UCP vows to relinquish special Health Act powers

Alberta's UCP government will repeal a controversial bill that adds special government powers to the Public Health Act in the spring, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Thursday.

Under Bill 10, the Public Health Emergency Powers Amendment Act, a cabinet minister can make legislative changes without the approval of the legislature. The bill passed in 48 hours on April 2, with opposition from the NDP, who tried to add a sunset clause and transparency requirements to the new law.

The bill sparked public concerns that it allowed government overreach, and continued to draw negative public feedback after a special committee was struck to look at the Public Health Act and its amendments.

In a statement Thursday, Shandro said the original bill was passed out of concern the legislative assembly might not be able to meet to respond to the pandemic. However, the assembly sat for 52 days, passing 34 bills before the end of the spring sitting on July 29.

“Over the last number of months, it has become clear that with the right safety protocols in place and standing orders that allow for the assembly to work quickly in an emergency situation, the power to modify legislation by ministerial order is unnecessary,” Shandro said.

Shandro said the committee's final report would form the basis of a bill to modernize the Health Act, to be tabled in the Spring 2021 session. It will repeal Bill 10, and go further by repeal sections of the bill that were added in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he said.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) filed a legal challenge to the bill on April 30, arguing it was unconstitutional to give one minister the unilateral power to create new laws without the checks and balances of the legislature during a public health emergency.

JCCF lawyer Jay Cameron said in a statement Thursday the civil liberties organization would advance its litigation until Bill 10 is repealed, and the matter is currently scheduled for a Nov. 9 case management application.

“Statements that it will be repealed because it is unconstitutional are a good first step but we need to see action,” said Cameron.

“I'm not aware of any statements explaining the delay,” he said.

Steve Buick, press secretary to Shandro, did not respond to questions as of press time regarding the delay, or why the announcement came before the committee had submitted its final report.

NDP health critic David Shepherd also questioned the timing, saying the bill needs to be repealed immediately when the legislature reconvenes next week.

“This was the right thing when we called for it in the legislature when Bill 10 was introduced, it's been the right thing to do as we repeated that call ever since,” said Shepherd in a Thursday interview.

The vast majority of 650 written public submissions to the special committee expressed concern about severe and unwanted overreach by the UCP government during the pandemic, and many expressed opposition to Bill 10 and Bill 24, a bill passed in June that critics said further extended government powers.

At an Aug. 27 legislative committee meeting, Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, blasted Bill 10 as unconstitutional.

“Cabinet ministers can create new legal powers that limit individual liberties and freedoms. This vests in one person too much power that can do too much harm to the rights of your constituents,” said Bryant.

Shepherd said the minister's announcement of a repeal is a sign the government is beginning to feel the heat of its decisions.