OTTAWA — Tomorrow, Canada’s Premiers will be in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Trudeau to discuss health care funding.

For months, Friends of Medicare, other health coalitions, and health care advocates across the country have been calling for an increase to the Canadian Health Transfer, and have held that any new agreement to fund public health care must be used in the public interest and not be allowed to be used by Premiers to privatize health care in their provinces.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Trudeau announced today he will be meeting with premiers of provinces and territories in Ottawa on February 7, 2023 to talk about the health care crisis. The planned First Ministers meeting is the culmination of a months-long campaign by the premiers to convince the federal government to send billions of dollars more in funding to provinces through the Canada Health Transfer.

EDMONTON — Today, Alberta researcher and advocate Dr. Euan Thomson, Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare presented data and called on the UCP government to retract its claims that drug poisoning or overdose deaths are significantly decreasing as a result of their policies. The analysis shows that overdose announcements being made while medical examiner backlogs continue have artificially dampened mortality numbers, calling into question the provincial government’s entire shift in strategy toward an abstinence-only focus.

OTTAWA – As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet gather in Hamilton for a three-day retreat, a broad coalition of unions and progressive groups says that implementing a comprehensive pharmacare program must be a top priority for the Liberal government. The cost-of-living crisis has significantly increased cost-related obstacles to Canadians’ access to prescription drugs, while high drug prices are draining billions of dollars from hospitals’ budgets.

Expanding the use of for-profit surgical centres in Calgary is making health care short staffing worse while failing to solve the surgical backlog

EDMONTON — This morning, Minister of Health Jason Copping announced an expanded use of private, for-profit surgical centres in Calgary. Friends of Medicare and others have already spoken out at length about the problems with the government’s Alberta Surgical Initiative and their unfounded claims that privatization will improve surgical wait times.  

This week marks a full year since I began my role as the Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. The year has truly flown by! I am honoured to be doing this work alongside all of you.

I want to take a moment to reflect on the year that’s been, and where we are headed in 2023. Below are some of the highlights from key areas we’ve been focused on at Friends of Medicare.

This morning Health Minister Jason Copping provided an update of their government’s plans for Emergency Medical Services (EMS), including privatization of inter-facility transfers.

EDMONTON — A year ago, Friends of Medicare warned that the government’s appointment of an EMS advisory panel was laying the groundwork for privatization within our EMS system. Today we were proven right. Rather than spending the last year working to improve EMS and fill the thousands of vacant shifts, the government spent that time lining things up for further privatization through contracting out.

Federal health dollars must come with accountability and national standards

OTTAWA — As Canada’s premiers and the federal NDP ramp up the pressure on the Trudeau government, Health Coalitions across Canada are demanding that any increase in public health funding be used in the public interest and not be used to privatize health care.

EDMONTON — Today’s announcement of a new Edmonton Public Safety and Community Response Task Force doubles down on the government’s failing approach, with no new funding or meaningful community involvement. The task force is made up of hand-picked folks who support the government’s agenda, while excluding impacted Albertans and front-line community voices for harm reduction. 

EDMONTON — Canada’s Premiers held a joint press conference today demanding more money from the federal government with no performance measures, targets or strings attached.

Thousands of kids are sick in this province and across Canada, putting unprecedented strain on our hospitals. Yet rather than responding to calls for action from the AMA Pediatrics section, health care workers, advocates, and families here in Alberta, Premier Smith instead joined other Premiers from across the country to ask for more money from the federal government.