Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley speaks at the Golden Circle in Red Deer on Thursday. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

No mention in ministers' mandate letters

Alberta NDP leader calls on Premier to get shovels in the ground for Red Deer Hospital

Jul 28, 2023 | 12:04 PM

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley called out Premier Danielle Smith for not including mention of the Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion project in any mandate letters to ministers.

At a press conference on Thursday at the Golden Circle (4620 47a Ave.), Notley called on Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, also MLA for Red Deer North, to commit to starting the construction on the Hospital redevelopment this year.

“The Health Minister is from Red Deer; it is shocking to me that we did not see mention of the Red Deer Hospital, getting past the many, many roadblocks that clearly have been in its way, being one of the two or three highest priorities of this health minister or the infrastructure minister,” she said.

Smith sent mandate letters to numerous ministers this month outlining their expected objectives. The health minister’s letter included finding a resolution to the “unacceptable” lab services delay, improving EMS response times, decreasing surgical backlogs, and cutting ER wait times, among others.

Notley says the UCP has spent years dithering on the project.

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“If the UCP was slow-walking this project any more, they would literally be going backwards. In many ways, we are headed in the opposite direction as the current hospital struggles more each year with under-staffing and, at the same time, increasing demands,” she said.

The Opposition leader said promises were broken when government officials said in 2020 that construction for the hospital would begin in Fall 2021.

During a public information session this January, then Minister of Infrastructure Nathan Neudorf said there were numerous complexities to building the hospital, currently planned as a building addition.

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Notley said that when her government was elected in 2015, they put shovels in the ground within 18 months for the Calgary Cancer Centre, which was also complex as it was located in the middle of the preexisting hospital build.

She says the work can be done if the UCP is committed but no progress or updates have been given instead.

She also said that the UCP has failed to deliver updates on the new South Edmonton Hospital and the Northwest Health Centre in Calgary.

Notley added with the lengthy process of bidding not having begun yet, the cost of construction and on lives will continue to rise.

“Inflation has actually driven up construction costs for non-residential projects by about 23 per cent over the past two years alone. That could be hundreds of millions of dollars on a project of this size,” she said.

According to the government’s website, the Red Deer Hospital expansion project is still in the design phase.

After receiving the mandate letter, LaGrange told rdnewsNOW earlier this month that the project is very important to central Albertans and herself.

She said the government has met with the Society for Hospital Expansion (SHECA), that Smith met with representatives and officials, and that discussions are happening to determine how best to go about informing the public on a regular basis.

“We know we need the expansion to go forward in a timely fashion, and that’s the message I’ve given to my officials, as well as those in infrastructure and AHS [Alberta Health Services],” she said in July. “It’s very important we have a transparent method to share with everybody in central Alberta how progression is going. It’s critical and top of mind for me, and I’m going to make sure that everything that can be done in a timely fashion is done so. We will have a transparent public-facing information stream out as quickly as possible.”

READ: Health Minister LaGrange receives long list of objectives from Premier Smith

She did not give further information on timelines.

Notley also took the opportunity to address current controversy around medical clinics across the province charging membership fees for services. She said Smith must conduct a proper system-wide investigation on the matter as quickly as possible to fulfill her promise of Albertans not needing to pay to see a doctor.

READ: Premier and Minister of Health release joint statement regarding Alberta’s health-care system