A hearty and warm welcome to 2023 to all of our incredible members. I hope you all came through the holiday season mostly intact and as rested and recharged as possible and you had some great time to celebrate with family and friends.
While for many Albertans, the holiday season allows for shut downs and time away from work, you all continued to be open and available and while you may not get accolades for that, I stand and applaud your efforts to serve those in need, no matter the time of year.
Your board continued to work hard throughout the last couple of months, being active with many meetings surrounding the Funeral Benefits put in place by the Seniors, Community and Social Services (SCSS) Ministry, most importantly, a second meeting with the Minister as well as a couple meetings with the Deputy Minister, who seems to have the ability to enact actual positive changes to the program for the benefit of all Albertans…not only those in need, but also for those who serve them.
I am happy to report that we seem to be making actual measurable progress in this issue with the Ministry, which could not have been accomplished without our lobbyist.
While I continue to sing the praises of the progress the AFSA executive has had with the SCSS funeral benefits contract, I have been remiss in explaining how these wins have actually come because of our partnership with our lobbyist, Alberta Counsel.
I cannot say enough about the incredible job the lobbyist we retained has been doing for us. My focus has been telling you all the good news about the meetings we have been getting, the progress we are making, the doors that are opening, without explaining how this is happening. Without our lobbyist we would still be stuck in what was described to us as “executive director hell” yelling at the clouds and making no actual progress.
An “off the record” meeting set up by our lobbyist with a staffer within the ministry early in the game has turned in to getting us meetings with many UCP MLA’s to plead our case. The last couple of months have been an absolute whirlwind of meetings, discussions, advocacy, and actual progress. What our lobbyist has been able to do for us has been nothing short of incredible. Once we moved past the education aspect of what we actually required in this partnership, Alberta Counsel had our messaging holstered and ready to go, and we have been put in front of at least a dozen UCP MLA’s throughout the Province to plead our case.
SCSS and the funeral benefits team continue to tow the ministry line of “Albertans Want Choices” and while that’s what brought around the change to the program, we continue to challenge them with how the current benefit program actually limits Albertans choices even more. This board has stuck to their guns with our ask of how to make the program work best for everyone and our lobbyist has assisted in ensuring that message continues to be first and foremost within the government. We also learned that after each time we have met with a UCP MLA, they are bringing our concerns to the Minister during caucus meetings which makes the Minister explain himself each and every time it’s brought up. He’s not enjoying that part, but also smiled and said that our message is definitely getting through.
Your board is also working hard to bring you all another wonderful Convention and AGM in April in Edmonton at the River Cree Resort and Casino, full of many great speakers, opportunities to network and interact with our fellow colleagues and to have a whole lot of fun for a couple of days.
I can’t wait to see you all there.
Thanks again for all you do for Albertans in need and as always, I find it such a privilege to call myself a part of this group of talented and respected funeral professionals in Alberta.
Sincerely,
Eden C. Tourangeau
President
Alberta Funeral Service Association
