With its BookVaccine.Alberta.ca website, which is confusing and upsetting significant numbers of Albertans fearful they will lose access to lifesaving COVID-19 immunization, Alberta’s United Conservative Party has made a significant breakthrough in the enshittification of the Internet.
Hitherto, the concept more politely known as “platform decay” has been restricted to Internet businesses that have used the process of degrading customer service on previously high-quality Internet sites to serve the interests of commercial clients, and then degrading their service to those clients to pad their own profits, making the Internet continually worse for everyone.
The rude neologism, by the way, was coined by Canadian author Cory Doctorow, and is now in use everywhere in the English-speaking world and beyond. Presumably he gets no royalties for its use. If that isn’t a truly Canadian definition of success, I don’t know what is! But I digress.
With the launch of BookVaccine.Alberta.ca earlier this week, the government of Premier Danielle Smith has now extended the intentional Internet degradation process to government services.
In the case of pre-booking an opportunity to enter a lottery to schedule an appointment on an unspecified date for a COVID vaccination at an inconvenient location that you will probably have to pay for and may not be allowed to have based on whimsical criteria and artificially created shortages, the term “government services” belongs in scare quotes.
After all, the government’s “new approach to COVID-19 immunizations” is intended to create a system of vaccine rationing that is bad public health policy but good politics from the perspective of a premier whose party is now completely controlled by a small group of MAGA extremists heavily influenced by anti-vaccine hysteria in the United States.
This well-organized group within the UCP, by and large, also supports Alberta separatism, 51st statism, climate change denialism, suppression of scientific research that doesn’t reach conclusions they agree with, firearms proliferation, and opposition to anything dismissed by the MAGA fringe on either side of the international boundary as “woke.”
It seems pretty obvious, then, that the purpose of the website to which Albertans wanting COVID vaccinations are now referred is not so much to facilitate vaccinations as to actively discourage them.
For starters, the site uses imprecise and confusing language: If you come intending to try to book a vaccination appointment, or at least to get in line for the privilege of trying to get one, the first thing you’ll see is an area to register online or by phone.
Click on the button, though, and the one after that, and you’ll discover that you’ve been trying to register for an Alberta Health account or that for some reason, even if you have one, the system doesn’t recognize you.
Return to the start, and the next area says “Schedule an appointment.” Try that, and you’ll discover that the appointment you’re trying to schedule has nothing to do with COVID or influenza. If you’d like a measles shot, though, you can arrange it there.
Return to the start again and if your screen is small, you may not see the next area. Scroll down. You’ll come to “Pre-order your vaccines.” (Old Copy Editor here: What’s the difference between “pre-order” and “order”? In this case it’s that a pre-order isn’t an order. It’s just a survey from which the government says it will note your interest and get back to you by email or text. Maybe.)
Don’t expect a confirmation by email or text that your interest has actually been noted, though, because you’re not going to get one.
And if it hasn’t been noted, and you’re excluded from a lifesaving vaccine as a result, you have no way of proving you tried to join the line-up.
The alternative to using this badly designed website is to dial 811 and speak with a Health Link nurse, who will try to help you pre-order.
Actually, I think everyone who registers whether or not they use the website should call 811 because a record of each call is still kept, and if nothing else that means freedom of information requests can be made in future about the number of calls that were made.
Obviously, you shouldn’t yell at the nurse you speak with just because the website is infuriating and stupid and the government’s policy is sheer lunacy. That’s not her fault.
Regardless of their party affiliation, you should inform your MLA what you think of this idiocy. Writing a letter is a big ask for people with busy lives, but a call to a constituency office is easier.
While we’re on this topic, it’s interesting to note just how scarce some of the people who must have been involved in creating this gong show are making themselves.
Former health minister Adriana LaGrange, now demoted to the less important but obviously relevant primary and preventative health services portfolio, is basically MIA. As far as I can tell, she has only appeared in public once since she her reassignment on May 16.
Two weeks ago she showed up for a “roundtable” with a group of Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association members. Judging from the single news story about the event, no one asked her any tough questions and she offered no newsworthy answers. And folks wonder why newspapers are a failing business!
Since the government’s COVID vaccine announcement on June 13, she has only been quoted in Alberta Government news releases on two occasions – July 16 and July 21 – neither of which merited an appearance at a news conference or resulted in any media interviews.
She was mentioned two days ago in her home town newspaper in a story about COVID vaccinations, but doesn’t seem to have actually spoken with the reporter.
Nothing at all has been heard from Chief Medical Officer of Health Sunil Sookram, who one would have thought might have some interest in an important public health story. It is his job, after all.
And the premier herself? She’s been on a “trade mission” to Mexico. But she’s scheduled to show up at an “Alberta Next” town hall meeting in Edmonton tonight, no doubt packed with out-of-town UCP supporters, to drum up support for Alberta separation and an Alberta Pension Plan. But perhaps someone in the audience will think to ask her about Alberta right now.
One thing that was noted from someone who stubbornly made their way through the “registration” is the Sept 30th deadline….so what happens then?
Almost a redundant question I suppose, and just an excuse waiting to be used.
Hello DJC,
This appears to be even worse than what I had expected. If you are fortunate enough to visit another province, I wonder if you can get the COVID vaccination there. B C and Saskatchewan come to mind as being within driving distance for some people, if they are going that way or really want the COVID vaccination. That will leave some people out, but may be possible for at least some Albertans. Danielle Smith has created a very serious problem for many people here,and not kn0wing if you can even get the vaccination is quite unsettling.
Christine: I don’t believe it will be possible. B.C. and Saskatchewan will nevertheless track who has been vaccinated, and that will require the presentation of a health card. I am afraid that if you are one of the 250,000 (or perhaps more) Albertans who should have a “free” vaccine you are simply going to be shit outta luck. Remember that that “free” vaccine represents a huge potential cost saving if people suffering from COVID-19 don’t have to be cared for on a respirator in hospital for weeks. So if other provinces were to provide Albertans with vaccines even for a fee, they would potentially benefit too. I’m afraid that would be just too much for the typical Canadian bureaucracy to wrap its collective mind around, though. Collectively, we Albertans were stupid enough to elect this government and now we are going to have to face our collective punishment or move. DJC
Perhaps we can all establish residency in B.C. via a post office box. This used to be common practice decades ago among certain penny-wise residents of the northern B.C. borders who wished to save money on non-government car insurance, thus making Bay Tree, Alberta a popular place. Some would buy their vehicles in Alberta, avoiding vehicle inspection fees, too. They would shop in Alberta to save on sales tax and return their bottles to our bottle depots while they were at it, as B.C.’s return policies were not as generous as ours. Who knows — they might even have transported alcohol across the unenforced border.
Here’s looking at you, cross-border vaccine shopping and non-resident aliens?
It seems a shame that Albertans’ health should be at the mercy of Danielle Smith’s problems with caucus management.
People can ask Marlaina anything they like, but her answer will be a lie, some word salad that spews out of her pie hole, or ideological slogans that have nothing to do with the question.
She just couldn’t wait to go nuts with the company credit card on her Mexican vacation knowing that the rubes who pay for it will never know how much she spent or on what. That sweet, sweet UPC grift.
You are absolutely correct about the shit show the UCP has created for us. After several tries, and 2 phone calls to 811 I’m still not sure if I’m on any kind of list for either the COVID or the flu vaccine. It has to have been designed to intentionally dissuade people from getting immunized. There’s no other way to explain the utter chaotic mess.
You will get a Magic Number if you successfully registered. This Number is more important than your first born. On another note, the RSV is also out there somewhere. Call….oh right, there is no one waiting at an unknown number. If you’re on hold after dialling 811 a few times, start drinking.
@djc
My wife and I are going to her town hall hooraw. I will ask questions if I can.
Why the image of a needle for pre-ordering Covid and influenza vaccines, when a certain segment of the population resistant to vaccines has expressed great cultural fear of needles to the international media and the province’s own vaccine facilitators?
It appears to be and it would not be unreasonable to think that it is simply a deliberate policy choice that is also part of a larger strategy having its own representative historical roots, i.e., for example:
“Chaos as a strategy reveals a darker side of leadership. It’s not always about a leader’s inability to manage crises but often about their deliberate choice to use disorder to secure power and control. Recognizing this tactic is critical in holding leaders accountable—not just for their promises to restore order, but for their role in perpetuating the chaos in the first place.”
Refer to the following, for additional context:
1. https://time.com/6985760/autocrats-weaponize-chaos-essay/
2. ““Chaos Politics” is a concept used to describe political strategies and environments characterized by disorder, unpredictability, and instability. This approach can manifest in various ways and be employed for different purposes by political actors.”
https://conquerdaily.com/chaos-politics-new-world/
I guess, having tried to “book an appointment” and failing; having “pre-0rdered” (aka requested a dose of) both Covid and flu vaccines; having registered for some AHS-adjacent list that may or may not mean I have access to vaccine appointments; I better complete the list by phoning 811 a time or three. It can’t hurt. It might even help, a little, somehow. But with Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange destroying AHS, I doubt it’ll make any difference.
PS: no reply yet from Health Canada re my inquiry, as to whether Smith’s vaccine rationing fubar violates the Canada Health Act. Frankly, I don’t expect an answer from them, either.
Unfortunately, the 1984-vintage Canada Health Act has limited scope. It only protects health care services provided by physicians and hospitals, not all other care in a system that has radically evolved since then-Liberal federal health minister, the late Monique Bégin, introduced it.
DJC, nice of you to give exposure to a fellow Canadian. Being familiar with Mr. Doctorow via his books, since I first heard ‘enshittification’ it has become one of my favorite words. Unfortunately based on the general degradation of standards in society, I find myself using it far too often (customer service, websites, ‘news’ media, air travel, etc.).
One tries to be an optimist, but the expected results of the upcoming federal by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot will demonstrate that Albertans are lined up saying “Thank you sir. May I have another?”. See: Animal House – Kevin Bacon, not Oliver Twist…….
And now she’ll really have her knickers in a knot….
Thomas Lukaszuk got his verdict in court….the judge will review . ” Democracy flourishes when citizens have access to accurate and reliable information ”
Hallelujah!!!
THANK YOU your Honor!
Randi-lee: Thank you, m’lord. DHC
Another great blog, David.
My experience, following your link, was as you described. System would not recognize my health care number. I can only agree with the belief the website concerned is a deliberate act of sabotage.
I asked yesterday, and still wonder, why Health Canada is not involving itself in the Alberta failure to provide a basic health care services to citizens.
Also, I’m sensing a rising chorus of: Where the hell is the NDP in this scandal?
Andy: Re the location of the NDP: They’re holding “Better Together” town halls at which everybody gets to speak. DJC
Clearly she took lessons from the moronic Toronto social housing registry. It’s a complete mess. Won’t accept ID uploads and tax notifications then sends out half a dozen “letters” per week of weird updates, letters, supposed vacancy slots that you can’t read unless you log back in where it kicks you back out for not having the right ID registered. So if I’m not registered–why keep sending me letters and notifications?
It’s governmental website circle-jerking and it’s a common way to claim there are services available (the housing list is 14 years long) then just deny them because YOU clicked wrong or YOU didn’t provide the correct info in the correct slot on some cluttered page or YOU aren’t worthy and didn’t genuflect in a sufficiently submissive manner to the Gods of AI.
Face it. Nobody is getting those vaccines because like Toronto Housing, there’s none to get. This is just the carnival ride you paid for and it’s just gonna leave you at the top of the ferris wheel kicking your feet until they deem you subjugated enough to let you off the ride and wander off to die hunting for the cotton candy stand.
In B.C. you are required to present your B.C. medical card prior to receiving the COVID shot. You are sent a text advising “your shot is waiting for you at…” Works for me. Doesn’t cost me anything and that includes the measles shot I received.
Its much less expensive to provide COVID shots to people than not. fewer people become ill and if they do become ill, its less severe. Having people become ill from COVID puts a lot of pressure on the family, friends, and employers. Not only are they not working and earning money but their family, friends, etc. become more worried, stressed and usually less productive. If some die, there is the time off of work, emotional distress which would require visits to shrinks, medication, loosing homes. You get the drift. When People die there are long term negative results for individuals, society, employers, etc. From a financial perspective, people not becoming ill and/or dying saves society a lot of time and money.
Having given this some thought, Smith and her maga train may think they are going to save money. What it may not save is their political careers. When adults die it impacts their employer and colleges. Friends, family may not work for some time. (when my father in law died I didn’t go to work for 3 weeks). In due time people may start to blame the politicians for the deaths and come election time who knows what could happen.
There is also the no small problem of people not affording the $100 shots. So some will die due to lack of money and others with money, no problem.
I do wonder if any one has thought of suing Smith and co. about this or if they have loved ones die will they sue or file H.R. complaints. i.e. they were discriminated against due to family size. By pricing the shots at $100 those with large families won’t be able to afford the shots. who knows a lawyer might be able to have some fun with it. Even if the case were not successful, just the media coverage could be enough to cause negative results for Smith.
If people don’t receive COVID shots they could die and perhaps the UPC thinks that will save them money over the long term. Die of COVID, no on going health expenses, no cost to the education system, no cost to providing other services to them. no cost from seniors who may no longer be in good health But if an account had a look at things, it maybe that the over all impact a few decades later is negative and seriously so.
Smith and her cabal don’t really care about the people of the province. they are setting them up for failure and possible death.
from Aug 2023 to Aug 2024, 177 Albertans died from influenza. During the same time 732 Albertans died from COVID. (thank you CBC for the information) That is a lot of dead people. Withholding COVID 19 vaccines from Albertans might be considered manslaughter to people like me and I’d really like the politicians to be charged as criminals who caused these deaths. Given the statistics governments have regarding death due to COVID it is reasonable to conclude had more people had shots fewer will die or did die.
Oh well Albertans voted for the UPC and now they can learn to live with it or die because of it. Political choices can be a real bitch
e.a.f. — so maybe Marlaina is using Skippy’s slogans of “more people should leave Canada than enter ” in an macabre way.
Again, if you follow what the P-25 project is doing down south, Marlaina and Skippy are using the same playbook.
Getting rid of the CDC vaccine programs by ‘Roadkill jr’ ,plus cancer research etc. ; it’s becoming more obvious that if you don’t meet the criteria, you are expendable.
Just like what the UCP changes to AISH recipients being moved to ADAP next year is going to mean.
Compassion, empathy, goodwill to your fellow neighbors is not in the playbook. “If you are not contributing to our standards, we have no use for you. ”
Sad but true.
I like the new word enshittification but because we are a bilingual nation we should not forget the French version which to me sounds more like what these people really are doing MERDEFICATTION.
If it was not for the fact that most Canadians now cannot move because they cannot afford to afford to live anywhere else, this province would be losing at least those that have lived in Canada for at least 10 years and fully understand what is going on in this province.
To me this is pure ignorance and incompetence. Just like in the US these MAGA idiots are replacing able people with conspiracy theory believers and the results are more than obvious.
By the way has anyone heard anything about the new Health Care System? Are we already divided into 4 separate systems or are we still in the perm transition?
Personally I could not be happier that Lagrange basically was turfed to the compost heap, that is where they all should be.
On the subject of Mr Doktorow and “enshittification”, he has a fascinating podcast on CBC called “Who Broke the Internet”, season 5 of their “Understood” series. Well worth a listen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/understood-who-broke-the-internet/id1673817105
Where is federal health minister Michel in all this? Here is a clear violation of the Canada Health Act, with Albertans forced to pay for something that is free everywhere else in Canada, as well as being denied access to health care. I’m fed up with Ivermectin Barbie making decisions about my access to a vaccine. If Michel is going to twiddle her thumbs about this life-and-death issue, would a court injunction work? The feds should be doing something about this and yet, there’s nothing but silence from Ottawa while Ivermectin Barbie condemns who knows how many Albertans to possible death by denying them access to a vaccine. Danielle Smith, go take a flying f— at a rolling doughnut.
Michele— “Ivermectin Barbie ”
Nailed it!!! 2 thumbs up…
I went to the gong show. She got asked, well more accurately, she got grilled about covid vaccines. The room was NOT majority clown party friendly.
Even with the blatant stage management, the first time health care was mentioned, the crowd spontaneously went to covid vaccines. The ring master Bruce McCallister was hard pressed to keep order – difficult when a significant number of attendees began yelling at Smith and you can’t turn off microphones because they are not using them.
I did not get to ask my questions; the stage management saw to that, but no matter, what I wanted to ask was raised by other folk. I particularly like the loud angry male voice that asked “and who is paying for your vaccination?”
The other question I really liked, and outright laughed out loud about, was Smith being asked to the Forever Canada petition. She never answered.
The stage management also failed in regards to the CPP. For every topic up for questions, at least one person standing to the microphones bluntly told Smith to drop the asinine APP proposal, even when pensions were not the current topic.
In summation, that town hall was not a Smith love fest. Very far from it. People were pissed about vaccines & pensions. I imagine Smith is looking forward to having her “sheeple” back in the majority at the upcoming dates.
One final chuckle, the obvious left leaning voters were sitting on the left, the right wings on the right, and the centrists, well, in the center. Not sure how that happened, but worth a smile.
I think you are correct. As Jason Kenney observed (cruelly) people who died from Covid were 82 or older usually. He didn’t say these were non-productive idlers, but I think he saw these people as a burden on government. I don’t think Danni la Ditz thinks differently. In any event, Premier Kolodnicki has set up this distribution system to do a crude form of population selection and extinction, which ultimately may cost the Alberta taxpayer more than an easily accessible immunization program.
I sarcastically mutter to myself long live anti-scientific thought and the Alberta way, god help us. Is it any wonder I left Alberta for BC about a quarter century ago.
The system for COVID vaccinations was actually one of the parts of the health care system that was working well. It was easy to go to a nearby pharmacy and get a vaccination for COVID and/or the flu. However, Smith and the UCP’s approach to health care seems to be if it is not broken, break it.
It is not clear to me what the reasoning for setting up this complex and difficult system is, which seems to be the right wing version of boondoggles. Perhaps they will bring up the cost argument, so maybe they were too cheap to get someone who knew what they were doing to set it up properly, but again they didn’t need to change it. It was working fine as it was.
It seems to me the real reason is the mentality of Smith and the UCP is anti vaccine so they want to make it as difficult as possible for people to get vaccinated because they are bitter and spiteful about it. I don’t know if the former Health Minister has gone into hiding, a witness protection program or something. She would probably have many embarrassing things to say if made to testify at an independent public inquiry about all the AHS scandals that happened while she was Minister. So either she has been exiled by her party or gone into a self imposed one.
As Carlos said “Merdrefication”
FWIW—
Strange ‘coincidence’ highlighted in our news. Conservative MLA for Courtney-Comox received a 4 page letter from a US Senator from Maine ( Joseph Martin) hyping the 4 Western provinces joining the U.S….
2 words, they’re not Happy Motoring, and what the…..
My spidey senses went on full alert.
It’s pure coincidence that Marlaina was just in Boston, along with Speaker Ric McIver, Glen VanDijken, Chelsea Petrovic, and Nolan Dyck., for the ‘National Conference of State Legislators ‘.
Sheer speculation on my part, but I have alot of questions.
The MLA said he thought it was a prank, checked it out and it was verified to be real.
He had no idea how he was “identified”, and my s.senses want to know how many other Conservative MLAs got these. Did any in NS or NB which given proximity would be a 1st choice as provinces to join. For him to be targeting a newly elected MLA on the west coast begs rational logic.
Are any other Conservatives “Canadian first”, country before party that are going to admit to getting a letter. Now is the time for them to show their true colors.
Where are our investigative reporters when you need them.
I’ve seen the Mainecoon ‘c’ats, I didn’t know they came as other critters.
Martin is not a US Senator. He’s a Maine State Senator, meaning a member of the upper house of that New England state’s bicameral legislature. See column in the Star by Andrew Phillips:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/maine-senators-letter-proposing-three-provinces-join-the-u-s-is-straight-up-ignorance-combined/article_d17ed42f-d97b-471b-be03-7596aebd846f.html
Best Fall Ever. The measles cases that Alberta has will also see to that, which is unfortunate. What a gong show in Alberta, under the UCP.