By rdnewsNOW staff

Provincial Politics

Alberta NDP says UCP’S Bill 22 offers more power for premier’s cabinet and nothing for health care workers

May 15, 2024 | 4:18 PM

Alberta’s NDP says the UCP’s latest piece of legislation aims to rip apart Alberta’s health care system, injecting more chaos for Albertans, more uncertainty for frontline workers, and grabs more power for Danielle Smith’s cabinet.

“With this legislation, Alberta will struggle to retain front line workers and we’ll be incapable of recruiting more,” said Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley. “That shortage is at the very heart of the crisis we are experiencing in health care.”

The Opposition says Bill 22, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, gives the Minister of Health full oversight over the four new pillars of health care delivery created with the bill, including making labour related changes.

“Bill 22 gives Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange the legislative authority to change the terms and conditions of where people work and they are bound only by what is termed as the need to provide substantially similar jobs,” said Notley. “In no way will health care professionals want to come to Alberta for this kind of murky employment opportunities. And this is what is on offer to over 100,000 front line health care employees in Alberta.

“This means the shortage of our healthcare workers will explode.”

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“The UCP are ripping apart Alberta’s health system and putting a Frankenstein system in its place. One that puts Smith and her cabinet in between health care providers and everyday Albertans and opens the door for privatization in every sector of our health system,” said Dr. Luanne Metz, Alberta NDP Critic for Health.

“The more health services agencies the UCP comes up with to deliver services, the more fragmented that delivery becomes,” said Notley. “It’s nothing more than explosions of shards of glass from which the UCP will invite private sector players to carve out their profit margin.

“What all of this boils down to is Smith abdicating her responsibility to serve Albertans and instead, is grabbing more power for her cabinet. Danielle Smith is abandoning her duty to health care and abandoning her duty to Albertans.”

Related: Alberta introduces legislation to break up AHS, establish new health agencies

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