Apparently, Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party have decided they’re going to have to destroy health care in order to save it.
That’s about the most positive spin that can be put on Ms. Smith’s plan, revealed by The Globe and Mail yesterday morning, to allow doctors to set up a private stream for speedy quality health care for those who can afford it while letting the docs pad their private profits by billing the public system for slow and inferior treatment for the rest of us.
Had it not been for some public-spirited government insider leaking a draft of the planned changes to the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act to the Globe, it sounds as if the government’s strategists planned to pull it out at the end of the current sitting of the Alberta Legislature next week, pass it in a hurry, and then bug off for the holiday break.
With any luck, they must have thought, by the time the holiday was over and with sufficient distraction, perhaps even including an early election call, everyone would soon forget all about it.
Thanks to the estimable Carrie Tait of the Globe’s Alberta Bureau, though, the outrageous plan now sits right at the centre of Alberta’s political discourse.
No wonder the UCP Cabinet held an emergency meeting Monday night. That must have been called soon after Ms. Tait’s calls for comment started coming in. Either that or they’re pondering the possibility of more strikes by public employees, this time in health care, that will give them another chance to use the Constitution’s Notwithstanding Clause to punish uppity workers.
As is doubtless intended by the UCP, creating a parallel private market for physicians will also provide an opportunity to hasten the demise of public health care in Alberta and quite possibly Canada too, just as Ms. Smith has advocated throughout her career as a market-fundamentalist apparatchik and right-wing media commentator.
Whether allowing doctors to offer care in the public system at the same time as they are charging patients for private care is a violation of the Canada Health Act remains to be settled. There are varying opinions.
“If it goes forward in its current form of violation of the Canada Health Act, that means that the Alberta government is putting at risk funding that Albertans rely on for the public health care system,” observed physician and University of Toronto Professor Danyaal Raza in another Globe story yesterday.
Either way, it probably doesn’t matter all that much to the premier or her party ideologues. One way, they’ll push it through and to hell with inevitable victims of private health care. The other, it’s grist for the UCP’s separatist mill if the federal government dares to cut Alberta off from federal health funding. So from the UCP perspective, it may seem like a win-win!
Naturally, the UCP will try to sell this scheme as a way to improve access to health care for everyone, an obvious falsehood for the simple reason there’s only a limited number of docs, and not much is being done anywhere in Canada to significantly increase their numbers.
As Alberta-based investigative journalist Charles Rusnell reported Monday in The Tyee, the UCP’s reliance on private, for-profit “Chartered” Surgical Clinics is driving up costs and resulting in more delays for patients needing complicated surgeries in the public system.
Mr. Rusnell even found that anesthesiologists in Calgary are being scheduled to work in private clinics, sometimes against their will, by senior health managers responding to government orders.
If Ms. Smith gets her way, we can also expect to soon have to buy expensive health care insurance. This will be sold as a way to ensure our coverage is tailored to our wants and needs – which, of course, really means how much money we have in the bank. Employers take note: Unionized employees will naturally fight to have you pick up part of the cost.
As Ms. Tait reported, the experts she talked to said the law would give Albertans with money “better access to care than those who rely on the public option.”
The changes would also create “an environment where private insurance companies could flourish.” Well, y’all know what that means – no insurance for folks with “pre-existing conditions.” They will be consigned to the crumbling public system.
Justice minister explains that governments have rights too!
Also yesterday, the UCP moved ahead with its plan to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause to ensure the courts don’t overturn acts prohibiting gender reassignment surgery for patients under 18 and use of puberty blocking medication for patients under 16, requiring schools to out students who wish to change their names or pronouns, and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
Notwithstanding the government’s claim it is acting to protect children and women in sport, the legislation seems clearly intended to appeal to the UCP’s MAGA-affiliated base on the eve of the party’s Nov. 28-30 annual general meeting. Premier Smith will no doubt get a standing ovation from the “freedom” crowd for its use.
Be that as it may, Justice Minister Mickey Amery advanced a novel theory of the purpose of section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms during a news conference on the legislation recorded Monday and published on the government’s official website yesterday.
“The Notwithstanding Clause is integral to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a vital provincial constitutional right,” Mr. Amery stated. (Emphasis added.)
In other words, if you thought the Charter of Rights was about protecting citizens and residents from overreach by governments, including violation of minority groups’ rights by elected legislatures, the United Conservative Party does not agree.
In Mr. Amery’s and Ms. Smith’s world, the Charter of Rights exists to protect legislatures and governments from the people whose rights they intend to trample!
In addition, it would seem, trampling anyone’s rights is copacetic as long as the folks wearing the jackboots have sufficient votes in the Legislature.
Mr. Amery unsurprisingly also advanced the proposition that invocation of the Notwithstanding Clause, while itself an admission that the government is violating fundamental human rights, should be the end of the matter. Wronged citizens have no business appealing to the courts for a ruling that their rights have been violated notwithstanding the use of the clause, he explained.
This is unsettled law on which the Supreme Court is yet to rule. If the court supports Mr. Amery’s interpretation, of course, that essentially renders the fundamental rights provisions of the Charter meaningless.
Finally, while Mr. Amery admitted in response to a reporter’s question that “the use of the Notwithstanding Clause, section 33 of the Charter, is for a five-year term.” However, he continued, “the notwithstanding clauses, or the exclusionary clauses, in the Bill of Rights and the Alberta Human Rights Act will be permanent.”
While Mr. Amery’s wording was somewhat muddled, his point was clear: Neither the Alberta Bill of Rights nor the Alberta Human Rights Act is worth the paper it is written on as long as the UCP remains in power. Advocates of a separate Alberta Republic would do well to remember that fact.
The UCP is clearly becoming addicted to the use of the Notwithstanding Clause to ram through unconstitutional legislation.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
Great column. Here is the link to Charles Rusnell’s column in thetyee outlining issues that DJC referred to. Mr Rusnell reports that “senior Alberta health managers, in response to government directives” are scheduling anesthesiologists and in some cases surgeons in public hospitals to perform work preferentially for “chartered” surgical facilities which are private for-profit entities. This is absolutely shocking.
https://www.thetyee.ca/News/2025/11/17/Alberta-For-Profit-Surgery-Push-Failing/
Time for Edmonton and Calgary to start thinking of separating from Alberta and joining Canada as some kind of self-governing jurisdiction.
Marlaina has been doing everything she can to destroy public healthcare in order to enrich a few insiders. This latest scam is blatantly designed to further weaken the system and, more to the point, funnel taxpayer dollars into a few well-connected pockets. She isn’t even trying to hide the corruption anymore. She is on a mission to demolish public healthcare and education, take away workers’ rights, kill the renewable energy industry in Alberta, make vaccines difficult to obtain, endanger trans youth, get another pipeline paid for by taxpayers, and use the notwithstanding clause to shield her malice from legal challenges. Our only hope at this point is that the courts rein in her dangerous, traitorous threats to our democracy.
Yes, the UCP seems to be becoming quickly addicted to the use of the Notwithstanding clause
Using it often or at all, is a bad sign, of a government that is not smart enough to draft laws well, does not care to do so, or maybe both. It is like they have discovered the get out of jail free card. However, in politics nothing is free and there will be consequences to being so indifferent to the rights of others.
Elections have consequences too, so majority governments generally can do what they want despite what the opposition or voters want. I do not feel it is a coincidence the UCP is again using the Notwithstanding clause, at the same time it is also making changes to bring about more private health care. Smith has learned to use the Trumpian Art of Distraction well. She is hoping the controversy of the former will distract enough attention away from the latter.
It may work, particularly because in our now hollowed out mainstream media there is a limited ability to focus on several things. I suppose it fall to the effectiveness of others to ensure the public becomes aware of her political tricks, the odiousness of her actions and the negative consequences of them for Albertans.
This is a tough morning for many.
On the first point, Canada had private health care before, as few seem to remember. I knew a nurse who worked in hospitals during those pre-1965 days. She’d said doctors were happy when public health care came into effect, because they could finally be sure they would be paid for their work. Some doctors at the time got paid in kind with whatever their patients had to offer — butchered chickens in one case, or nothing at all.
That won’t happen this time around, as one doctor reminded us all on social media yesterday. The UCP has spent years villainizing patients so that some doctors now believe patients are to blame for the UCP’s doctor fee cuts, failures and collapsed hospital care. This doctor reminded us that he and others will gladly jump ship to private clinics after years of abuse by government, so we’d better get used to shelling out multiple thousands of dollars each every year in membership fees for access to a physician. In other words, pay to play and if you can’t, tough luck. Harsh, but this is what the UCP wanted all along. Children, seniors, the working poor, the disabled, etc. will pay for this with their lives.
Let me explain. When health care was private, a sick child was laying in bed semi-conscious, while the adults in the room debated calling the doctor. The child had a serious heart condition that could have led to death but didn’t, after the neighbors stepped in and convinced the mother that she had to call the doctor. The mother was pregnant and the choices were food for the other children, prenatal care for the complicated pregnancy and for delivery, or medical care for one very sick child. The sick child got care and then spent time in hospital, as public health care had just come into effect. That sick child was me. I would not wish these kinds of choices on anyone. I believe my doctor got paid with chickens, because we had just butchered some on my grandparents’ farm. For reference, I had measles along with strep throat, which often circulated at the same time. Sound familiar? Children used to die from measles and co-infections and this is what the UCP is bringing upon us now. I owe my life to one doctor who decided to save it, whether he got paid or not, concerned neighbors and universal public health care for my hospital stay.
As for the separatist dream of taking Canada down, wasn’t this accomplished yesterday by rendering our Charter of Rights and Freedoms sterile? Who showed who that the provinces can neuter the federal government simply by removing the rights of the citizens with the notwithstanding clause, anytime, for any reason, or none at all? Clever, clever, that ruthless authoritarian Danielle Smith. Look at her gloat. So what if people suffer, as long as Smith Trumps the Libs. She’s just getting started. Albertans are the only people who can stop her. If there is not a general strike very soon, all will be lost, including our Canada Pensions.
It would hardly be surprising that to all her benefactors, the indoctrinated lobbyist has been a very useful and dedicated tool:
https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-has-spent-decades-pushing-to-privatize-albertas-health-system/
“Also yesterday, the UCP moved ahead with its plan to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause . . . ”
It appears that the Alberta authoritarian has decided that everyone must conform and be subjugated to her will, by any means necessary. Furthermore, the fascination with all things Middle East and authoritarian is fairly easy to understand,
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/dubai-human-rights-dark-truth-b1255613.html
I hope it is becoming quite clear to everyone in this province and Canada that we have no rights. We have temporary privileges that will be taken away when it is convenient for the government.
Adding this to the very long list of what Smith and the UCP have done so far, if an election were held tomorrow, they would most likely win. When Albertans say this is not who we are, well, yes this is who we are.
Absolutely agree. It is time to admit who we really are. The picture is not pretty and if this attack from most of us against us, continues, then it is time for some real thinking on leaving this province and go live in a place where reality is still the norm. This is abhorrent and I cannot believe these people actually were raised in Alberta or Canada. If they were we have a major problem to deal with that could go beyond just arguments. The convoy was the first example and the leaders are out having a good time. So much for the rule of law!!
Please note a misspelling of public in your text “complicated surgeries in the pubic system.”
It is very obvious regardless of protests or what anyone says, this UCP government is hell bent on destroying the health care system and seems to enjoy trampling on peoples rights. Maybe they will use the Notwithstanding clause to ram through the privatization of health care. That way no one will be able to challenge that.
Well, God Knows, Albertan, that’s the last place we want to see complicated surgeries! It’s been fixed. DJC
Interesting- this rhymes with Republicans (and before that, Dixie Democrats) invocation of “States’ rights” whenever it suits their purposes.
All the “liberal/woke” language used by Smith and cohorts is merely spin that probably took some time for the “unwoke” to come up with so that the UCP sounds like what the majority of Albertans would listen to. The reality is that they will use the ‘notwithstanding clause’ cartoon-like cave man club on all those who oppose being lumped together with what the UCP minority claims is the only true “reality” that all of us should succumb to. Transgender and 2Spirit people have been part of human societies and cultures for many thousands of generations – some openly accepted, some living in the shadows. Now that this tiny minority of human beings want to live freely, there are those whose fear of difference claims that there is only one way to be human – ‘our way’, with a big club to make sure you all submit!
Thank you as always, David. So here we have legislation denying trans children medical support and requiring girls and women to prove that they’re female to participate in sport. The UCP believes that this legislation is so vital that it needs to operate notwithstanding the Charter, the Bill of Rights and the Human Rights Act.
But it’s not “just” notwithsatnding everyone’s freedom of expression and freedom of association. Some genius in the UCP has decided that the notwithstanding clause should also apply to matters within the federal realm (bail, habeas corpus, right to counsel (section 10)) and that the province must be free to impose warrantless searches (section 8) arbitrary detention and imprisonment (section 9), and suspension of the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial (section 11). Looks like a dictatorship to me.
Perhaps what is most disturbing is the casual viciousness of the UCP’s approach. The appeal of the Saskatchewan case to the Supreme Court of Canada looms ever larger. Are the legislatures of Saskatchewan and Alberta really so lazy that they can’t take the time to consider which rights they really “need” to override? Their approach is: “Rights? Override them all!”
Thanks, Simon. Speaking of casual viciousness, this is Trans Awareness Week. The cruelty is the point. DJC
I do believe that cruelty has shifted from being the point to being the priority.
The Notwithstanding Clause is what happens when you expect an adult to use the fire extinguisher in case of emergency and your six-year-old finds out it’s fun to spray everything in sight with foam.
Without triggering an automatic judicial review within 30 days of its use to justify its use, this clause is the dream of tyrants and the bane of the democratic process. Either dump it or add judicial review as a codicil.
When basic public health (or other) insurance is split to include private insurance then it’s a fundamental tactic of refusing to acknowledge how public insurance plans, work. It guts the system and makes it ripe for takeover. The result is bleeding out the insurance plan so there’s no healthy people left in it and the wealthy never have to bear the brunt of their poor decisions. The education system is similar.
Bleed out the people with the most influence that could apply the pressure the system needs to succeed. Neglectfully cause it to fail–then bellow how public systems are all failures.
What nobody counts, is the long term cost. Just look at Toronto’s garbage pickup system. The one on the west side that went private and cheap then two years later held up the city to pay double what the public system on the east side, costs.
That’s how it all works, in a nutshell.
This isn’t about making Alberta affordable for the average citizen. It’s about lining the pockets of people so wealthy that they whinge if their second floating castle yacht has a flaw in the paint job.
It’s amazing how quickly Alberta has fallen, from a beacon of democracy and prosperity, to a cesspool of greed and corruption.
When was Bill Aberhart, Ernest Manning, Ralph Klein and Jason Kenney’s province a beacon of democracy?
And they are not done yet and in the end they will just dismiss any criticism and leave us to fix the destruction. Why are we allowing this anyway? Where is the NDP? Busy asking for money.
Beacon of democracy? Hum. Beacon? To whom? Democracy that has consistently rewarded oil adjacent capitalists at the expense of teachers, students, doctors, nurses, patients, and anyone hoping to gain university and/or technical training. Prosperity based on the placement of oil within our federally defined borders not any wisdom of leadership. A UCP hegemony that only exploits for the corrupt benefit of themselves and their overlords.
I can agree on “cesspool”, a rank, putrid, and ultimately self destructive cesspool.
None of this surprises me on the eve of the annual UCP meet and greet. You must bring long a few sacks of raw meat to the medieval feast. Look what I have done; invoked the NWC 4 times in the last month. Long Live the Queen!
I hate this government. Bullies and cowards to a person. I hope they choke on their hubris.
Usually when a government gets to this point in its mandate, it begins to pivot to a more reasonable approach to governing in anticipation of the next election. The UCP isn’t doing this – they’re forcing through unpopular legislation despite recall petitions, angry constituents phoning MLA offices and the threat of a new political party bearing a familiar name. I can’t help but think of the Dave Barrett NDP government in BC back in the 1970’s. Little Davey – as he was know – took down a 40 year Social Credit government. He could have gone slow with legislative changes, as Rachel Notley did in similar circumstances in 2015. But not Little Davey. He said later that he figured the NDP would only be around for one term and then the big money boys would make sure the Socreds were back in power. So, he brought in an incredible list of progressive bills on the assumption that the Socreds wouldn’t get rid of all of them. Barrett was right. His was a one term governmet and many of his changes stuck. Maybe the UPC realizes they aren’t going to win the next election, whenever it occurs, so they’re going to do as much as possible in the time left – and hope the next government doesn’t make many changes. Or isn’t able to make changes. I hear Panama is nice this time of year.
Hippie: It’s the AGM. DJC
Yet another thing today, the AG’s report re Dynalife, which saved taxpayers no money and wasted some. I believe that was Kenney’s fault but it was still the UCP which has now turned completely into a death cult.
Not to worry! Our benevolent plutocrats will happily bathe us in the trickle-down of their pecuniary micturation. A higher minimum wage should get those scales balanced and then you, and me and the billionaires can get back to exercising our freedom to pay for whatever kind of healthcare we as individuals desire. Power to the pragmatic centrist plutocracy!
Mark Carney should tell Smith that if she doesn’t drop her health care privatization plans, she won’t get her pipeline. That might be the only way to stop her because punishing her for violating the Canada Health Act only means health funding will be cut (which will further hurt Albertans) and that will play right into her slimy hands. Oh, the feds cut our health care funding? Well, now we have no money to fund the public system so we will have to privatize it all and throw open the gates to American insurance companies. The UCP are pure scum.
Dystopia! We have arrived!
Is there nothing that this woman will not do to destroy our society?
Is there anything that will persuade the rural rubes that this woman has anything but their interests at heart?
It’s such an embarrassing premier. Hopefully, these recalls for the UCP MLAs happen soon.
As always with Climenhaga, ideology trumps ideas and discussion and any attempt to have a reasoned, adult conversation on any issue he deems off limits is met with the usual lies, fear-mongering hyperbole and the typically censorious attitude of the left.
LOL/DJC