Alberta UCP not declaring health-care emergency, nor recalling legislature

Despite calls from some Alberta doctors, the provincial NDP and now one of the province’s largest unions, the Government of Alberta says it will not declare a health-care emergency nor reopen the legislature for an urgent debate.

Alberta’s minister of assisted living and social services says there’s no point to recalling MLAs.

“Calling back the legislature and spending a bunch of money and bringing everybody back to talk about something we all agree needs to be fixed – we already have put the money in place to invest in, and we’re seeing metrics that are already working – isn’t going to help at all,” said Minister Jason Nixon.

“What we need to do is make sure that we follow through on our commitments.”

The calls are coming after a public fatality inquiry was ordered into the Dec. 22 death of Prashanth Sreekumar, a 44-year-old Edmonton father who waited almost eight hours at the Grey Nuns Hospital ER for treatment. He was waiting to be seen for chest pains and ultimately died of cardiac arrest.

Alberta’s minister in charge of hospital and surgical service says he ordered the inquiry because he was left with “concerns and unanswered questions” after an internal review into the case.

This week, doctors also went public about six other deaths and 30 “near-misses” — high-stakes diagnoses delayed by clogged waiting rooms — as hospitals in the province operate above 100 per cent capacity. Doctors say those cases represent “the tip of the iceberg” of what front-line workers have been seeing.

Government ministers have acknowledged significant pressure on the system – made worse by the flu – but insist their health-care plans are the right ones.

“The premier is laser focused on making sure that this works,” Nixon said. “She’s speaking to doctors constantly. She’s speaking to all of her ministers that are working in the system, including myself on a daily basis.”

But the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 40,000 Alberta workers, says the province’s emergency rooms are crumbling into chaos.

CUPE launched a website calling on Premier Danielle Smith to declare a health-care state of emergency. People can go online and sign a petition to demand urgent action and express their frustrations with Alberta health care.

The petition had nearly 11,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

“Declaring a state of emergency under Alberta’s provincial health care would allow the provincial government to temporarily centralize authority and rapidly mobilize resources,” CUPE Alberta president Raj Uppal said. “It can help expedite funding, emergency staffing measures and rapid deployment of beds and equipment across hospitals and patient transfers.”

Senior care lacking?

Part of the issue plaguing hospitals, according to ER doctor Raj Sherman, is a lack of appropriate care for seniors.

“We’re at 110 per cent capacity,” said Sherman, who is also a former MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark. “Every hospital bed is full. Twenty-five per cent of those hospital beds are plugged up by fragile seniors who don’t need to be there. They need to be in home care or long-term care.”

But Assisted Living Minister Nixon disputed Sherman’s numbers and says his government is building 1,800 new senior spaces to free up more beds.

“We’ve reduced the numbers of (alternate level of care patients) in the province by 20 per cent in six months,” Nixon told CityNews.

“And we are now, for the first time ever, below the national average when it comes to ALCs, which is 20 per cent. We’re hovering right now around 15 per cent.”

Nixon blames Alberta Health Services for not sooner using funding on that issue.

“AHS did not increase capacity with that money,” he said. “We don’t know what they used that money for; that’s a conversation maybe for a different minister. But the point is the investment was coming from multiple governments and was not being spent. We recognized that and when we took over, we started to make sure that investment was going to continuing care spaces, which resulted in significant reductions.”

Minister Nixon was asked today why the premier is not doing press conferences. He said Danielle Smith is "laser focused" on the issue, speaks to her health ministers every day and added "I have no doubt you'll see her soon." #ableg #cdnpoli

— Sean Amato (@JSJamato) January 21, 2026

It’s been nearly weeks since Premier Smith gave a press conference, though she was on vacation and out of the country for part of that time. She returned to Alberta Monday.

“I have no doubt you’ll see her soon,” Nixon said.