboy, what’s the easiest way to upload a short audio file?
Saskboy | 09-Mar-07 at 10:10 pm | Permalink
To where Tanya? Libsyn is for-pay, but youtube is free so long as you put the audio into video format using Windows Movie Maker in XP. Archive.org might also work, and if it’s really short, you can upload it to a blog host like wordpress.com which gives you 50MB room I think.
Tanya | 09-Mar-07 at 10:37 pm | Permalink
Well, I wanted to post Elizabeth’s May recent interview with Murray Wood on NewsTalk 650 on my blog. I was incredibly impressed by her and I am even contemplating supporting the Greens federally, although it would probably be better strategically to support the NDP in my riding. I would post a link to the talk 650 site but there is no direct link to the interview. Anyway, I know if any tech nerd out there can help ,me, it would be you. Or my sweetie, who is still working. I’ll see if I can figure out youtube.
Amanda | 12-Mar-07 at 12:01 am | Permalink
Its midnight, I’m irritable, and I wonder…. if more women knew that there weren’t safety nets to get them out of trouble caused by ill thought out decisions, like getting into relationships with abusers, would fewer women do it?
Coming from someone who HAS been in a very physically abusive relationship and left successfully with no family support…. I really don’t get it.
The country is entirely too reliant upon other people/institutions to get them out of tough situations which are largely their own doing.
On the other topic, the one about Big Oil which you seem to have a real bee in your bonnet about. If you were the capitalist producer of the most in demand substance in the world, aren’t you entitled to make a fair amount of money? And why doesn’t it make sense for a government to help out the expansion of something which, in the long term, will pay back their investment a couple times over in royalties revenue? It seems like good business sense to me.
This is aside from the obvious environmental issues. I don’t like the fact that our society is poisoning our planet. But from a purely capitalist point of view (and yes we DO live in capitalism right now) isn’t this chain of events a logical one? I don’t understand what the problem is.
Its safe to ignore me for the most part. I’m just a rambling opinionated blueblood. Whose husband broke a cocaine addiction by himself. Who has left an abusive relationship by herself. Who believes in fundamental responsibility of every individual human being on this planet to make wise choices for him or her self and to be strong enough to choose the best course of action. Otherwise, what the hell were we given free will for?
hazel | 12-Mar-07 at 1:46 am | Permalink
Nicely done. I was too disgusted to write anything coherent about this news item, I liked your take.
Hazel.
Saskboy | 12-Mar-07 at 9:39 am | Permalink
“if more women knew that there weren’t safety nets to get them out of trouble caused by ill thought out decisions, like getting into relationships with abusers, would fewer women do it?”
Unlikely, since few women in abusive relationships start out the first few minutes with the abuse they experience later. Boiled frog anyone?
“The country is entirely too reliant upon other people/institutions to get them out of tough situations which are largely their own doing.”
That’s why countries exist, to get people out of situations they alone can’t handle. If we had helpful neighbours everywhere we wouldn’t need social workers, but we live in an urbanized environment where you can’t know all of your neighbours, and many of them want nothing to do with you let alone to help you.
–
“If you were the capitalist producer of the most in demand substance in the world, aren’t you entitled to make a fair amount of money?”
Sure, but there’s a difference between RECORD profit, lots of profit, and just profit. One can be obscene, while the others put food on the table for everyone, and presents under the tree each year.
“But from a purely capitalist point of view (and yes we DO live in capitalism right now) isn’t this chain of events a logical one? I don’t understand what the problem is. ….
Who believes in fundamental responsibility of every individual human being on this planet to make wise choices for him or her self and to be strong enough to choose the best course of action.”
That’s the problem then isn’t it? Capitalism isn’t properly accounting for the Bads that the oil industry generates and distributes along with the Goods which make it very rich. If the Bads were included in the calculation, which would only be fair in an economy where personal responsibility is king, then the net good may be less than something that generates record profits. Where there is responsibility, there are consequences. Why are oil companies exempt from the consequences they wreak? We hold automakers responsible for shoddy cars. Why don’t we hold firearm, oil, tobacco, and other product makers responsible for things that kill people?
Maybe we shouldn’t, but it’s an interesting question, isn’t it?
Amanda | 12-Mar-07 at 12:04 pm | Permalink
Kinda like my theory on making the sale of illicit drugs punishable by death.
How can you be so against punishing the drug trade yet be so openly FOR punishing the oil industry, which fuels your car, drives your oranges from Florida to the grocery store, produced the plastic your keyboard is made from, and in many cases still heats homes thru the winter? I look around my home and see that I am a very strong supporter of BigOil just by the things I have around me. I’m not so much a supporter of the illicit drug trade. And I am pretty typical. So why aren’t we going after the evils of society that are *unnecessary* to the typical North American lifestyle first?
You can hoot and holler about destroying the oil industry based on all the evils it causes, but you better take a good hard look at what you’re giving up. Its not just gasoline.
Saskboy | 12-Mar-07 at 1:10 pm | Permalink
Amanda, I’m not out to destroy the oil industry, sheesh. It’s fairer to say that those in charge of it now are more out for destruction of their industry than I am. They’re proposing to extract and sell their finite resource at a rate 5 times what they are currently [barely] managing to pull off. The resource is about the most safe investment going, in that it is almost certain to rise in value by a lot over the next 25 years. To deplete a cash cow while the market is still low is not only short sighted, it’s destructive. We can’t possibly deal with the pollution extracting and burning their product creates, with current technology.
The drug trade doesn’t need to be made more efficient - the oil and gas industry does - in how it’s burned. That’s not up to the oil industry that’s up to government and the auto industry, and consumers. We don’t need illicit drugs, but we do need oil. The alternatives to recreational drugs are too numerous to mention, but the alternatives to oil are also something we should be focusing on. Until batteries are cheap as dirt, and solar energy or fusion is mainstream, we just won’t replace oil completely.
Hazel | 05-Oct-07 at 5:22 pm | Permalink
Hi Saskboy I was just reading through the comments here and noticed one of your readers is looking for a good file host for audio files.
I use fileden for some of my audio and video projects its free, easy and you can link to your audio files in any webpage. Google it to find it, and no I don’t own stocks or have any kind of relationship with the site, other than I use it, I like it.
Hope its helpful.
Ta!
Saskboy | 05-Oct-07 at 5:23 pm | Permalink
Thanks for the tip Hazel, I’ll leave a comment at Tanya’s site in case she wants it in the future.
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy » Blog Archive » Random Stuff of Great to Moderate to No Importance | 09-Mar-08 at 12:35 am | Permalink
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