No help for amputee in the richest province in Canada

[JLM]

Is it understandable if poor provinces reneg on WBC and don't supply promised social services? The comment about this taking place in Alberta confuses me.

I think the news said Pincher Creek, so don't understand the confusion!

 

[karrie]

I think the news said Pincher Creek, so don't understand the confusion!

Ah, so you're going to claim your wording of no help in the richest province, meant nothing. Gotcha.

 

[JLM]

Ah, so you're going to claim your wording of no help in the richest province, meant nothing. Gotcha.

No, I meant that there is very little excuse for leaving this poor guy in need in a land of plenty. To play Devil's advocate, let's say he was guilty of squandering/fraud whatever, you still feed him and sort it out later. You can still throw him in jail but once he''s dead from starvation there's not much one can do!

 

[karrie]

No, I meant that there is very little excuse for leaving this poor guy in need in a land of plenty. To play Devil's advocate, let's say he was guilty of squandering/fraud whatever, you still feed him and sort it out later. You can still throw him in jail but once he''s dead from starvation there's not much one can do!

I still don't get what the wealth of the province has to do with it. All people in all provinces should be covered. These programs are paid for, they're sitting right there. The program possesses no more or no less wealth for him to partake of simply because its in Alberta.

 

[JLM]

I still don't get what the wealth of the province has to do with it. All people in all provinces should be covered. These programs are paid for, they're sitting right there. The program possesses no more or no less wealth for him to partake of simply because its in Alberta.

Yes, Karrie the same thing would apply if it happened in Saskatchewan or New Brunswick, but it didn't so I don't quite get your point. But if it happened in Bangladesh it might be understandable.

 

[petros]

If he's not on WBC and not on AISH, were is he getting rent money from?

Yes, Karrie the same thing would apply if it happened in Saskatchewan or New Brunswick,

We aren't poor like BC either.

 

[JLM]

If he's not on WBC and not on AISH, were is he getting rent money from?
We aren't poor like BC either.

We are not that poor either, we were probably just as rich as you guys 20 years ago until the lumber industry went for a sh*t and the environmentalists got half the mines shut down!

As for the rent perhaps he's one of many who every month has to decide who gets paid, the grocer or the landlord.

 

[petros]

We are not that poor either, we were probably just as rich as you guys 20 years ago until the lumber industry went for a sh*t and the environmentalists got half the mines shut down!

As for the rent perhaps he's one of many who every month has to decide who gets paid, the grocer or the landlord.

He'd easily qualify for AISH or income suppliments if he didn't have any other income . He's getting paid from from somewhere.

BC will do well again soon when NG pipelines and the LNG terminal at Asia Pacific Gateway are in place.

 

[karrie]

Personally, I don't know the guy, can't find his story online, so I'm not going to sit around and spend days going through all the ways his situation 'could' be, whose fault, etc.

He got maimed at work. He's having trouble getting Wcb. He got stuck in the christmas vacation gridlock that every workplace suffers from the sound of it. Now, he's found the right channels to push his issue, and he's getting the advocate he hopefully deserves.

He's not unique. There are easily a dozen people like him in every province across this country. Less intelligent, less equipped to seek an advocate. They all deserve care, and they deserve it regardless of the wealth their province possesses. These sorts of programs need a better system in place to catch emergency calls at critical times like holidays, cold snaps, etc.

 

[Chev]

First of all blaming the Alberta Government bureaucracy is not exactly the answer here.
A disagreement with Workers Comp is a different matter entirely, There is an over all
administration of regulation but not the running of the program by Government.
Workers Comp in Alberta as in other jurisdictions is agency financed and for the most
part administered by Employers who pay for the fund. His problem is with Workers Comp.
People involved with workers comp are not dealing with government.
In most cases one can apply to human resources for interim assistance but that does not
always work out it is based on individual cases.

Here is a situation that comes back to haunt some people.. Those who claim the governments
waste tax dollars. Government employees put workers comp cases to additional scrutiny as
they don't want double dipping either. People can't have it both ways, save money and down
grade programs and when there is not enough money howl that someone is being abused by
the system.

We don't know the whole story and what has transpired, or whether the applicant was entitled
to Workers Comp. We insist there are too many employees in these positions making too much
money and when they cut back people howl there is not enough service to activate and to
investigate claims. If there were enough experienced well paid people still on staff at Workers
Comp or in the Human Resources Ministry perhaps this case could have been dealt with in a
timely manner. Oh I suppose this is another left response, true but people wanted less government
and less bureaucracy and now they don't like the fact there is not enough people to do the job.

1 Is there something we don't know?
2 Did he qualify for coverage?
3 What were all the circumstances of the accident?
4 Who is ultimately responsible for handling the claim?
5 Are there too many or not enough people there to do the job?
6 When did he start looking for emergency funding?

That is the big one, anything centered around a Comp claim is going to hold up the claim for
quite a while.

And how did he survive on the rest of the year? Very important question.. "When did he start looking for emergency funding?" Did he just start 'last week'?. Human Services asked him to call a 1-800 emergency line over the weekend (Did he just start maybe even Friday 21st.)

 

[JLM]

He'd easily qualify for AISH or income suppliments if he didn't have any other income . He's getting paid from from somewhere.

I think there is an excellent chance you are right, Petros, I just pasted the news report, being careful not to read anything else into it. If it turns out he is the bastard we think he might be, there's another day to even the score.

 

[petros]

These sorts of programs need a better system in place to catch emergency calls at critical times like holidays, cold snaps, etc.

Even in the not busy times you'd get the same response. Go to a soup kitchen or shelter until your intake date.

I think there is an excellent chance you are right, Petros, I just pasted the news report, being careful not to read anything else into it. If it turns out he is the bastard we think he might be, there's another day to even the score.

Falling short if receiving private insurance payments doesn't make him a bastard, he or media isn't giving the whole picture.

 

[karrie]

I think there is an excellent chance you are right, Petros, I just pasted the news report, being careful not to read anything else into it. If it turns out he is the bastard we think he might be, there's another day to even the score.

Not every story needs someone to be the bastard. He can simply be a person stuck in a bureaucratic tangle, in a province like every other province.

It doesn't need to be someone's nefarious doing. There doesn't need to be some inherent plan to hoard wealth. There doesn't need to be some plan on his part to screw the system. It could just be a guy, in a system that needs tweaking.

 

[petros]

Not every story needs someone to be the bastard. He can simply be a person stuck in a bureaucratic tangle, in a province like every other province.

It doesn't need to be someone's nefarious doing. There doesn't need to be some inherent plan to hoard wealth. There doesn't need to be some plan on his part to screw the system. It could just be a guy, in a system that needs tweaking.

If it's just food he is after there are sources 365 days a year which he would have been directed to. Nobody goes hungry if they just show up where told to go.

 

[JLM]

Not every story needs someone to be the bastard. He can simply be a person stuck in a bureaucratic tangle, in a province like every other province.

It doesn't need to be someone's nefarious doing. There doesn't need to be some inherent plan to hoard wealth. There doesn't need to be some plan on his part to screw the system. It could just be a guy, in a system that needs tweaking.

Guess what! - you could be absolutely right, bureaucracy creates a lot of sh*t!

 

[damngrumpy]

I am not saying he is a bastard or cheating the system its just that there is a problem here
in that there is no time line as to when the bureaucratic problem started. When did he start
the appeal process. I also agree that social service agencies should have been involved
long before now. Again when did he first apply for said assistance when it became evident
there was a WCB problem.
I have never liked WCB and I have never met anyone who had a pleasant experience dealing
with them. All too often people simply believe you file the papers and get paid that never and
I mean never happens. I do feel for the guy no one should be on the brink of starvation but I
also wonder how the circumstance came about and when the client initiated the process.
Those are valid questions as it gives us a picture of what actually happened to date.

 

[DurkaDurka]

We should all be ashamed for this

 

[petros]

Nahhhh he still has another foot if he is truly hungry.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Nahhhh he still has another foot if he is truly hungry.

I have ate only one foot, and that was during the war on terror. I actually ate Donald Rumsfiels's left biggy.

 

[Chev]

I realize maybe he was 'panicking' (or felt the need to panic). "He says he tried the number multiple times without any success." Was he put on "hold for the next available representative"? (Probably get that on any 1-800 number.) Did he have any patience? Or did he hang up and soon as he heard the message, dial again? As soon as you hang up, you lose your place ‘in queue’; call back and you’re at the end of the line again. It’s called patience. We even get put on hold when we phone our help line at work. Sometimes it’s a couple minutes, it could be 25-30 minutes. My other question is why did he wait till what appears to be the last minute to request help from another agency? (Human Services) or otherwise? He had to have known
long before last week he was going to need help. Has nothing to do with living in Alberta,
he could be living anywhere.