New Alberta premier says unvaccinated 'most discriminated against group' after swearing-in
CBC
Alberta's new premier says outgoing Premier Jason Kenney hasn't responded to her invitation for a meeting.
"I think the premier needs a little bit of time," newly minted Premier Danielle Smith said at her first press conference after being sworn in Tuesday morning.
In a tweet last week, Kenney congratulated Smith for defeating six competitors to win the UCP leadership race, and said there would be an "orderly transition" as she takes the helm of government.
"I think it was pretty clear he had a preferred candidate in this race, and it wasn't me," Smith said.
Smith also said Albertans should expect rapid changes to who is managing health care in the province.
She will replace Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, and recruit a new team of advisers in public health that consider COVID-19 to be an endemic disease.
She also repeated a pledge to review the leadership of Alberta Health Services (AHS) by the end of 2022.
"I want our front-line health care workers to know that reinforcements are coming," Smith said. "We cannot continue understaffing our hospitals and then forcing our front-line workers to work mandatory overtime and be called in on days off and have to cancel their holidays."
As the world grapples with a shortage of health-care workers and professionals burn out, Smith says Alberta won't have any vaccination mandates, which will help attract employees to the province.
Last year, when the Alberta government ordered AHS to require its 121,000 employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19, about 1,650 workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing the jab. The province has since rescinded that rule.
Smith has been deeply critical of the Kenney government's use of public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has pledged to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to add vaccination status as a grounds subject to protection from discrimination.
"They have been the most discriminated against group that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime," Smith said of unvaccinated Canadians at the press conference.
Chaldeans Mensah, a political science professor at Edmonton's MacEwan University, said making dramatic changes to the top of the health system could cause unexpected consequences throughout the organization.
He said it's also problematic to bring the politics of vaccination into the recruitment of health-care workers.
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