Opinion: Daniel Smith promises broader consideration of Alberta’s response to pandemic

Danielle Smith replaces her campaign’s promise to uphold human rights protections for unvaccinated people with an extensive review of the state’s pandemic response.

Alberta’s premier said the move was to strengthen preparations for the “next pandemic.” But it risks returning Alberta to a divisive battle over New Year’s vaccination mandates.

Smith last month walked away from one of his most controversial leadership campaign pledges to immediately enact legislation to protect against unvaccinated COVID-19. Her caucuses “she thought that just changing human rights law was an incomplete approach,” Smith said in a year-end interview with The Globe.

Instead, a commission that has not yet been convened will work to consider Alberta’s response to the pandemic. The terms of reference for the task force, which is expected to be announced in early 2023, have not yet been fleshed out. But under scrutiny are public health laws, emergency management laws, patient bill of rights mechanisms, professional regulations, and state employment standards, she said.

“The law of probability is that there are other new viruses that we have to deal with,” Smith said.

“Is there a better way to ensure that we get the best medical information and every opinion? Is there a better way to address the question of medical choice?”

This is not about another fight with Ottawa. It does not include considering the federal government’s response to the pandemic (perhaps leaving it to former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s self-proclaimed citizen investigation to examine Canada’s overall response to the pandemic. Province). And Smith argues that the task force will be forward-looking rather than stirring controversy from the past.

“People know it wasn’t a perfect response. There has been a change in our party’s leadership because of the very split you’re talking about,” she said. resigned as prime minister and leader of the United Conservative Party this fall.

“So if this happens again, I think it’s our duty to make sure we’re not just defaulting to what was done before,” she said. I hope it’s a positive outlook instead.”

After 10 weeks as Alberta’s premier, Smith said he was pleased with the level of cohesion in what was often a difficult United Conservative caucus. She attributed this in part to her leadership style of giving her ministers the leeway to do their jobs and not kicking everything out of her prime minister’s office, she said.

“Our cabinet is very talented and my leadership style is all about identifying priorities,” she said, noting that she worked with ministers to develop the mandate. “And I let them go. If anything goes wrong, let me know if I need to step in.”

But the task force looking into the state’s response to the pandemic will be worn by the prime minister. Past research is usually a good thing. But beyond the debate over whether the worst of COVID-19 is really past (cases are soaring in China at the moment), Smith’s task force has many potential pitfalls.

To say the least, the Prime Minister does not have Alberta’s full confidence on the matter. Attacked on the communications front when I described them as the most discriminated group in. After various groups protested against her words, she chose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19, “highlighting the abuse” of people who were unable to work, travel or even meet their loved ones. I made it clear what I was trying to do.

She has little or no recognition of the dire choices the government has had to make. Kenny, for example, has only reluctantly imposed a vaccine passport system to protect the ability of Alberta’s hospitals to help dying patients and to keep other medical services functioning to some extent.

A few weeks after becoming prime minister this fall, Mr. Smith called several organizations mandating vaccines and urged them to change their minds. In at least one of her cases, when she contacted the Arctic Winter Games, she linked her own request to government funding. This is a move the NDP has condemned as an intimidation tactic. It is hard to believe that Mr. Smith, an opposition party, supported such a heavy-handed move by the ruling party.

It was revealed this month that the prime minister made an already huge cabinet even bigger by quietly appointing MLA Tracy Allard as parliamentary secretary for civil liberties. It will focus on everything from the freedom of the public, to protecting property rights, to the excessive use of police force. These issues have been identified as priorities by caucuses and ministers, the prime minister said.

Smith also said he has been approached by several people who would like to see Alberta produce a written constitution.

Of course, Allard’s role will also focus on protecting the rights of unvaccinated people “where there are existing problems.” The prime minister said he didn’t believe many businesses had vaccine restrictions on staff and customers remaining.

Albertans hope Smith will focus on more than the promises of her controversial leadership campaign, including highlighting rights and sovereignty laws for unvaccinated people. , will be dissatisfied.

I asked why the focus is on the vaccine battle rather than trying to solve the most pressing problems in our state’s beleaguered health care system, such as waiting times and understaffing at children’s hospitals.

Smith replied that it is possible to both learn from recent history and advance current issues.

But there are good reasons to be skeptical of the prime minister’s past framework.