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The 1st quarterof the year is over and yes, time flies so fast. It was just like yesterday when Ed Stelmach stepped down as Premier of Alberta when Alison Redford won the race last year and she became the 1st Woman Premier of Alberta in the political history. Now this coming April 23, 2012, we [...]
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MLAs Bhullar, Woo-Paw meet ethnic community leaders

Romeo Montoya, Jr.

Recognizing the fact that Calgary is a diverse city, Member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta Manmeet Bhullar together with his fellow MLA Teresa Woo-Paw deemed it wise to gather the leaders of different ethnic community groups in Calgary for a discussion forum Dec. 10, 2011 at the McDougall Centre.

Serving the constituents of Calgary-Montrose, Bhullar believes that “we need to have a diverse perspective,” and that it is imperative for the Government to re-engage itself with the grassroots community. In such way, the Government could focus on how it can serve and connect with the different ethnic groups in the City.

First issue to be raised was the healthcare system in Alberta. The ethnic group representatives in attendance were in unison that Alberta indeed owns one of the most outstanding healthcare systems in the world. However, Bhullar, himself, admitted that there are not enough practicing medical doctors in Alberta. Government’s budget priorities are healthcare and education, but Bhullar pointed out that the bulk of such budget goes to healthcare. He thought that not many young Albertans would like to take up Medicine in college. Further on healthcare, Bhullar emphasized that Premier Redford’s current stand is: “No private healthcare.” He even revealed that one of the Premier’s projected innovation is the putting up of “family healthcare clinics,” the idea of which is to serve as alternative to a typical emergency room. Hence, instead of taking a patient to the emergency room of a hospital, these strategically located family healthcare clinics would be equipped enough to receive patients under an emergency condition. He noted that each family healthcare clinic will be manned by all kinds of medical professionals – that regardless of the nature of the illness of the patient, it would not be necessary to go to a specialist or a particular hospital, say a mental health institution.

Greatly discussed during the forum were the immigration concerns, such as skills and education accreditation, professional recognition, language benchmarks and employment opportunities. Ethnic group representatives reiterated the perennial issue on the difficulty for immigrants to find a job that matches their skills and professional experiences. While undeniably, there are significant differences between the educational system of Canada and that of the immigrants’ home country, representative-leaders pointed out that these immigrants, particularly those under the skilled workers class, were given immigrant status through the Canada Immigration system because they were at least college graduates, had at least three years of professional experience, and had at least good knowledge of the English language. While both Bhullar and Woo-Paw maintained that immigration concerns are mostly of federal regulation, Woo-Paw specifically said that “most employers are very pleased with the services of the working immigrants,” particularly Filipinos. However in the case of those who come to Canada under work visa, she made it clear that “as much as many employers would want these temporary foreign workers to continue working with them, they cannot do so. Work visa does not come with a promise of granting permanent resident status, Woo-Paw reiterated.

Bhullar said that there will be more discussion forums, and that it would be better if more ethnic communities would come to participate. Noticeably, only Filipino community leaders were in attendance, representing the groups, namely, Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWWA), Calgary Catholic Immigrant Society (CCIS), Philippine Cultural Centre Foundation (PCCF), Mabuhay Calgary and Pinoy Times.

MLAs Bhullar, Woo-Paw meet ethnic community leaders

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