Opinion: Parallel privatized health-care systems like Alberta's don't reduce wait times

When our neighbours in Alberta cast their ballots in the 2023 provincial election, they had no idea Premier Danielle Smith was planning a dangerous experiment that shifts health-care resources to give faster access to those who can afford to pay. As voters in B.C. go to the polls, they deserve to know where all the political parties stand.

On Dec. 18, 2025, two years after the votes were counted in Alberta, Smith’s government enacted Bill-11 — the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 — initiating the most extensive privatization of payment for medically necessary services since the Canada Health Act was enacted in 1984. By allowing doctors working in the public system to also set up and run private facilities, Bill-11 fundamentally restructures both the financing and delivery of health care in Alberta. It creates a private-pay market where doctors and facilities can charge patients for physician and hospital services covered under the Canada Health Act.

The public was told Bill-11 was needed to shorten lengthy wait times by reducing demand on the public system. But long wait times are driven by the shortage of health-care professionals, not patient demand. And as evidence from other jurisdictions has shown time and again, when you introduce a parallel private system like that now possible in Alberta, health-care workers will be drawn to the more lucrative private system, leaving patients in the public system stuck on wait lists that are now even longer.

Parallel privatized systems, like the one Bill-11 created, do not reduce wait times — they make them longer.

That is why Canadian medical experts have sounded the alarm about Bill-11. They have provided ample evidence showing patients stand to lose in a two-tier system because overall public wait times will worsen, and patients in vulnerable positions may feel pressured to pay out of pocket for a service in order to receive care. And they are concerned that Alberta’s experiment with American-style health care could have serious implications for public health care right across Canada. Bill-11 opens the door for other provinces to break the Canada Health Act, shifting health-care services away from public delivery and toward those with the money to pay.

In fact, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has mused about bringing some version of Bill-11 to that province. And in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford is already engaged in extensive privatization at the expense of the public system.

That is why, on behalf of more than 100,000 health-care workers in B.C., we are calling on all political parties to clarify where they stand when it comes to protecting our public, universal health-care system.

Voters deserve to know, before they cast their ballots, if the political party vying for their vote will explicitly promise to reject Bill 11-style privatization of our health care.

We are on the front lines of health care in B.C., and we know the system isn’t perfect. Our members — skilled health-care workers at the bedside or behind the scenes — are struggling to provide quality patient care despite staff shortages, crushing workloads, burnout, and incidents of violence. We know the only solution is ongoing investment in recruitment and retention of the people who do this vital work so that everyone can get the care they need, not just those who can pay.

Advocates for a two-tiered private system like Bill-11 point to health care as an unsustainable expense. But economists say this view fails to account for how investment in health care drives strong, sustainable and widely shared economic growth, creating family-supporting jobs, generating reliable tax revenue, and ensuring the productivity of our workforce. In other words, investing in our public health-care system is an investment in the health of our people, our communities, and our economy.

The choice before us is simple: reduce wait times by investing in the skilled health-care workforce who deliver public health care, or make wait times longer by hiring them away to serve private clients.

The question is, where does B.C.’s next government stand?

Sarah Kooner is president of Health Sciences Association of B.C. Barb Nederpel is president of the Hospital Employees Union. Adriane Gear is president of the B.C. Nurses’ Union.