The documents show recommendations, warnings of Alta. chief health physician

The Alberta Provincial Court released documents Wednesday that give insight into how Alberta’s United Conservative government decided when to start lifting provincial COVID-19 restrictions last February.

The previously confidential documents were ordered by a provincial court after the parents of five immunocompromised children and the Alberta Federation of Labor sued the government over the decision to lift the mask mandate.

Prime Minister Jason Kenney announced on February 8 that the province would lift the vaccine passport system and, just five days later, end the school mask mandate.

The decision was made shortly after the UCP COVID cabinet committee met and weighed options put forward by Health Minister Jason Copping on how to move forward as Alberta moved from the COVID-19 pandemic phase to the transition phase to the endemic phase.

The document states that Alberta would be leading the way to the endemic phase with a “phasing out of public health measures” to decrease risk.

However, the document warns that “the lifting of restrictions should begin only once the pressures on the health care system have been sufficiently eased and are likely to continue to ease.”

Chief Medical Officer for Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw provided recommendations to the government to move forward with lifting all restrictions, including increasing the capacity of the health care system. She warned that she would get overwhelmed and warned of additional waves as a result of increased exposure.

“She was right about all her warnings and they just ignored them. And now we are paying the price,” said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labor.

Hinshaw gave three options.

The first was to remove most restrictions, including removing masks from schools in Step 1. The second option kept more restrictions and retained the school mask mandate until Step 2.

The third option left all decisions in the hands of the cabinet, the option that the cabinet chose.

“The biggest thing for me was how focused this was on reopening as a key concern of our pandemic policy,” said Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor of law at the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine.

“There is a lot of criticism that the government’s approach has sometimes favored politics over what made sense from a public health perspective. And I think we see elements of that in this performance.”

McGowan agreed.

“From my perspective, it clearly shows that his eyes were clearly focused on politics, especially his narrow self-interest and politics, and not where it should have been, which is public safety, especially for our children.”

The government denies that it ignored or overruled any of Dr. Hinshaw’s recommendations.

“The health minister provided the cabinet with three options, presented uniformly without a recommended option. Cabinet chose between those options,” Steve Buick, press secretary to the health minister, wrote in a statement Wednesday.

“We stand by our decision to lift public health measures, including removing mandatory mask wearing in schools. It was the right choice for children and did not pose an undue risk to our communities.”


This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 13, 2022.

Leave a Comment