NDP calls for inquiry following report on province’s first wave response

EDMONTON – Alberta’s Opposition is repeating its call for a public inquiry following the release of an independent report into the United Conservative government’s handling of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NDP deputy leader Sarah Hoffman told a news conference on Saturday the inquiry would ideally be headed by a retired judge and should follow the model used by the Walkerton inquiry, which probed an E. coli outbreak in 2000 that killed seven and sickened 2,300 in the Ontario town.

Hoffman says the 126-page KPMG report on Alberta’s response during the first wave of the pandemic has been in the government’s hands since March, but it didn’t release it until late Friday afternoon.

The review looked into the government’s response to acute and continuing care, the economic consequences of the pandemic, messaging on COVID-19, the government’s decision-making process and procurement of personal protective equipment.