Province edging closer to hospital privatization with Bill 55: AUPE

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Ryan Dahlman

By Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On May 8, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) warned that the Province is edging closer to a system where privately-owned hospitals dominate the healthcare landscape. In a news release, the AUPE said the Alberta government should pull Bill 55, introduced May 1, which allows it “to appoint anyone who is not a provincial health agency or provincial health corporation to operate Alberta’s hospitals.”

 “Bill 55 is the last straw,” AUPE Vice-President Sandra Azocar said. “We all depend on quality public health care, and now is the time to fight for it. If not, get ready to pay through the nose for American-style health care services.”

 On the same day, the United Nurses of Alberta released a statement that said, “The most dangerous aspects of Bill 55, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, were excluded from government briefings with stakeholders and when finally made public were buried in 332-pages, effectively introducing highly controversial changes by stealth.”

In Budget 2025, the government’s fiscal plan transferred hundreds of healthcare facilities to new ownership – from Alberta Health Services to Alberta Infrastructure. Now, with Bill 55 and Budget 2025 in hand, the Province has 380 land titles and 700 structures it can sell, and all are hospitals and health care facilities paid for by Albertans, according to the AUPE.

 After the announcement, Azocar spoke to Southern Alberta Newspapers, and said that as of April 1, the Province transferred those land titles over to Alberta Infrastructure and the minister has the first right of refusal if someone else offers to buy any of the facilities.

 “That kind of set the stage, and we were concerned about that. But then fast forward to Bill 55, which is actually the last straw in this,” Azocar said.

 She said that the possibility of private operators buying, leasing, or even running the once-public facilities is a huge concern, “because we know what private for-profit means when it comes to running of hospitals.”

 Azocar denounced Bill 55’s threat to public health care, saying, “Every single time that there’s private for-profit operators, they’ll go in and offer higher wages, and people need to be paid, so they’ll choose to leave the public system in favor of private systems.”

 “Human resources in this area are not infinite,” she continued. “You know, we have a finite amount of people that work. So anytime that you siphon people from the public sector to the private sector, we lose really valuable, well-trained professionals and that’s what creating these parallel systems does. It doesn’t help the public system. It just robs us of important human resources.”

 According to Azocar, Bill 55 would empower the privatized system and diminish the strength of the public system. It’s already happening with surgeries, and as hospitals continue to lose surgeons and anesthesiologists to private facilities, the public system is undermined.

 “That is the biggest problem with having these parallel systems that this government is trying to create, by doing it very stealthily and with lack of transparency,” Azocar said. The AUPE wants the bill to be pulled and wants the government to stop the privatization agenda and to get down to fixing the healthcare system.

 The Province was already busy restructuring AHS when it came time to present a balanced 2025 budget, and Azocar thinks it wants to give the illusion that it’s balancing the budget while “playing shell games with our health care allocation.”

 In the past after selling off a hospital building, the money would have gone back into the healthcare system, but now it’s going “into the coffers of the government.”

 The AUPE represents 100,000 members across the province, all of whom come from four sectors: GoA direct government; AHS; private sector continuing care; and kindergarten to post-secondary educators.

  “Workers know what is wrong with the system, and they know how to fix it,” she pointed out. “But yet, policy makers always miss the very important step of asking people that actually work in the system as to how we can fix it, and how we can save money within the system.”

 When Health Minister Adriana LaGrange spoke to reporters in the legislature on May 8, she disputed all the negative interpretations, saying, “The Health Facility Act stipulates very clearly that no person shall operate a private hospital in Alberta.”

 As for Bill 55, which was in second reading that day, LaGrange said, “There’s no need to make an amendment. This bill does not do what they’re saying.”

 The bill itself would require hours of cross-referencing and research to understand in context, leaving the average healthcare recipient wondering whose word is best when it comes to the future primary care in the province.