Spend more, get nothing: The UCP's healthcare strategy

There hasn't been a new hospital built in Edmonton in my entire life.

1988

The newest hospital, the Grey Nuns, opens.
1990s

Society gets this little thing called the internet.
2016

We finish the entire ring road around the city.
2017

The South Edmonton Hospital is announced by the NDP, set to open in 2026.
2021

Shovels in the ground.
2024

The UCP removes funding for it in their budget, after already burning $69 million prepping the site.
2025

Edmonton's population has doubled.

808,000 → 1.59 million
2026

There was supposed to be a new hospital done right about now.

Paying more to get nothing. That's this government's track record.

They cancelled Edmonton's medical superlab so they could privatize lab services through DynaLife, then spent about $100 million buying those same services back after the privatization scheme failed.

They spent $70 million on Turkish Tylenol that we couldn't even use, and most of it didn't arrive.

They spent millions on private surgery contracts. Contracts which have the former AHS CEO filing lawsuits and the RCMP executing search warrants.

They spent $85 million just to blow up AHS.

Instead of building hospitals and health innovation centres, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars undoing work, and we got nothing in return.

This government spares no expense to provide less and worse healthcare to Albertans.

Dying in waiting rooms

Now Albertans are dying in waiting rooms while our hospital system struggles to keep up.

Danielle Smith doesn't want us talking about this. Her government wants us arguing about bike lanes or pronouns or whatever the culture war of the week is.

I've had an entire lifetime of chronic conservative underinvestment weakening our healthcare system. And if we keep letting them run roughshod over it, it might collapse before I do.