Skip to content

Municipalities urge health minister to work out agreement with doctors

Letter signed by mayors Ralph Leriger and Christa Clausing and reeve Lou Hall
shandro
Local elected officials sent a letter to health minister Tyler Shandro June 30, asking that the provincial government and the Alberta Medical Association work on a new master agreement.

WESTLOCK — Westlock-area municipalities are asking the provincial government and the Alberta Medical Association to sit down and work on a new master agreement.

In a June 30 letter, local elected officials wrote that the AMA and the government “must renegotiate and come to an agreement that ensures equitable access to medical services for everyone in this province, regardless of where they live.”

Signed by Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger, Westlock County reeve Lou Hall, and Village of Clyde mayor Christa Clausing, the letter is addressed to health minister Tyler Shandro.

The crux of the issue, as local officials see it, is the lack of a master agreement between doctors and the provincial government.

“It is imperative that doctors are fairly compensated for the outsized role that they play in keeping our communities health and safe,” the letter reads.

“This is especially critical in the midst of a global pandemic, when we need our medical community focused on their jobs rather than their compensation.”

To Leriger, the messaging in the letter is consistent with what he’s been saying since early May, when doctors in Westlock first announced that they will be quitting their hospital work and focus only on their clinics.

“We are concerned about the possibility of jeopardizing the phenomenal healthcare that our communities receive and urge the two parties to sit down at the bargaining table and work this out,” he said over the phone July 16.

But the letter was still only addressed to members of government—cc’ed to Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken, and the presidents of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and Rural Municipalities Association.

Leriger explained that not sending this to the AMA as well was an omission and didn’t indicate that they were choosing sides in the ongoing debate—or, as opposition health care critic David Shepherd called it, the healthcare crisis.

“It's not up to the communities, it's up to those two associations, it's their accountability to sit down at the table and discuss that. I've been pretty clear in my communications,” said Leriger.

Town CAO Simone Wiley later clarified over e-mail that the letter has now been sent to the AMA as well.

Tensions between doctors and the provincial government have been escalating gradually since the latter exited the negotiations with the AMA and made modifications to doctor remuneration. In April, Shandro exempted rural doctors from the pay model that only compensates physicians for their clinical work, not their hospital contributions—among other changes.

But Westlock doctors still chose to resign from hospital work, citing the lack of a master agreement between the AMA and the government as the reason—one Westlock doctor said Shandro “missed the point.”

As doctors across the province have been saying, the problem isn’t pay but uncertainty.

As of July 16, the municipalities hadn’t received a response to their letter. Dr. Vicci Fourie, a Westlock doctor, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the group’s plans moving forward.

The full text of the letter:

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks