Bill 17, Alberta Health Act (Amendment)
November 23, 2010
Mrs. Forsyth: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to rise today and speak in support of the amendment from the hon. Member for Edmonton-Riverview. It’s one of the amendments that we had already proposed and had gotten approval for from Parliamentary Counsel, so it’s nice to see that there are a couple of people thinking on the same level.
I, too, have probably very similar questions that the hon. Member for Edmonton-Riverview has. I guess what’s striking to me is that under that section it says that a decision or action of the Minister, the Health Advocate or any employee or agent of either of them shall not be questioned, reviewed or made the subject of a proceeding in any court by application for judicial review or otherwise . . .
Then it goes on.
. . . and no order shall be made or process entered or proceedings taken in any court by way of injunction . . .
And it continues on.
I guess I’m having difficulty trying to figure out why. I’m not a lawyer. Maybe my colleague from Airdrie-Chestermere, because he is a lawyer, can explain to people in the Assembly. Or, for that matter, the Minister of Justice, who is responsible for the justice of this province, can stand up and tell us why this would even be considered in the Alberta Health Act.
I go back to the fact that I’m still trying to rationalize why we are even debating an Alberta Health Act when, quite frankly, Albertans are fed up. I mean, we’ve seen report after report. We’ve seen consultation after consultation. I listened to the member who chaired this consultation process to come up with the Alberta Health Act say that he was listening to Albertans. Mr. Chair, one of the things about being a member of the opposition and the health critic, actually, for the Wildrose that I’ve learned since January is the fact that all of a sudden we get inundated with phone calls, e-mails, letters, and sometimes, quite frankly, it’s hard to keep up. I guess one of the privileges that we have had is all of the health care professionals in this wonderful province that have come forward to talk to us. I sometimes feel that I probably know every hole in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton because people are still concerned about the code of conduct that’s under Alberta Health Services. Quite frankly, while the minister and the CEO say that they have the ability to speak up, they don’t see that as the opportunity to speak up.
Yet again, we have very clearly written in legislation under section 10 that a decision or action of the minister or, for that matter, the health advocate or any employee or agent shall not be questioned. I’m trying to think of anywhere on this Earth where someone shouldn’t be questioned about anything, because ultimately they’re responsible to Albertans. If someone sees something that they feel is questionable, then they should have the right to question.
With those short remarks I am going to support what the Member for Edmonton-Riverview has brought forward. He wants to strike out the whole of section 10. Until the government or even the author of this report, the Member for Edmonton-Rutherford, speaks out, is able to stand up in this Legislature like he did when we had the emergency debate and told the members of this Assembly that he didn’t see a crisis in health care whatsoever – obviously, he believes, or seems to believe, that there is no crisis in health care. I would love to understand or hear what he has to say on why this particular section was put in this piece of legislation. Otherwise, until we hear from the Minister of Justice, the minister of health, or the member for Edmonton-Rutherford, I will continue not to support this legislation.
I’d look forward to any members of government standing up and speaking to this amendment and why they don’t support it. I know that there are many members, including the one from Calgary- Egmont, that are lawyers and understand the law much better than I do, so I look forward to them standing up and speaking in support. I’ll continue to listen to the debate, Mr. Chair, and hear what others have to say.