Latest EMS call out data and record overdose numbers show Alberta’s approach to the drug poisoning crisis is failing

EDMONTON - This afternoon, Premier Smith released her Mandate Letter to Alberta’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister, Dan Williams. The letter continues to push the government’s so-called “recovery-oriented system of care” while ignoring harm reduction programs, even as a record number of Albertans are dying.

EDMONTON — Premier Smith’s mandate letter to our new Minister of Health was released today. It prioritizes ideological pet projects like the Premier’s promised health spending accounts, and pushes restructuring at Alberta Health Services as the solution to our health care challenges. Not meaningfully addressed are the staffing crisis facing our health care system, or the failures of the government’s privatization schemes to deliver as promised.

Latest overdose numbers show Alberta’s approach to the drug poisoning crisis is failing

In Alberta’s recent provincial election, the UCP campaigned on the success of their so-called “recovery-oriented” approach to the drug poisoning crisis, but it wasn’t until after the campaign was over that the government finally released the long-awaited substance use surveillance data,  revealing record-breaking overdose fatality rates in Alberta this spring.

EDMONTON -- Earlier this morning, the new UCP cabinet was sworn in. Adriana LaGrange was named Minister of Health, Dan Williams as Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, and Jason Nixon as Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services.

All of these ministers are new to their portfolios. Both former UCP Ministers of Health lost their seats in the election. The same is true for both past Ministers responsible for seniors, who had been failing seniors in care as per recent Auditor General reports, as well as past Ministers responsible for mental health and addictions, including the government’s failing abstinence-only approach to the drug poisoning crisis. 

Last night, following a hotly contested election in which health care dominated the agenda, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party was reelected to a much slimmer majority government.

“Friends of Medicare would like to congratulate and thank all those who took an active role in our democracy by letting their names stand for election,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “Our province is made better by this exercise in democratic debate.” 

The Trudeau government is set to release their next federal budget on Tuesday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

OTTAWA — The Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) signed between the Liberals and NDP last year put the health of people’s teeth, the cost of medication, better long-term care, and the future of our health care system at the centre of federal policy discussion and budgeting.

Last week, the UCP passed their final budget Albertans will see before voting in this spring’s provincial election. The government spent the days leading up to Budget Day trying to assure Albertans that health care would be taken care of. Premier Smith and her AHS administrator appointee, Dr. John Cowell even went so far as to declare that our health care system is no longer in crisis, a claim which was swiftly quashed by the people actually working on the front-lines of Alberta’s public health care.

But behind all the political boasting and rhetoric, how does this budget really stack up when it comes to Alberta's health care?

Friends of Medicare’s initial response to the provincial budget

EDMONTON — This afternoon, the Smith government released their 2023-2024 provincial budget, the final budget Albertans will see before voting in this spring’s provincial election.

“The UCP government spent the last 4 years making decisions geared at breaking our public health care system, repeatedly throwing the system into crisis in order to justify an agenda of privatization,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, “Yet, now that they are headed into a tight election, where health care is the top issue for Albertans, they have tabled a budget claiming to be the champions of fixing our health care.”

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.