Albertans Split On Healthcare Reforms

Toronto, ON - As the Premiers gather for their "Council of The Federation" meeting in Niagara On The Lake, Ontario in order to prepare for a September meeting with the Prime Minister to hammer-out healthcare reforms, a new poll released today conducted among Albertans indicates that Premier Ralph Klein - who is often labelled as the Premier most likely to challenge the Federal Government with more private initiatives in the healthcare system - only enjoys split and mostly tepid support from his electorate for what is known about his approach to reforming Canada's healthcare system.

A poll conducted for CTV and the Globe and Mail and released today indicates that when asked to determine, based on what they know, who they think has a better approach to reforming Canada's healthcare system, 43% of Albertans believe that Premier Ralph Klein has the best approach as opposed to 39% who choose Prime Minister Paul Martin's approach - with 18% who "don't know".

During the recent Federal election campaign the healthcare issue became a centrepiece for the federal Liberals and in the final days of the campaign Mr. Klein's ruminations suggested that he might be looking at some changes to healthcare delivery in the province of Alberta. This follows on an Alberta Legislature MLA task-force report, referred to as the Graydon Report, that was appointed by Mr. Klein in February of 2002 and which recently submitted their recommendations. The report suggested, among other things, the potential introduction of user-fees, healthcare deductibles based on the ability to pay, and annual statements sent to Albertans on the cost of their healthcare system. Mr. Klein has acknowledged that he is open to looking at private options and potentially scrapping healthcare-premiums in favour of direct taxes for healthcare and has indicated that he will set-up a consultative process with Albertans on healthcare this fall.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted from July 22nd to July 26th, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 667 adult Albertans was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Albertan population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Alberta population according to the 2001 Census data
43% Of Albertans Believe Ralph Klein's Reforms For Health Care Are Better Than Martin's... When asked to determine from what they have seen, read or heard, who they think has a better approach to reforming Canada's healthcare system, 43% of Albertans indicate that Premier Ralph Klein has the best approach compared to 39% who choose Prime Minister Paul Martin's approach - with 18% who "don't know".

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• Those most likely to believe that Mr. Klein has the better approach to reforming Canada's healthcare system are residents of Calgary (51%), followed closely by residents of Southern Alberta (49%), Northern Alberta (42%), Central Alberta (41%), and Edmonton (35%). 183
• Those most likely to believe that Mr. Martin has the better approach to reforming Canada's healthcare system reside in Edmonton (48%), followed by Northern Alberta (39%), Calgary (35%), Central Alberta (33%), and Southern Alberta (25%). 183
• Mr. Klein's approach is more popular among Albertans with an annual household income of $30,000 or more than among Albertans with an annual household income of less than $30,000 (47% vs. 29%).

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Darrell Bricker, PhD
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900