Finding Solutions with Dan Albas

Dan Albas MP
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Government
  • Updated Semiweekly

Dan is the Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West- South Kelowna, in the Interior of beautiful British Columbia. In each episode of Finding Solutions, we sit down with the individuals—inside and outside Parliament—who are putting forward practical, thoughtful solutions. Not the headlines, not the noise, but the work: the ideas, the experience, and the perseverance behind efforts to make life better for Canadians across the country. danalbas.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    Finding Solutions: Tom Kmiec MP on Parliament's renewal, Alberta and Canada's future

    Tom Kmiec is the Member of Parliament for Calgary- Shepard and serves as Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. He arrived in Montreal as a four-year-old in 1985, after his father left Poland and the family waited two years to be reunited. He learned French and English by watching television, went to Polish school on Saturdays, and spent early mornings with his mom while she cleaned restaurant kitchens before opening. In this episode of Finding Solutions, we talk about how that story shaped a career in public policy. Tom has worked as a policy advisor in Alberta and for federal ministers in Ottawa. He explains why humility matters when governments design programs, and why he returns to Hernando de Soto’s The Mystery of Capital and the idea of the “fatal conceit.” Rules written for good reasons can end up doing the opposite over time. Equalization is a good example. We also go inside the work of the Deputy Speaker: welcoming foreign delegations, keeping the House running, and the massive rebuild of the Parliament buildings. Tom explains where the project stands, why Canadians should care about it, and how it will make the House more accessible to the public. From there the conversation turns to Alberta. Tom lays out the history of separation talk, why he is a pro-Canada voice, and what his constituents say when they ask for a better deal from Ottawa. He explains equalization in plain language and makes the case for removing the cap. He also shares his view on why Canada is slow to approve and reimburse new cancer drugs, and why a cost-per-life-year formula is an incomplete measure. We close on a lighter note, with Tom’s Yiddish proverbs and why he uses them as his hook in the House. In this conversation * Leaving communist Poland and growing up in Quebec * Learning English and French through television * Moving to Alberta and why it felt like a “can-do” place * Policy work in Alberta and Ottawa * Humility in government and the “fatal conceit” * Property rights and why clear ownership builds confidence * The role of the Deputy Speaker * Rebuilding Parliament: scope, cost and accountability * Alberta, separation and a better deal inside Canada * Equalization explained * Access to new drugs for rare diseases * Yiddish proverbs in the House of Commons Finding Solutions is hosted by Dan Albas MP, Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West - South Kelowna. Weekly reports and constituency information: https://danalbasmp.ca 24/7 toll-free: 1-800-665-8711 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Tom Kmiec MP on Parliament's renewal, Alberta and Canada's future

  2. Sep 28

    Finding Solutions: Jeff Kibble on readiness, recruiting, and parole reform

    Finding Solutions with Dan Albas MP, Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West - South Kelowna. Jeff Kibble, MP for Cowichan, Malahat, Langford and a 28-year Royal Canadian Navy veteran, joins Dan to talk defence procurement, Canadian Armed Forces readiness, and Bill C-235, legislation aimed at reducing repeated trauma for families of victims of the most heinous crimes. Guest bio Jeff Kibble, MP for Cowichan, Malahat, Langford (B.C.). Elected 2025 after 28 years in the Royal Canadian Navy (overseas deployments; commanded HMCS Oriole). Standing Committee on National Defence; Conservative Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement. Sponsor of Bill C-235, Respecting Families of Murdered and Brutalized Persons Act. * https://jeffkibble.ca/ * https://x.com/JeffKibbleCML * Bill: https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/c-235 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Jeff Kibble on readiness, recruiting, and parole reform

  3. Sep 25

    Finding Solutions: Kathy Bernard on skin cancer, advocacy, and access to care

    Guest Info: Kathy Bernard is the founder and president of the Save Your Skin Foundation, a national patient-led organization dedicated to skin cancer education, prevention, advocacy, and patient support. After receiving a metastatic malignant melanoma diagnosis in 2003 and navigating a complex healthcare journey, she built a national network to ensure no patient faces cancer alone.Website: saveyourskin.ca Episode Notes: When Kathy Bernard was diagnosed with metastatic malignant melanoma in 2003, she faced a reality familiar to far too many Canadians: a delayed diagnosis, limited public information, and a complex healthcare system with no clear roadmap for patients. After a year of treatments, she learned the cancer had spread to her lungs. Her path forward required leaving her home, family, and province to enter a clinical trial at Alberta’s Cross Cancer Institute. That clinical trial saved her life. Driven by her experience navigating out-of-province care, financial burdens, and systemic hurdles, Kathy vowed that no Canadian facing skin cancer would ever have to go through it alone. In 2006, she founded the Save Your Skin Foundation, starting with a personal 1-800 phone line that has since grown into a national support system providing education, advocacy, clinician mentoring, and direct financial support for patients. In this episode of Finding Solutions, Dan Albas sits down with Kathy to discuss the realities of patient self-advocacy, the “postal code lottery” in Canadian drug coverage and clinical trial access, healthcare equity in remote communities, and practical sun safety habits for everyone enjoying an active outdoor lifestyle in the Okanagan. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Kathy Bernard on skin cancer, advocacy, and access to care

  4. Sep 14

    Finding Solutions: Dr. John Bell on cancer immunotherapy and BioCanRx

    This episode is part of our ongoing Healthcare Solutions series. Dan Albas MP is joined by Dr. John Bell, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an internationally recognized leader in cancer immunotherapy. Over decades of work, Dr. Bell has helped advance research that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, and he has played a central role in building BioCanRx, Canada’s immunotherapy network. In this conversation, Dan and Dr. Bell discuss: • What still gets a career researcher out of bed excited about cancer science • How viruses, the immune system, and cancer research came together • Immunotherapy explained simply: a living therapy with memory • Hot and cold tumours, and efforts to help more patients respond • Why BioCanRx was created to move Canadian discoveries into clinical testing • CAR T-cell therapy made in Canada, access, cost, and treating patients closer to home • Collaboration across hospitals, researchers, charities, and industry • Policy, regulation, and the economic case for investing in life sciences • A hopeful, practical message for families facing a serious diagnosis Dr. Bell’s core point is straightforward: breakthroughs matter, but Canadians do better when researchers, clinicians, regulators, and governments work toward the same goal, getting effective treatments to patients faster, here at home. If this episode is useful, share it with someone who follows health innovation or is supporting a loved one through cancer care. Need to connect? https://danalbasmp.ca 24/7 toll-free: 1-800-665-8711 Constituency services: https://danalbasmp.ca/constituency-services/ Signup link for the weekly MP report: https://danalbasmp.ca/subscribe-to-the-mp-report/ Finding Solutions · Dan Albas MP This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Dr. John Bell on cancer immunotherapy and BioCanRx

  5. Sep 11

    Finding Solutions: Mayor Gord Milsom on building up West Kelowna

    On this edition of Okanagan Stories and Solutions, I sat down with West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom. With municipal elections coming this fall and Gord stepping down after eight years as mayor, this conversation looks past day-to-day headlines at how a community actually gets built, how local leaders navigate crisis, and what it means to put service above self. Watch our full conversation in the video above. From Kitchen Tables to City Hall Gord did not set out to run for office. He grew up in Dorval, Quebec, where his father served on city council. After earning a commerce degree, he built a 35-year career as a personal financial planner, helping local families budget, manage debt, and buy their first homes. When Gord and his wife moved their young kids from Vancouver to the Okanagan in the 1980s, he brought that service mindset into Rotary, minor hockey, and the food bank. Those decades across a desk taught him how to listen without judgment before proposing solutions, a skill that carried straight into local government. The 51-49 Vote and Building From Scratch In 2007, when the regional district could no longer administer the fast-growing west side, residents faced a referendum: join Kelowna across the lake, or incorporate on their own. The community chose independence by the narrowest of margins: 51% to 49%. Gord stepped forward to serve on that inaugural council. What the first mayor and six councillors inherited was daunting: 28,000 residents, one temporary administrator, no city hall, and a patchwork of rural roads and water systems never built to urban standards. As Gord recalls, the first few years were spent stacking master plans just to catch up: ”There was so many plans that we had to have a plan to manage those plans.” What We Cover in This Episode: Leading Through McDougall Creek: Roughly 10,000 residents evacuated and about 200 homes lost, with zero lives lost. Gord explains why operations must stay with trained fire and emergency personnel, while the mayor’s job is presence, supporting evacuated families, and steady communication. Partnership with Westbank First Nation: Why regular staff meetings and council-to-council respect with Chief Robert Louie and council matter for communities that share borders, roads, and services for generations. Winning Six More RCMP Officers: How West Kelowna, Peachland, WFN, our MLA, and I joined forces to end a decade-long shortfall in provincial rural policing. Unfinished Business: Why 70,000 west-side residents need a redundant power line placed underground, the push for Highway 97 interchanges at Boucherie and Westlake, and the need for local mental health facilities. Advice for Future Leaders: Gord’s practical counsel for anyone running this fall: listen to the community, support volunteers, and keep a balanced approach. Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West - South Kelowna. For weekly reports, constituency assistance, or to reach our office, visit [danalbasmp.ca](https://danalbasmp.ca) or call toll-free anytime at 1-800-665-8711. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Mayor Gord Milsom on building up West Kelowna

  6. Sep 8

    Finding Solutions: Erin Durant and Michael Barrett MP on the ALTO High-Speed Rail Project

    Erin Durrant shares how discovering that a proposed ALTO corridor could affect her rural property led her to examine the evolution of the project from the earlier High Frequency Rail initiative to the current high-speed rail proposal, now estimated at $60-$90 billion. She discusses concerns about the availability of project studies, proposed changes to federal expropriation procedures under Bill C-15, and the use of confidentiality agreements during project development. Michael Barrett MP discusses feedback he says he has received from constituents across Eastern Ontario, including concerns about impacts on farms, road access, emergency response, and environmentally sensitive areas such as the Rideau Canal and Frontenac Arch Biosphere. Erin DurantPublisher of The Canadian High-Speed Rail Files & Founder of Durant Barristers * Substack (The Canadian High-Speed Rail Files): * Profile: https://www.durantbarristers.com/erin-h-durant Background: Graduate of Queen’s Law School and former litigator at Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), one of Canada’s largest law firms. Founder of Durant Barristers, a litigation-focused boutique practice. A rural resident in the proposed Ottawa–Montreal ALTO corridor, she has applied her legal and investigative experience to independent research and analysis of the ALTO high-speed rail project. Michael Barrett MPMember of Parliament for Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands and Rideau LakesShadow Minister for Veterans Affairs * Website: https://michaelbarrettmp.ca Background: Former telecommunications lineman in the Canadian Armed Forces, serving domestically with the Regular Force Army and posted to CFB Edmonton. After returning to Ontario to raise a family, he served on municipal council in Edwardsburg Cardinal. First elected to the House of Commons in the 2018 by-election and re-elected since. He has become one of Parliament’s leading voices raising concerns about the ALTO high-speed rail project’s costs, consultation process, and impacts on farms, emergency services, and communities across Eastern Ontario. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Erin Durant and Michael Barrett MP on the ALTO High-Speed Rail Project

  7. Sep 4

    Finding Solutions: Louise Binder on faster access to new medicines

    On this episode of Finding Solutions, Dan continues the healthcare solutions series with Louise Binder, one of Canada’s most experienced patient advocates. Louise traces her path from HIV advocacy in the early 1990s, when the system moved too slowly to save lives, through co-founding the Canadian Treatment Action Council, to her current work as a health policy consultant with Save Your Skin Foundation, including travel and accommodation support so patients can reach treatments and trials they cannot get at home. They walk through Canada’s drug access maze from a patient’s point of view: Health Canada safety and efficacy review, health technology assessment, Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance price negotiation, and separate provincial formulary decisions, often run consecutively rather than at the same time. Louise argues that delay is not abstract. For cancer, each month without treatment can cut survival chances sharply, yet the full path from a drug entering Canada to first provincial reimbursement can stretch past two years. She also describes the “postal code lottery”: rural and remote patients shut out of urban-centred trials, and neighbours in different provinces facing different reimbursement outcomes for the same drug, which she says runs against the spirit of the Canada Health Act. The conversation turns to solutions Louise sees as practical, not impossible: concurrent rather than consecutive review; less siloed provincial drug, hospital, and physician budgeting; risk-sharing agreements and real-world evidence for innovative therapies; hub-and-spoke clinical trials and subcutaneous options that reduce travel; stronger funding and a real seat for patient organizations at every decision table; and support for changes so clinicians can access a patient’s full health information across the country. She welcomes much of the federal pharmaceutical and life sciences sector task force roadmap, especially overhauling drug review and modernizing clinical trials and research, while stressing that provinces must come on board and that money without accountability will not fix the problem. To learn more about Louise and the organizations she works with: - Save Your Skin Foundation: https://www.saveyourskin.ca/ - Team / Louise Binder bio: https://www.saveyourskin.ca/ourteam- Canadian Cancer Society: https://cancer.ca/ - BioCanRx (Canada’s immunotherapy network): BioCanRx | Canada’s Immunotherapy Network | Cancer Clinical Trials- Bill S-5, *Connected Care for Canadians Act* (Parliament of Canada): https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/s-5 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Louise Binder on faster access to new medicines

  8. Aug 31

    Finding Solutions: Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard on Anti-Civilization and the common good

    On this episode of Finding Solutions, Dan sits down with Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard, one of a rising generation of Quebec public intellectuals. They begin with life in Quebec City and how his experiences placed culture and belonging at the heart of political life. The episode traces his path from answering constituent mail as an 18-year-old to speechwriting for the Premier of Quebec, authoring three books on Quebec identity, history, and politics, before taking on some of our country’s most pressing issues as a policy researcher at Cardus. The core of the conversation focuses on Anti-Civilization: what civilization requires (shared norms that channel individual impulses toward a common life), how the deconstruction of family, nation, and institutions hollows that foundation out, and why cultural debates are fundamental to political life rather than a sideshow to pocketbook issues. Étienne draws a clear distinction between reform that strengthens physical, economic, and cultural security and revolutionary projects that prioritize disruption over the common good. They also examine fertility rates (the gap between what Canadian families say they want versus reality), daycare policy that funds institutions over parents’ choices, managerial elites, populism as a citizen demand, Quebec’s upcoming election realignment, and how Quebec and Western Canada can better understand each other through shared principles of rootedness and local autonomy. Follow / find his work * X: @eabeauregard * Without Diminishment: Without Diminishment | Substack * Cardus research: Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard | Cardus * Anti-Civilization (English): bookstores across Canada, Amazon, and major online retailers from September 1, 2026 To find out more about Étienne’s latest book: Anti-Civilization (Preorder) – Sutherland House Publishing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danalbas.substack.com

    Finding Solutions: Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard on Anti-Civilization and the common good
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About

Dan is the Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West- South Kelowna, in the Interior of beautiful British Columbia. In each episode of Finding Solutions, we sit down with the individuals—inside and outside Parliament—who are putting forward practical, thoughtful solutions. Not the headlines, not the noise, but the work: the ideas, the experience, and the perseverance behind efforts to make life better for Canadians across the country. danalbas.substack.com

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