SENIORS BETRAYED BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT, BY THEIR OWN ELECTED MLA’S.

Honourable Premier Ed. Stelmach named new Covenant Health Chair, is quoted as
“I have always had a tremendous interest in making sure we take care of the
most vulnerable”

Tragically, in 2002, the Operator Licensing & Vehicle Control Regulation of the Alberta
Traffic Safety Act, Alberta Regulation 320/2002, Section 16(2) was changed.
The change required that persons at age seventy-five & thereafter provide a
proof of medical examination prior to their license renewal.

The change, surreptitiously introduced the mass monitoring of senior drivers.
No fan fare, no press releases, not all MLA’s were informed, not even government
back benchers. It was not noted in Hansard,

The protocol, introduced to Physician’s Offices by the Primary Care Network,
was known as the SIMARD MD & DRIVEABLE PILOT PROJECT. This sophisticated,
financial elder abuse was promoted under the guise of research, science and safety.

Safe, seasoned drivers such as truckers have been misclassified by this pilot
project as unsafe drivers. Some have taken months or even years of financial &
emotional cost to re-establish their right to drive.

Collateral damage has been high. It has been reported that in 2014, over 8,000
Albertans lost their right to drive.

Physicians have benefited. A physician may bill Alberta Health Services, well in
excess of $200.00. for each senior tested. Up to $160.00 for medical assessment,
$75,00 for Simard MD and perhaps a bounty of $36.00, as in Ontario.
We are often told that the Medical consists of little more than a blood pressure,
eye check & perhaps the Simard MD.

We allege that at the time physicians were clamoring for a raise. We further
allege that the Honourable Mr. Klein, Honourable Ed Stelmach, Transportation
Minister & the executive committee creatively conceived the idea of the MASS
MONITORING OF SENIOR DRIVERS.The concept was made to effectively give a raise to
physicians, a raise given on the backs of seniors. Why else would you institute
mass testing of a group of drivers who pose no danger to road safety
(at great cost to us the taxpayers)?

According to Alberta Transportation statistics, seniors are the safest drivers on
Alberta roads. This is true across Canada. The fact that seniors are safe drivers,
has now been reinforced by the UNITED STATES INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY.
They stated that they were wrong in thinking that an older population would lead to
more accidents, just the reverse has happened. Published on February 14, 2014 by Joan
Lowy of the Associated Press.

Older Albertans are filled with trepidation & fear, having to undergo license renewal
because the process is not just. We receive calls from across the province, from anxious
Albertans, even before they make the appointment with their doctor for license renewal.

In this matter, seniors were betrayed by their own government, by their own elected MLA’s.

This is a story of wrong doing, of injustices of immeasurable proportions. Albertans have
been harmed, lives disrupted, had to relocate because of the perversity of those who
administer this protocol. One decent law abiding, tax paying man was told he could drive
only in Edmonton but not in rural Thorhild where his family farm was located. He had to
sell the farm.

Finally, for years the care of the most vulnerable has been sadly wanting. Given the known
track record of the past, what can we anticipate for the future?

February 17, 2016