EDMONTON — November 19 - 25, 2023 marks National Addictions Awareness Week, meant to be an opportunity to learn and to highlight ways to address harms related to substance use.  As we mark NAAW this year, Alberta continues to set records for deaths due to drug poisoning. This week must be a time to commit to doing better.

EDMONTON — Following yesterday’s leaked documents, Danielle Smith’s government followed through on announcing a massive restructuring of public health care in Alberta, as well as a new Alberta Health Services Board chaired by a former conservative cabinet minister, Lyle Oberg. None of this was part of the UCP’s platform in this year’s election.

After years of unprecedented pressures on our public health care system, health care workers and patients in this province are seeking certainty when it comes to something as important as our public health care system. They aren’t looking for changes of this scale being directed by politicians, rather than health care experts and community needs.

EDMONTON — This afternoon, Danielle Smith tabled her first Speech from the Throne since being re-elected Premier. The speech promises disappointingly little in terms of protecting and improving Alberta’s public health care, and continues to push their failing agenda of privatization. There was no indication as to how the government plans to repair the damage they have wreaked on Alberta’s public health care system, besides proposing a vague commitment to decentralize health care decision making.

A Reflection on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:

We cannot claim to have universal Medicare without ensuring it includes everyone. This means getting serious about finally addressing the deep health inequities that Indigenous people continue to face in our province and country; it means taking the necessary action to close the structural gaps to accessing care; it means meaningfully addressing the social determinants of health; and it means dismantling the systemic racism built into our health care system.

EDMONTON — Each year, August 31 marks International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD). It is an opportunity to mourn those we have lost, and to refocus our collective work to end overdose and drug poisoning in our communities. Alberta continues to set records for drug poisoning deaths with 1,630 lives lost in 2022, and we are on track to set records again this year. IOAD is a day to commit to doing better.

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.”