Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley (left) and Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips (right) during a media availability in Lethbridge in October 2022. (Image: Lethbridge News Now)

By By David Opinko / with files from Canadian Press

Provincial Politics

Alberta NDP says B.C. doctor deal a wakeup call to Smith to knock off pseudo-science

Nov 1, 2022 | 5:47 PM

EDMONTON, AB – The leader of Alberta’s Opposition NDP says the proposed pay deal for B.C. doctors is a wakeup call to Premier Danielle Smith to stop threatening to take a wrecking ball to Alberta’s health system and to end her embrace of pseudo-science.

Rachel Notley says the pay deal shows the race is on for scarce talent in the health field and that the organizational chaos and anti-science bent of Smith’s government is setting Alberta back.

“Now, with B.C. offering doctors hope and the UCP offering none, I fear we are at great risk of seeing doctors head west. We need action immediately,” Notley said.

This week, the B.C. government announced a tentative deal that could see a full-time family doctor paid about $385,000 a year — a boost of more than 50 per cent from the current $250,000.

It also includes funds to cover income disparities and new hourly premiums for after-hours services.

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Notley says it’s hard to make direct comparisons, but says the B.C. deal appears to be at least as good if not better than Alberta’s.

Alberta’s United Conservative government has had a fractious relationship with physicians that began almost three years ago when it tore up its master agreement with doctors.

Smith has promised to reorganize health delivery by January and says health workers will want to come to Alberta because she won’t impose any COVID-19 restrictions and won’t make anyone take a COVID vaccine to come to work.

Dr. Fredrykka Rinaldi, President of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), says that she will have to wait to see more details about B.C.’s proposed plan for physician pay before providing in-depth comments.

However, she says “All provinces are struggling to retain and recruit physicians and many Canadians are unable to find a family doctor. There is interprovincial and international competition for physicians (and other health care providers).”

In September 2022, the Alberta Government reached a new collective agreement with the AMA for physicians. It includes raises of one percent in each of the first three years of the deal, targeted investments in physician recruitment and retention, and ways to resolve disputes between doctors and the government.