Petition by Alberta pharmacist calls on province to change compensation model
Posted Jul 15, 2026 10:39 am.
Whether to fill a prescription or get medical advice, more people are turning to their pharmacists in Alberta, taking pressure off family doctors.
Now the province’s pharmacists say they’re feeling the burn, and they want their compensation models changed.
“We need to defuse the congestion that we have in the health-care system, not to put limits to make it harder, to push the people toward the emergency rooms,” said Momen Wali, a pharmacy manager at Griesbach I.D.A. pharmacy in Edmonton.
Last month, the Alberta government signed a three-year funding deal with the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association. The agreement includes a three per cent increase in dispensing fees — what pharmacists can charge their patients or their drug insurer. The increase is the first of its kind in 10 years.
“Good that we got an increase in the expensive fee, but do you think this is matching the inflation rate that we are having right now?”
Wali, who sees other issues in the agreement, launched a petition to call for the end of a $13,000 monthly cap to clinical pharmacy services.
Wali feels pharmacists may begin to limit the number of patients they take on seeking a diagnosis, refills, or vaccines, if they’re not paid services, which would add pressure to the already strained health-care system, particularly in rural communities.
“Currently we have the problem of getting to a doctor, finding a doctor, and things like that, so we are helping them, assessing patients, giving them, renewing medications, giving them shots or injections, prescribing them. So just putting a cap itself, the idea of the cap itself doesn’t make sense,” Wali said.
The office of Alberta Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Jaye Lang told CityNews in statement, “the new pharmacy funding framework will help improve services for patients while ensuring pharmacists are fairly compensated for the care they provide.
“It was developed through extensive collaboration between government and the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association.”
Wali launched his petition two weeks ago. It’s been signed by nearly 800 people as of Wednesday.
