AFL says the UCP’s Bill 55 will “shatter Medicare” by opening the door to for-profit hospitals

EDMONTON – The President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Gil McGowan, says that Premier Danielle Smith is attempting to sneak through profound changes to Alberta’s health care legislation that will allow her UCP government to hand our hospitals over to private, for-profit corporations, and doing so under cover of the political chaos that she has created with her recent speculation about separation.

Buried deep in Bill 55, the Health Statutes Amendment Act 2025, are provisions that will allow the Minister of Health to designate for-profit corporations as the operators of hospitals previously administered by Alberta Health Services (AHS), which the UCP dismantled with legislation passed in the last session of the Legislature.

“Smith and other members of her gaslighting government have described this sprawling 300-page bill as mere housekeeping,” says McGowan.

“But this isn’t housekeeping. It’s an all-out assault on our public health care system. The fact that it’s being rammed through at the same time that Smith is threatening separation from Canada is no coincidence. She’s ‘flooding the zone’ with chaos in order to make changes that would shatter Medicare as we know it. These are changes that Albertans would never support if there was actually a full public debate. This is the worst kind of cynical and manipulative politics — and Albertans need to mobilize against it.”

When former Premier Ralph Klein introduced similar legislation more than 20 years ago, Albertans mobilized in large numbers. But the UCP has changed the rules in the Legislature and now have the ability to ram legislation through in a matter of days instead of weeks, as was the case during the Klein era. That means Albertans only have until Wednesday or Thursday of next week to organize.

“Smith and her UCP colleagues rail on about how heavy-handed and undemocratic Ottawa has been with Alberta,” says McGowan. “But they do far worse to their own citizens. Bill 55 represents a fundamental change to our health care system, and it should get weeks of debate, not days. If Premier Smith is really committed to ‘consulting with Albertans,’ as she has claimed in the context of the issue of separation, then she should put this dangerous bill on hold and allow time for Albertans to weigh in.”

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Laurence Miall
Director of Communications and Campaigns, AFL
Phone: 780-977-8165
Email: lmiall@afl.org