Critics concerned Alberta to allow private oversight of public hospitals, LaGrange calls it ‘fearmongering'
The Royal Alexandra Hospital can be seen in this undated file photo. (File)
A group of health-care organizations and advocates is accusing the Alberta government of opening doors for private operators to run public hospitals.
The Alberta NDP held a joint press conference on Thursday with six unions and health-care advocates condemning changes in Bill 55 and calling on the province to postpone passing it.
Bill 55, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, was tabled on May 1. The sweeping legislation impacts 54 pieces of legislation under 19 government ministries.
The province says the bill continues the restructuring of the health-care system away from Alberta Health Services (AHS), but health-care advocates say their worried about private interests -- pointing to the health minister's power to appoint entities outside provincial health agencies to operate hospitals.
'Allowing Bill 55 to pass would queue things up for the government to very quickly turn over our public hospital infrastructure to be operated by private, for-profit interests,' said Friends of Medicare executive director Chris Gallaway.
Under Alberta's new health-care system, AHS will become an acute care provider and the province last month took over 380 AHS land titles and 700 buildings.
The group wants assurances private companies won't be enlisted take over operations at any of those facilities.
At a press conference on Feb. 28, Smith didn't answer when asked if the takeover was part of a plan to sell hospitals to private companies. Instead, she said the change was in response to her government's frustrations around spending money on capital projects but not being able to decide how they are used.
'That will allow for us to choose the operator, and it will allow us to repurpose them to our needs,' Smith said.
On Thursday, Alberta NDP Shadow Minister for Health Sarah Hoffman said the opposition plan to introduce amendments that would ensure hospitals remain publicly operated.
'When you're a private operator, you're accountable to your owners, to your shareholders, not to the patients, not to the people of this province who paid their tax dollars to build the hospital that you want to take over and run,' Hoffman said.
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said no amendments are needed and that the group is wrong in their interpretation of the legislation.
'When you look at Bill 55, it doesn't touch the Health Facilities Act," LaGrange said. 'The Health Facilities Act stipulates very clearly that no person shall operate a private hospital in Alberta. So I find it very, very disingenuous of them to fearmonger."
The health minister maintains the new legislation is simply to amend the Hospitals Act, which she has repeatedly called 'outdated,' and that the power to appoint non-provincial entities to operate hospitals is not new.
'While (AHS) runs most hospitals in the province, some hospitals are already operated by non-provincial entities, such as Covenant Health and the Lamont Health Care Centre — both of which are public, non-profit organizations, not private companies,' LaGrange said.
LaGrange said the province has 'no plans to make hospitals private,' but would not confirm if the province could appoint a private entity to oversee publicly-funded health care in a hospital.
The Alberta government has come under fire in the past for the decision to have private companies carry out publicly-funded health care, including the failed transfer of lab services to DynaLife and the increase of the use of private surgical facilities, which has given rise to an investigation into procurement practices.
The group also criticized the province for using a closure motion to limit the amount of time the sweeping legislation can be debated.
'Smith and her UCP colleagues rail on about how heavy-handed and undemocratic Ottawa has been with Alberta,' said Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan. 'But they do far worse. Bill 55 represents a fundamental change to our health-care system, and it should get weeks of debate, not days.'
LaGrange said the province is committed to robust debate and discussion on the new legislation and would 'ensure that the bill receives due consideration while also keeping our commitment to moving important legislation forward.'
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