By Gil McGowan, AFL Staff

In response to widespread public opposition, the Alberta government has withdrawn a bill that would have given the Health Minister power to approve private, for-profit hospitals anywhere in the province.

In a press statement released on November 24, Health Minister Halvar Jonson said Bill 37 will be delayed until a "blue-ribbon" panel of experts has a chance to examine the content and wording of the proposed law. The bill will not be re-introduced to the Legislature until next spring at the earliest.

Opponents of Bill 37 welcomed the minister’s announcement – but many of them worry that the government still hasn’t abandoned its support for private health care.

"The government has done the right thing by pulling Bill 37," says AFL president Audrey Cormack, who, along with the rest of the labour movement, has played a leading role in the province-wide campaign against the bill. "But this looks more like a delaying tactic than a real change of heart."

CUPE Alberta’s president, Terry Mutton, agreed with Cormack. "Rather than appointing a committee to try to sell this Bill to us, Klein should immediately pass legislation that prohibits private hospitals in Alberta," said Mutton. "He also should stop health authorities and the WCB from contracting services to and leasing facilities from private clinics. CUPE Alberta ran billboard, radio and newsprint ads throughout the province against Bill 37. The CUPE Division also organized a highly successful postcard campaign against this regressive legislation.

Cormack says the government still seems to be operating on the assumption that Albertans simply don't understand Bill 37. But she says it’s the government itself that doesn’t really understand what’s going on.

"What they don’t seem to understand is that Albertans want a strong public health system, not private hospitals. Appointing a panel of experts to tinker with the language of Bill 37 is not going to change the way Albertans feel on these issues."

Health Minister Jonson says the panel – which should be in place before Christmas – will be made up of "unbiased and neutral individuals knowledgeable in the governance of health care."

But critics of Bill 37 are skeptical that the panel will really be unbiased.

Cormack and other members of the Alberta Medicare Coalition say the panel should include people with a proven commitment to Medicare. Panel members should also be given an explicit mandate to protect Medicare from the encroachment of private, for profit health care, she adds.

"What we need in this province is a law that says no, in a very explicit way, to the establishment of private, for-profit hospitals in Alberta," says Cormack. "Even with the amendments that Mr. Jonson put forward in mid-November, Bill 37 just doesn’t go far enough to protect public health care."

Instead of establishing a panel to tinker with Bill 37, Cormack says the government should scrap Bill 37 entirely and start over again – and this time the process should start with province-wide public consultations.

"Albertans want and deserve a say in the future of private health care in this province," says Cormack. "The government should not proceed with any laws that would change the face of Medicare until the public has been consulted."

Jonson’s announcement on the establishment of a "blue ribbon" panel marks the second time that the government has been forced to retreat on Bill 37. Last spring the Bill was also put on hold as a result of public opposition.

Leaders of the anti-Bill 37 campaign say they will continue to fight the government until real safeguards are put into place that protect Medicare from the threats posed by private, for-profit health care.