EDMONTON — Earlier this month, Albertans learned that the provincial government would be transferring more than 400 Public Health Inspectors, Researchers, Health Promotion Facilitators and support staff out of Alberta Health Services, where they operate at arms length, into direct government employment. Inspectors and their colleagues are responsible for ensuring that spaces like child-care centres, rental housing, and continuing-care facilities are safe from infection and disease.
“We are increasingly concerned about the government’s ongoing push to take direct control over Public Health in Alberta, and the impact this disruption will have on the health and safety of Albertans,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “A robust, independent and evidence-based Public Health system protects us all while keeping people out of our already strained health care system. Strengthening Public Health should be the priority of our government. Instead they remain focused on disruption and control.”
Workers are facing job transfers by the end of July. But the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, who are negotiating the transition, has reported that many have received no guarantee that they will be kept in the same workplace or even the same city, nor have they been guaranteed that they will retain seniority, benefits, or pay rate—all of which have been fairly negotiated by the Health Sciences Association of Alberta just last November. Health inspectors are also concerned that this transfer will result in reduced hours, compromising the efficacy of their work, and the safety of Albertans.
“Public Health Inspectors, and all of our health care workers, deserve to be treated fairly, and with the full support they need to do their jobs on behalf of Albertans. But unfortunately, that’s not what we’re seeing,” said Gallaway. “Alberta is in a health care workforce crisis, the very last thing we need right now is additional disruption for them or their colleagues. Yet over and over we’ve seen this supposed ‘refocusing’ of our health care system result in chaos for our health care workers and the patients who depend on them.”
This is being done under Bill 55, Health Statutes Amendment Act (2025), a sweeping 332-page Bill that makes many significant changes to Alberta’s health care system. Friends of Medicare previously raised alarm over another part of Bill 55, which permits the government to appoint entities “other than a provincial health agency or provincial health corporation” to operate hospitals, creating an easy pathway for the government to privatize Alberta’s hospitals and hand them over to for-profit corporations.
Two further Health Statutes Amendment Acts passed in the last year, Bill 11 and Bill 29, have similarly made major changes to our health care system.
“This government is attempting to dismantle our health care system bit by bit through massive omnibus bills, the impacts of which Albertans often do not see until much later,” said Gallaway. “This, paired with their repeated disregard of Alberta’s workers and their rights, is a disturbing and undemocratic pattern from this government. Albertans should be extremely concerned about what is being done to our health care against our public interest.”
Friends of Medicare is amplifying the Health Sciences Association’s call on Albertans to send an email to the Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services and their MLA to support Public Health Inspectors’ rights to a fair transition.
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