EDMONTON - Later this afternoon, Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with Alberta Premier Daneille Smith, before hosting all of the Premiers in Ottawa for a First Ministers’ dinner this evening and a meeting to discuss the Canada-US-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) trade talks tomorrow.
Any First Ministers' meeting about North American trade talks needs to include a discussion about Alberta’s plans for implementing Bill 11, and the potential impacts of Alberta bringing the American health care industry into our country could have on Canadian public health care and on our trade relationship with the United States and other countries.
“Bringing a two-tier private health insurance system into our province will not stop at the Alberta border. Implementing Bill 11 will create a new market for private health insurance corporations who will then use every method they can to expand across Canada,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “As long as our health insurance is a single-payer public plan we can stop the powerful American private health insurance industry from moving in. But Alberta willingly allowing this foothold into Canada could mean our single-payer health care will no longer be protected from trade agreements with the United States and others.”
In December Friends of Medicare, along with all ten health coalitions from across the country, jointly wrote to the Prime Minister asking the federal government to break their silence on Alberta's Bill 11. The open letter called on the federal government to not be complicit with Alberta’s plan to privatize our health care and to act to safeguard Canada’s treasured universal Medicare from provincial governments who are seeking to dismantle it. Since then Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has suggested his government is keen to follow Alberta’s plan for two-tier health care in the coming months.
“Unfortunately, our calls to the federal government to act have continued to go unanswered. Now we see Premiers of others provinces openly talking about following Alberta's lead,” said Gallaway. “The federal government must do their job. We need them to take action to enforce the Canada Health Act, to ensure no Albertan is forced to pay out of pocket for the health care that they need and deserve. And we need them to ensure our single-payer, universal health care system continues to be protected in any future trade talks. Anything less is simply unacceptable.”