Edmonton – Kevin Taft, Alberta Liberal critic for Health and Wellness, wants to know why the government’s plan for building much-needed health care infrastructure is nowhere to be found.

Usually, the Health Facilities Capital Plan is released around the same time as the provincial budget. That didn’t happen this year, and when questioned about the issue, the Minister of Health and Wellness said that the plan would be released by April 1 this year. The government missed its own deadline, despite several false starts and promises.

The delay is perhaps the least troubling issue surrounding the capital plan. Mixed messages from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Premier are adding to the already considerable confusion in the provincial health care system, and raise questions about who is setting priorities for new health infrastructure construction – the Premier, Health minister Gene Zwozdesky, or AHS CEO Stephen Duckett?

“Stephen Duckett has told the media that a new cancer treatment facility to replace Calgary’s Tom Baker clinic isn’t a priority for this year’s capital plan,” Taft says. “But the Premier has said the exact opposite. Who’s running the show? We need to know that these decisions are being made based on community needs, not political influence.”

Now that the Legislature’s spring sitting is over, MLAs can’t even properly debate the merits of the plan.

“Had the plan been released while the House was sitting, we could have discussed it in the Assembly, for the record, for the people of Alberta,” Taft says.

Without a capital plan, Alberta’s cities and towns are left wondering when and if they’ll get the new facilities or upgrades they need. Projects such as the Sherwood Park Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie and the new long-term care centre promised to Fort McMurray remain up in the air.

“Albertans can’t afford any more delays,” Taft says. “Thousands of Albertans across the province have already been feeling the lack of a capital plan: not enough beds, longer wait times in the ER, longer travel times for surgeries. This administration has left Albertans in the dark yet again.”

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