Alberta premier hopes for health reform payoff in 2025, regrets deferring tax cut

"It may have been better for Albertans if we'd implemented and then found a way to be able to pay for it."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is eager to show that her government can finally put the pieces of a dismantled provincial health-care system back together again in the new year.

In a recent year-end interview, Smith said work that began in 2023 to create four new organizations in place of one health authority is almost complete, but there's still more to do.

“Next year, I think, will be the real proof of the new model,” she said.

Critics have said the restructuring would separate decision-making into silos, make the system more difficult for patients and workers to navigate, add layers of bureaucracy and fail to address the shortage of health-care workers and hospital beds.

Some of the biggest pieces to come together include getting everyone access to a family doctor and getting surgical wait times down to medically recommended time frames.

For Smith, it has been about identifying big problems and starting to fix them.

"That, to me, has been really rewarding," she said, pointing to the introduction of a new pay model for nurse practitioners, expanding the role of pharmacists and boosting the number of surgeries in private facilities.