While the government has asked for input from Albertans on how provincial labour laws could apply to farm and ranches, MLA Rick Strankman, has concerns about the process.
    On March 6, the Alberta government put a call out to Albertans to provide input into the contentious legislation.
    In May of last year, the government formed six working groups to develop recommendations on how employment standards, labour relations and Occupations Health and Safety (OH&S) requirements could be applied to the agriculture industries.
    Two of those technical working groups; one on Employment Standards and one on Labour Relations have submitted their reports and they are available for public scrutiny and feedback.
    One of the concerns that MLA Strankman has is that the committees themselves did not have majority representation from the agriculture industry.
    ‘There are only two of them reporting, of the six,” he said. “Dave Schneider, the new Agriculture and Forestry Critic did ask a question on how they were going to be coming forward with that.
    “If the input they receive is not necessarily to the government’s liking, how will they adjudicate the results they got, or will they just go ahead and do whatever the heck they want.”
    “We are wondering whether the input will be heard.
    He said despite this, he encourages people to look at the recommendations.
    “You have to encourage people to try. We won’t know until the results are public,” he said
    He adds that because the government is asking for input from Albertans, many who are not directly involved in the agriculture can respond.
    The other four working groups, including two reviewing existing requirement and exceptions of OH&S, as well as OH&S best practices for agriculture, and OH&S on education training and certifications are expected to report in the near future. The government will begin drafting legislative amendments based on the public feedback it receives.
 Strankman says the OH&S recommendations may be the most contentious parts.
    “That will probably be the most onerous one,” he said.

    A woman who has dedicated nearly 40 years to making the lives of seniors in the community better, is retiring after a long, rewarding career.
    Maxine Watkin has worked in recreation therapy for seniors in Drumheller since 1977. At the end of the month, she will be retiring.  
    “If I would have stayed until July, I would have worked 40 years in recreation,” she chuckles.
    Her job is important to the hospital and the long-term residents.
    “What we do is try to improve the lives of the long-term residents there,” she explains. “We do many things, from mental aerobics to exercises to playing noodle hockey to baking. We try to cover all the domains. Our goal is to try to make life better for those people and fill in their time.”
    On Monday, they were hosting a pizza party for lunch.
    She began her career after graduating in 1965 as a certified nursing aid. She came to Drumheller on one of her postings.  Here she met her husband Dave and they were married. They left the valley a few years later for Red Deer and then Calgary, where she worked at the Baker Sanatorium.
    When Dave was transferred back to Drumheller, she began work in acute care. Shift work can be difficult for a young parent and she jumped when there was a chance to get into recreation.
    “In 1977, I transferred over to the recreation program, I was lucky to get in there,” she said.
    This was at the very beginning of providing recreation for seniors, and they were charting new territory.
    She says it is very rewarding work.
    “My goal was to always treat them the way I would want to be treated, or my parents or loved ones. Over the 40 years, a lot of the residents I have known, I also had their parents as clients,” she said. “It hasn’t really been work, it has been a pleasure to be there. I love my work, so it was easy.”
    She adds that it can be a very emotionally taxing job.
    ‘You get close to them and then you lose them, or you see them with their health deteriorating.  Years ago I heard ‘you have to go to work, and then you leave it there when you go home.’ That’s hard.”
    It will also be a difficult day on the 31st. She says adding she is surrounded by great co-workers.
       “I work with a wonderful team of girls and that has made life easy for me too. When you spend five days out of seven with them, I will really miss them when I retire.”
     As for retirement, she plans on working more in the garden and spending more time with Dave.
    “We are always proud of our yard,” she said.