Does Alberta Health Services care

Re:”Little Bow Continuing Care Centre” letter from Ian Donovan, MLA:
There’s a remarkable irony in this appeal regarding the closure of a care centre in the village of Carmangay, population 367. For the record, I’m sure we all feel sympathy for the long-term residents who will be forced to move away from all things familiar.
Having said that, please consider our own situation. Chestermere has a population of over 15,000, large enough to be a city, and not one facility for continuing or long term care provided by the province, in spite of efforts by the town, particularly Community Services, and the Chestermere Regional Housing Initiative.
The reason? There seem to be two of them: The “powers that be” seem to think that because we are near Calgary, we can try to get space in a facility there. And here’s the irony: in spite of our population, those in need of help are in the same position as the village of Carmangay–forced to move away from all things familiar.
The other reason is a numbers criteria that seems inflexible and won’t be met for many years. We have a senior population of just over 4% each time a census is taken, regardless of population. The cause is very obvious. Each year some of our older residents are forced to leave Chestermere, the town we love, to get the health care they need. One day soon, the boomers will increase the percentage of seniors, and where will they go for care? It takes time to build these facilities. But in the meantime, there are very few of us old folks left, and we’ll all be gone by then.
So I’m sorry about the treatment of Carmangay, population 367. But who cares about the treatment of Chestermere, population 15,352?
Is there any other town in Alberta with our population and no senior services?
Does Alberta Health Services care?
Apparently not.
Elaine Peake.