Today, Public Interest Alberta Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement:
“Our healthcare system is on the brink of collapse. Our ICU capacity could likely be overrun within ten days, with fewer beds and staff than is required to provide care for Albertans. Our healthcare professionals are working without adequate PPE or N95 masks. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals are telling us burnout is at an all-time high. Emergency room doctors are warning us Albertans are afraid to visit the ER for fear of COVID.
“Enough is enough. In simpler times and other places, these conditions would have already led to elected leaders and health officials taking true responsibility, up to and including resignation, to make way for new leadership.
The skyrocketing ICU admissions alone, which have led AHS to brief healthcare professionals on Alberta’s recently revised “critical care triage protocol,” should be enough to lead to Jason Kenney taking responsibility for his failure to do everything in his powers to reasonably protect the lives of Albertans and to protect the public interest.
“The role of Premier is clear: to guide the policy and legislative agenda as chief minister of the province of Alberta, and to do so in ways that, in Premier Kenney’s own words, “protect the lives and livelihoods” of Albertans. In the face of the most critical moment in Alberta’s history, he has failed – utterly failed – in this regard.
“He has failed to protect the lives of Albertans, the livelihoods of workers, and now, during this predictable 4th wave, he has failed to protect the overall public interest of our province. His government is sending healthcare workers to our hospitals and clinics without N95 masks, and our unvaccinated kids back to school without proper protections and protocols, forcing school boards to attempt to fill the void of leadership.
“Enough is enough.
“Under no interpretation of the past several weeks and months, since before Kenney and his government declared this would be the “best summer ever”, can Jason Kenney be seen as fit for the Office of Premier. In the interest of the health and safety of unvaccinated children, health care professionals, and the general spirit of this province that we love and cherish: he must resign.”
