June 19 2026
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is calling on federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel to use the full authority of her office to stop Alberta’s Bill 11 from undermining public health care in Alberta and across Canada.
Bill 11, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2), allows physicians to work in both the public system and a private-pay system at the same time. This opens the door to health care being delivered based on ability to pay, not medical need. It also means more resources will be pulled into for-profit health care, putting even greater strain on a public system that is already critically under-resourced and understaffed.
Bill 11 will make the health care crisis worse, across the country. In a system already facing severe staffing shortages, expanding private-pay care will pull physicians, staff, operating-room time, and public capacity away from the public system. The result will be longer waits, poorer outcomes for patients who cannot afford to pay, and a more expensive US-style health care system. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has already signaled interest in implementing Alberta’s model. Across Canada, opponents of public health care will use federal inaction as permission to push similar legislation.
Health care must be based on need, not on ability to pay. Bill 11 violates that principle and puts our public health care system in Canada at risk.
Bert Blundeon, President of NUPGE.
“This is not a technical regulatory change. This is a direct attack on the foundation of the Canada Health Act,” said Bert Blundon, President of NUPGE. “Health care must be based on need, not on ability to pay. Bill 11 violates that principle and puts our public health care system in Canada at risk.”
Minister Michel previously said she would wait until Alberta’s regulations were released before responding. The regulations have now been announced, and they fail to include even the basic safeguard the Alberta government promised: minimum hours that physicians must work in the public system before providing private-pay care. There are no meaningful protections for public health care in these regulations and Alberta’s so-called safeguards are political cover for privatization.
A legal opinion prepared for the Canadian Health Coalition by Goldblatt Partners LLP found that Bill 11 is “the most extensive privatization of payment for medically-necessary services in Canada since the Canada Health Act was enacted in 1984.” The opinion concluded that Bill 11 undermines the Act’s requirements of universality, accessibility, and comprehensiveness, as well as its prohibitions on extra-billing and user charges.
NUPGE represents 450,000 members across Canada, including more than 200,000 health care workers. These health care professionals know first-hand what the health care crisis really is: chronic understaffing, unsafe workloads, burnout, delayed care, and governments refusing to properly invest in the public system.
“Minister Michel has said she is the ‘Guardian of the Canada Health Act’. Being the guardian of the Act means acting against threats; Alberta’s Bill 11 fundamentally threatens public health care by legalizing for-profit health care.
Jason MacLean, Secretary-Treasurer of NUPGE and Chair of the Canadian Health Coalition
“This is exactly the moment the federal government must act,” said Jason MacLean, Secretary-Treasurer of NUPGE and Chair of the Canadian Health Coalition. “Minister Michel has said she is the ‘Guardian of the Canada Health Act’. Being the guardian of the Act means acting against threats; Alberta’s Bill 11 fundamentally threatens public health care by legalizing for-profit health care.”
NUPGE is calling on Minister Michel and the federal government to take any and all actions to protect public health care in Canada and enforce the Canada Health Act (CHA). This includes, but is not limited to: publicly declaring Bill 11 in violation of the CHA, demanding Alberta pause implementation of Bill 11 and its regulations, holding a formal CHA compliance review and using all federal powers (including withholding Canada Health Transfer payments) to enforce compliance with the CHA.
The federal government must make clear to every province and territory that private payment, extra billing, queue-jumping, and allowing private insurance for medically-necessary health care will not be tolerated.
NUPGE members know that the solution to the health care crisis is not privatization. It is retention, recruitment, training, safe staffing, and sustained public investment. Bill 11 moves Alberta in the wrong direction, and if Ottawa does not act, we will be at the precipice of the end of public health care in Canada.
NUPGE stands with all Alberta health care workers, public health care advocates like Friends of Medicare, and patients opposing Bill 11. We call on Premier Danielle Smith to withdraw this attack on Medicare, and we call on Minister Michel to act immediately to uphold the Canada Health Act.