By Canadian Press

agreement voted down

Kenney rejects call to fire Shandro over failed doctors contract

Mar 31, 2021 | 3:10 PM

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is rejecting Opposition calls to fire his health minister following a failed wage deal with doctors.

Kenney says Tyler Shandro has his full support.

Kenney notes Shandro was trying to get a good-faith deal done to fairly compensate doctors in a province that has faced years of revenue declines.

Doctors rejected a new deal that had been brokered by the Alberta Medical Association and Shandro.

The previous deal was unilaterally torn up by Shandro early last year.

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That ignited a public fight with the medical association’s 11,000 physicians all played out during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition health critic David Shepherd says the vote shows doctors do not trust Shandro and a new face is needed in the health ministry to get a deal done.

“His recent attempts to rewrite history cannot erase the abusive behaviour and language from him and his office staff towards doctors in every part of the province,” said Shepherd. “We have seen whole communities thrown into crisis in rural Alberta, and decades of effort to recruit and retain doctors in small communities destroyed. We’ve seen doctors uproot their lives, their families, their practices, and leave the province.”