Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 27

ALBERTA IL 11 IL UU IB EDMONTON JOURNAL THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2006 B7 NDP wants province to increase wind power Waiting in the wings KELLY CRYDERMAN Provincial Affairs Writer EDMONTON Alberta should be working to increase wind-power usage so that it supplies 15 per cent of Alberta's electricity needs, the NDP says. Edmonton-Calder MLA Dave Eggen says the government has no plans to limit the use of coal or natural gas, but the government-created corporation the Alberta Electric System Operator that regulates Alberta's power grid maintains the current system can only handle having 10 per cent of Alberta's electricity generated by wind power. "The bias of this government toward coal generation is well known," Eggen said in the legislature Wednesday. The Alberta Electric System Operator says that wind development is a success story for Alberta, but it has to restrict the amount of wind electricity let onto the grid because it is such a volatile source of energy. Electricity suddenly comes on stream when the wind blows and just as suddenly drops when the wind dies.

That can affect the reliability of the whole interconnected electricity grid. "It comes on fast and it comes off relatively quickly, and you can't predict it with a lot of precision," said Nancy Janes, a spokeswoman for the electric system operator. Janes said the organization is working on plans to deal with wind-power "variability" and how it can be mitigated. About three per cent of Alberta's electricity comes from wind generation, with all turbine centres located in windy southern Alberta. Thatthree per cent generates about 300 megawatts, enough to supply three cities the size of Red Deer.

By late 2007, it's expected that about eight per cent of Alberta's electricity will come from wind generation. Wind-energy developers want that figure increased above 10 per cent, Eggen said. Energy Minister Greg Melchin said Alberta has more wind generation than any other province in the country. kcrydermanta thejournal.canwest.com THE CANADIAN PRESS a face Wednesday at classmates, from left, Jaxon Doram, Stephen Toner and Oliver Landry prior to their performance Ethan Jackson, right, makes in tne Let bridge nay and Learn preschool annual circus. The children put on the show for their parents, featuring traditional circus acts.

Preaching message of patient safety Making hospitals safer mandate of new Edmonton-based institute wins we have out there," Hassen said. "We're saving lives." I Getting appropriate care to people after they've had a heart attack. Currently, Hassen said, only about half of heart attack patients get the right post-attack care. I Correct handling of medications. I Preventing infections in central lines, tubes in very sick patients used to give medications or food.

Preventing wound infections after surgery. An important part of this, Hassen said, is giving the patient an antibiotic just before surgery. Preventing pneumonia in patients using ventilators to breathe. Hassen said hospitals that have adopted the new guidelines have seen dramatic drops in pneumonia. Building the agency means constant travel for Hassen.

Last year, he spent three weeks out of four on the road. It also means relationship building. For example, the safety institute is going to share a research director with Capital Health and the University of Alberta. Hassen already has lots of connections. He was an executive at Foothills Hospi SUSAN RUTTAN journal Health VVrfer EDMONTON Phil Hassen left an agency with a $32-billion budget for one with an $8-million budget, but he's not complaining.

"I love it," said the CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute during an interview from his 14th-floor downtown Edmonton office. "In some ways I've had more influence in this new job than I did before." Before moving here in January 2005 to head up the new safety institute, Hassen was Ontario's deputy health minister, with a giant departmental budget. His job now is to parlay a small agency 18 Edmonton staff, plus four more in an Ottawa office into a national player by building alliances and preaching the message of patient safety. The preaching seems to come naturally to the 60-year-old Hassen. He's particularly excited that the institute is helping co-ordinate a grassroots movement of Canadian doctors and nurses, called Safer Healthcare Now, to improve safety in hospitals.

Banff Lake Summer tal in Calgary in the 1980s, became CEO of Vancouver's health region, then moved to Ontario in 2002. The safety institute sponsors conferences, publishes a journal on safety initiatives and funds research. Last year, its first year, it gave $1.9 million to 28 projects. It's also looking at developing an adverse-events reporting system, so that medical mistakes will be known and analysed. The model, said Hassen, is the airline industry, which doesn't waste time blaming pilots but studies each crash to learn how avoid another one.

The agency's Edmonton location likely has political roots. Michael Decter, chairman of the Health Council of Canada, saidinaspeech Wednesday that Capital Health CEO Sheila Weatherill and former federal health minister Anne McLellan "deserve a lot of credit for having it here." What does the new Harper government thinkof the patient safety institute? Hassen isn't sure, but he's hoping to convince federal Health Minister Tony Clement his former Ontario boss to boost the agency's funding. $ruttan thejournal.canwest.com TheWestin I CALGARY 3 your spirit LARRY WONG. THE JOURNAL Phil Hassen, CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute "This program is unbelievable," he said. "It's all voluntary.

Even the physicians who are helping us set the standards and guidelines they're not being paid a thing for it." Safer Healthcare Now has six target areas for improvement: I Using a rapid response team to help a deteriorating patient, rather than waiting until the patient "codes," or stops breathing, to call for the team. A pilot project at the Rockyview Hospital in Calgary reduced the number of cardiac arrests by 40 per cent by deploying these new teams. "I think it's one of the big Louise the heavenly starting from Festival i subject to availability through Sunday, some paring hip with renew call or visit package $139 includes: breakfast in bed for two self-parking late check out at 3:00 pm Two sets of human remains found near Gleichen Calgary Herald CALGARY The RCMP are investigating two sets of human remains found Wednesday in separate locations near Gleichen. Police will use dogs to help search both scenes today. So far, investigators don't know how old either set of remains is or if foul play was involved.

"They'll do a grid search to try and find anything of evidentiary value," RCMP SgL Patrick Webb said. "We've got nothing to say there's any connection between the two." A farmer working in his fields near Mossleigh, 50 kilometres southeast of Calgary, made the first discovery at about 9 a.m. While RCMP investigators were out at the Mossleigh scene, boaters on the Bow River about 20 kilometres to the northeast called police after spotting skeletal remains on the riverbank. The second set of remains are on the Siksika Nation, and although it's possible they may have surfaced from a gravesite, police said they have to thoroughly investigate both findings until foul play is ruled out "We can always backoff "Webb said. insido for your 1-866-716-8102 for more information www.westin.comcalgary Get more information on Banff Lake Louise and upcoming events at CelebrateLifeInTheRockies.com and does not include applicable taxes, valid only friday restrictions may apply, based on double occupancy.

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