By Rob Anderson
MLA Airdrie-Chestermere and Wildrose House Leader

During the recent PC leadership race, Premier Redford made a very specific promise in order to get selected as the new Premier. She said, without equivocation, that if elected, she would call a full independent public inquiry into the dozens of allegations of government intimidation of health care workers and government interference with the health system.

The new Premier promised that this inquiry would be led by a judge, completely independent from government influence, and would be well underway by the time the next provincial election was called.

She won the PC leadership, became our Premier…and now she’s waffling.

Premier Redford now says that they are looking at simply strengthening the Health Quality Council (HQC) and giving it the power to subpoena witnesses. She says a judge or former judge can be part of the HQC panel to lend advice on legal issues to the doctors on the HQC, but there is no need for a judge to preside over the process. And she is also wavering on her promise to have this inquiry begin before the next election.

Ms. Redford has had a rough first few weeks as Premier. She has flip flopped on literally a half dozen campaign promises already, and hasn’t figured out how to pay for the others.

This has to stop. She needs to start keeping the commitments she has made and it starts by keeping her promise to call an independent public judicial inquiry into the allegations of health system intimidation and interference.

Last week, the Wildrose, along with the 2 other recognized opposition parties, penned a joint letter to the Premier asking that she keep this promise to Albertans, and laid out 5 criteria that the inquiry must include in order to be legitimate, effective, and in line with the Premier’s aforementioned commitment to Albertans on the matter. They are as follows:

1. The inquiry must be entirely public and open to the media. We don’t try extortionists or fraudsters behind closed doors; we do it publicly so the entire legal process is open and transparent. The point of this inquiry is to restore confidence in our health system and give health workers the confidence they need to openly advocate for their patients. It is also about whom, if anyone, was involved in the intimidation of health professionals, whether any person used their political influence to interfere with the administration of the health system, and whether any such intimidation or interference adversely affected patients. The inquiry will be considered a sham if is conducted behind closed doors.

2. The inquiry must be judicial, meaning it must be presided over by a qualified judge with the power to subpoena witnesses. It is not enough to simply appoint a panel with a judge included on it. A qualified judge should have complete authority over the entire process. He or she must have full powers of subpoena and the experience to properly weigh evidence and assess the credibility or lack thereof of witnesses. This is not a job for doctors; not only are they unqualified to weigh evidence and assess witness credibility, they are conflicted in that they are being asked to judge their fellow health colleagues and current political bosses who pay them their salaries. The judge must also be a federally, not provincially, appointed judge with absolutely no known ties to the PC Party or provincial government.

3. The inquiry must be focused on alleged wrongdoing, intimidation or interference by government members, officials or surrogates with health professionals or the administration of the health system, that has resulted in harm to patients, health workers leaving Alberta, unnecessary costs incurred by the health system or health professionals being forced to stay silent as it pertains to advocating for patient care. This inquiry is not about health quality issues such as why our ERs are overcrowded and what can we do about it. That would be a question for the Health Quality Council. The promised public inquiry is about the alleged intimidation and government interference with health care.

4. The inquiry must be well underway prior to the next election so voters have the information they need before making a decision at the ballot box. Premier Redford must not delay the process in order to avoid having uncomfortable findings come out prior to a spring election call. This would be very disrespectful of Albertans right to know all relevant information prior to casting their votes.

5. Finally, the inquiry should be called using the Public Inquiries Act. There is no need to pass new legislation as it relates to calling the inquiry. If the Premier wants to pass additional legislation to strengthen the Health Quality Council so it can better conduct investigations related to health quality issues, that is good thing and all opposition parties would support that. However, strengthening the HQC has nothing to do with the public inquiry we are referring to. The public inquiry deals with alleged wrongdoing, ethical breaches, waste of tax dollars and the buying off of health professionals to stay silent. As mentioned, the HQC deals only with health quality care issues like the reasons behind long ER waits or dirty surgical instruments in hospitals, and how to solve such issues in the future. Delaying the inquiry in order to pass new legislation is unacceptable.