May 29 2026
Healthcare was top of mind for delegates at the 31st Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress in Winnipeg last week. Alarmed by the Alberta government’s drive to further privatize the system, workers and their allies took the issue straight to the convention floor as an emergency resolution.
The concern has been building for more than a year. In 2025, Alberta introduced Bill 11 — legislation that threw the door open to privatization by allowing doctors to charge patients for medically-necessary services. A legal opinion obtained in April 2026 concluded that the law violates the Canada Health Act (CHA).
Now comes Bill 29, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, which lets wealthy patients jump the public queue and pay for-profit imaging facilities directly for diagnostic testing and diagnosis. It, too, violates the CHA and pushes Canada further toward a two-tier system: one standard of care for the rich, and another for everyone else.
The damage doesn’t stop at fairness. By allowing the wealthy and their families to refer themselves directly, Bill 29 piles fresh pressure on a system already stretched dangerously thin. Staffing shortages are among the biggest challenges facing healthcare across the country. Yet Alberta’s legislation ignores that reality and actually makes the situation worse bydriving up demand for medical diagnostic imaging professionals at the very moment they are in critically short supply.
Healthcare workers feel this strain every day. On the convention floor, delegate after delegate shared what it means to work under these conditions. It means not having the time and resources to perform their jobs effectively due to increased workload it means dealing with increased stress, anxiety, depression and exhaustion. It also means regularly missing personal and family milestones in order to fill in for the lack of staff.
Delegates overwhelmingly passed the emergency resolution, directing the CLC to:
- oppose legislation from Premier Danielle Smith that entrenches two-tier care by allowing physicians to charge patients whatever they want for medically necessary services;
- oppose any attempt to introduce similar legislation elsewhere in Canada;
- demand that the Prime Minister and federal Health Minister enforce the Canada Health Act to stop the privatization of healthcare, including Alberta’s Bills 11 and 29.
Delegates also directed the Congress to support other organizing efforts to defend public healthcare in Alberta and across the country.
“Care and treatment shouldn’t be going to the highest bidder,” said Bert Blundon, President of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). “The wealthy and their families should not have greater access to healthcare than anyone else. We must do everything in our power to stop governments from finding ways to circumvent our universal, accessible system of healthcare. And we must force the federal government to act on violations of the Canada Health Act.”