This afternoon, the federal government tabled their 2024-2025 budget. Included is funding for the continued expansion of national dental care coverage, and crucial funding for the roll out of universal, single-payer Pharmacare — both key commitments in the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the NDP and the Liberals.

EDMONTON - This afternoon, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange announced two new contracts with private partners to provide interfacility transfer services, with work underway to further expand this privatization initiative across the province. These services are currently publicly provided.

EDMONTON — This afternoon, the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction announced they are tabling Bill 17, a piece of legislation that establishes the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE), an entity designed to be directly aligned with the goals and priorities of the Government of Alberta.

EDMONTON — A new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows that the UCP’s privatization of Alberta’s surgical services have failed to deliver on promises to reduce wait times. This follows a previous report from the Parkland Institute, which showed that the Alberta Surgical Initiative has actually made things worse.

CALGARY — This morning in Calgary, Friends of Medicare stood alongside Mike Parker, President of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), in calling on the provincial government to release up-to-date data and broaden its approach to addiction care beyond their one-size-fits-all model. 

EDMONTON — This morning, Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams announced the next phase of the UCP government’s ideological “Alberta Recovery Model,” with the establishment of two new organizations: Recovery Alberta and the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE).

EDMONTON — Friends of Medicare, and activists within the disability community are at the legislature today to call on the Alberta government to improve the province’s home care system. Our online petition containing more than 33,000 names of individuals who have signed in support of improved home care funding and services in Alberta will be tabled in the legislature after Question Period

Following recommendations in the Facility-Based Continuing Care (FBCC) review, the UCP government has repeatedly made clear their intention to shift the delivery of Alberta’s continuing care services to include a greater proportion of care in-community. But while disabled Albertans, seniors, families and advocates have long called for an expansion to our home care system, we have seen no meaningful investment to support this shift in care delivery. 

Last month, residents from Leduc, Beaumont, and surrounding communities who are concerned about their public health care, came together to launch a new Friends of Medicare chapter. At their founding meeting in February, members elected an inaugural chapter board, including new Chapter Chair, Cam Heenan.

Civic Services Union 52 has served strike notice to the City of Edmonton and Edmonton Public Library, meaning job action will begin at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow unless action is taken.

CSU 52 members provide crucial public services which contribute to the overall mental and physical well-being of Edmontonians. This includes recreational centres, libraries, dispatchers and so much more. If strike action begins tomorrow, it means residents will lose access to these facilities which are so important to their health.

Last week, the Alberta government sent out a post-budget update on the Red Deer Hospital project, which included their plans for Phase 2 of the project to include: “construction of an ambulatory care building using a public-private partnership (P3) delivery model.” P3s are well known to be more expensive, while harming public services. Previous attempts to use a P3 model to build labs and hospitals in Alberta have repeatedly been fought against and rejected by patients and health care workers.