Article 692PG Star analysis counts ‘staggering’ ER closures + Danielle Smith strikes a nerve with oil well cleanup plan

Star analysis counts ‘staggering’ ER closures + Danielle Smith strikes a nerve with oil well cleanup plan

by
Manuela Vega - Toronto Star
from on (#692PG)
_1_main_emergency_room.jpg

Good morning. This is the Tuesday, Feb. 21 edition of First Up, the Star's daily morning digest. Sign up to get it earlier each day, in your inbox.

Here's the latest on emergency department closures in Ontario, Danielle Smith's contentious plan to clean up oil wells and the rise of reverse mortgages.

DON'T MISS:

A Star analysis revealed a staggering" number of emergency department closures

Across 24 hospitals - primarily serving rural areas - the province has seen 158 emergency department closures in the past year, a Star analysis shows. Most closures have lasted between 12 and 14 hours, but several have gone on for 24 hours. One hospital's ED shuttered for more than a month. Together, the closures amount to some 4,430 hours - 184 days - of urgent care needs of many communities not being met locally, Kenyon Wallace reports. Here's a closer look at the impact of staffing shortages on emergency care.

  • Context: The scale of emergency department closures we've seen in the last year is completely unprecedented. There has never been anything remotely close to this," said the executive director of a non-partisan public health-care watchdog. These closures are, without question, a risk to the lives and health of people. No one can deny that."

  • More: The number of days an emergency department is ever closed should be zero," said a long-time emergency physician and the president of the Ontario Medical Association.

Danielle Smith's new cleanup plan is striking a nerve

As Alberta's oil industry grew, it became increasingly common for oil companies to announce they would be putting equipment in someone's field, yard or town. Residents have often been left with little choice but to concede. Now, the province is littered with aging equipment that companies have left behind after going bankrupt, or deciding it's cheaper to just keep paying rent for wells, or simply abandoning it. But Premier Danielle Smith's cleanup plan isn't going over well. Alex Boyd reports on how it threatens the social contract upon which modern Alberta is built.

  • Context: Smith's new $100 million pilot project would reward companies who clean up wells that are at least 20 years old by giving them a future royalty credit. This means they would have to give less of their future profits back to the province.

  • Why it matters: Critics say the plan essentially pays companies to do what they're already legally obligated to. They also criticize it for using royalties, which are meant to compensate all Albertans for the exploitation of their natural resources.

Reverse mortgages are on the rise, but are they the right choice?

More and more homeowners - especially seniors - who are experiencing a cash-flow crunch are turning to reverse mortgages to make ends meet. But the plan, which allows those 55 or older to access a portion of equity of their home in the form of a loan, carries higher interest rates than a typical mortgage or secured line of credit. It doesn't have to be repaid until the lender sells their home or dies. Clarrie Feinstein reports on the other options experts say are worth exploring first and how reverse mortgages can affect inheritances.

  • By the numbers: In December 2022, reverse mortgages rose by 35 per cent year over year, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

  • The aftermath: With a reverse mortgage, a 75-year-old who has a home worth $1.5 million can access $645,000 in funds but must pay $253,000 in interest over a five-year period.

WHAT ELSE:

POV:

Doug Ford is warning against a lefty" mayor, but Toronto voters have experienced the ramifications of conservative governance for 12 years.

YOU'RE-UP:

NORTH YORK: When we asked First Up readers to send us their view of the sunrise, Sofia Ngo-Trong sent us this snap of the cityscape she captured on Feb. 14. Yonge Street buildings can be seen along the skyline from the balcony of her 20th floor condo.

Thank you for reading First Up. You can reach me and the First Up team at firstup@thestar.ca

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.

Manuela Vega is a Toronto-based digital producer for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @_manuelavega

External Content
Source RSS or Atom Feed
Feed Location https://www.thespec.com/rss/article?category=news&subcategory=local
Feed Title
Feed Link https://www.thespec.com/
Reply 0 comments