NDP health critic David Shepherd (Photo: Alberta NDP)

By Chris Brown

'HALF-MEASURES,' SAYS NDP

NDP wants Hinshaw’s recommendations made public

Nov 25, 2020 | 1:36 PM

Alberta’s NDP is calling on the premier to release all the COVID-19 recommendations presented to cabinet this week by chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw, including the ones not implemented on Tuesday.

“Jason Kenney is clearly hiding public health advice from Albertans,” said NDP health critic David Shepherd. “It’s obvious that the small package of half-measures Kenney announced yesterday were all that he could convince the extremist fringe of his caucus to accept. Albertans have the right to hear Dr. Hinshaw’s unfiltered, professional advice and judge Kenney’s decisions for themselves.”

The opposition NDP says the premier took no meaningful action on masks, leaving Alberta as the only province in Canada without a province-wide mask policy, despite having the highest number of active cases.

“Masks don’t close business, they don’t infringe on people’s freedom,” Shepherd said. “They are a simple and low-cost way for every Albertan to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. But we know that several UCP MLAs promote anti-mask conspiracy theories, and clearly Kenney was too cowardly to stand up to them.”

The NDP also derided the “complicated” exemptions regarding public indoor health gatherings and Alberta’s contact tracing system, as well as an abrupt move to online learning for students in Grades 7-12.

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The Alberta Federation of Labour was also critical of the measures, saying they will do nothing to stop our hospitals from being overwhelmed or our economy from being dragged under by the escalating pandemic.

“The premier’s speech to the province last night would have been laughable if the stakes weren’t so high,” says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.