Broken trust a barrier to new deal, doctors say

The head of the Alberta Medical Association says many factors led to the recent collapse of a proposed master agreement with the province, but a key one was lack of trust.

Dr. Paul Boucher says before he and Health Minister Tyler Shandro can even begin negotiating the nuts and bolts of a new deal, that trust must be regained.

“I'm not going to bring back another agreement (for ratification) unless I have pretty good confidence that it's going to pass,” Boucher said in an interview.

“Another failed ratification would be a disaster for everyone, as far as I'm concerned.”

Boucher said he and Shandro are meeting again, almost two weeks after the rank-and-file physicians of the 11,000-member AMA refused to ratify the new tentative deal brokered by both sides, voting 53 per cent against it.

Boucher said such deals normally pass by a big majority. But during the voting, he said, he heard from about 3,000 physicians and many told him their main concern was that the pact left them too exposed to a government they didn't trust.

“Any agreement really requires both parties to work well together within it,” Boucher said.

“I think a lot of members just weren't sure that this was going to be the case. And there wasn't enough clarity or safeguards to ensure that their voices were going to be heard and that they would be treated fairly within it. That's a result of the challenges we've had (with the province) over the year.”

Those challenges began in early 2020, when Shandro unilaterally tore up the master agreement with the AMA, using a law passed months earlier by the United Conservative government.

That cancellation launched a year of bitter attacks from both sides. Shandro imposed fee changes that led to some doctors withdrawing services, particularly in rural areas, saying the changes were financially unsustainable.

Shandro's officials dismissed the AMA as a lobby group and Shandro accused the organization of spreading misinformation to its members. The AMA, in turn, sued the government, accusing it of violating charter rights on collective bargaining by, among other things, cancelling binding arbitration.

All this was going on as COVID -19 swept through the province, filling up hospital wards.

Boucher said doctors were ready to sign a deal for less money, although they still had concerns and questions over remuneration. The four-year deal would have seen compensation stay static at more than $5 billion a year.

But he said a key concern was that binding arbitration had been replaced by mediation, albeit with the mediation decision made public. In addition, the AMA lawsuit would be cancelled.

The AMA considers binding arbitration critical, given it can't hit the picket line for ethical reasons to otherwise gain leverage on intractable labour disagreements.

Shandro has cancelled many of the fee changes he imposed and promised contentious ones won't return.