Michener Centre closure halted, residents allowed to return

Premier Jim Prentice said Friday that the government will stop plans to close a facility for people with developmental disabilities in Red Deer.

It's the latest in a week of announcements reversing decisions made by the province's previous cabinet.

The provincial government decided to close the Michener in March 2013, and said it would transfer all residents into community homes by December.

"All of the residents will be permitted to live out their remaining years in this special place," Prentice said.

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Prentice said that he had visited the facility over the summer and was "moved" by what he found.

He said the 46 residents who had been moved from the facility will have the option to return if they wished, saying they could spend the rest of their lives at the centre.

"All residents who choose to stay here will be allowed to stay here and the Michener Centre will not close to them," he said.  

Closure put patients at risk, group says

For many of the families of Michener Centre patients, Prentice's announcement brought relief. 

Lee Kvern's sister Jody has been living at the facility for 42 years. When the government announced the closure, Kvern had no backup plan. 

"I'm thrilled that [Prentice] didn't do half measures," Kvern said. "He extended the invitation for everybody that's left the Michener to come back and for people to stay at the Michener and enjoy their golden years. 

"This is above and beyond anything I could have expected. I'm thrilled for my sister and her 80 remaining peers here."

There have been calls for an investigation into how residents of the Michener Centre are transitioned out of the facility.

The Friends of the Michener Centre, a group fighting to keep the Red Deer centre open, say five of the 41 people transferred out of the facility have died in the last four months.

Opposition MLAs had called on the province to halt patient transfers after the claims that several resident died since they were moved.

"While I'm appreciative today – and the victory goes to the families who fought for this – this decision could have been made right so many, many months ago," said Kerry Towle with the Wildrose Party.

"None of this had to happen," agreed the NDP's David Eggen. "We had to go through a huge transition on the PC side just to do the right thing here on the Michener side."

Week of reversals

The move to keep the Michener Centre open marks the third time in Prentice's first week as premier that he has announced a complete reversal on controversial decisions by the last Progressive Conservative cabinet. 

On Tuesday, a day after being sworn in, Prentice said the government would sell the fleet of planes that it used for MLA travel. Allegations had been made for over a decade of misuse of the fleet, including accusations of ministers using it for personal benefit or partisan gain. 

Outrage around the use of the aircraft reached a high point directly before the resignation of former premier Alison Redford. 

Prentice said on Thursday the province would also scrap plans for a controversial redesign Alberta's licence plates, which would have seen the "Wild Rose Country" slogan dropped. 

Instead, the province will keep the old design with possible modifications to make the plates easier to spot for police.