Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the government is working hard to address backlogs in the court system. At the moment, Amery said Alberta is dealing with the lowest vacancy rates in the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service that it has ever had. “We are working closely with our courts to find ways to streamline cases,” said Amery on a Friday panel at the Alberta Municipalities Convention and Trade Show. “We introduced last legislative session a process by which we introduced a streamlined court civil trial case matter, and it allows for matters to move much more quickly through our court system.” To get cases moving faster, he said the Alberta government will be appointing more Provincial Court judges and has completed eight appointments so far this year. He added it is filling up courts with a full contingency of staff to ensure they are being as efficient as possible. He said it has spent a record amount on courthouses. One of the new courthouses it will be building soon is in Red Deer. He met with Red Deer city council on Thursday. He said he is proud of this project “because it is going to be absolutely revolutionary in this province.” Once the new courthouse in Red Deer opens, Amery said it will be a state-of-the-art, one-stop shop building and should make Albertans proud. Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association (ACAA) members ratified a new agreement with the Alberta government in 2022, making it the first of its kind in the province..First of its kind agreement ratified with Alberta Crown prosecutors.The agreement was the result of months of discussions and negotiations between the ACAA and Alberta Justice and Treasury Board and Finance.The Alberta government said it allows for market adjustments to take place in relation to Crown attorneys’ pay, commits to a one-year counselling pilot project, and defines the relationship between the ACAA and it. Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the government is taking a multi-pronged approach to solve rural healthcare issues. “Part of it was we were seeing gatekeeping happening both at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta as well as at Alberta Health Services,” said LaGrange. “And so we’ve reduced that gatekeeping by ensuring the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta now have opened up.” Prior to this March, only AHS could sponsor an international medical graduate. Now municipalities and clinics can. She said this increased the number of physicians. In the last year, Alberta has attracted 500 new doctors, and 226 of them are family physicians. To try to get new doctors to go to rural Alberta, she pointed out it will use incentivizes. While incentives exist now, she acknowledged it will look at additional ones to bring and attract more. She said the Alberta government will be using the new physician compensation model to help out. She confirmed it was close to reaching a deal. LaGrange concluded by saying the Alberta government will be announcing a rural health strategy that will help deal with labour shortages soon. The Alberta government said in April it has developed a new funding model for family and rural generalist doctors that encourages them to stay in primary care..UPDATED: Alberta government unveils new compensation model for family physicians .While the Alberta government is finalizing the details, it has agreed to a model that recognizes the unique work of family and rural generalist doctors. “It will be a new physician compensation model for family medicine and rural generalist physicians who are enumerated now through a fee for service or other alternative physician compensation model,” said LaGrange.
