© Provided by National Post
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during a news conference regarding the surging COVID cases in the province in Calgary on Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
EDMONTON — The Alberta government was apparently so keen to avoid bringing in vaccine passports, or as it likes to call them out here, a “restriction exemption program,” that it waited until the last possible minute , ensuring not only would we be subject to one, but also to new restrictions on schools, onerous limits on private gatherings and caps on weddings and funerals — and all just in time for the health-care system to still collapse. It is the best of all COVID worlds.
Alberta might be a singularly difficult place for a Conservative premier to govern. Whereas his counterparts in other provinces are largely criticized for not doing enough to slow the pandemic, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney faces equal pressure from those who say he is doing too much.
Kenney has been consistent in expressing his belief in a limited-government approach to pandemic management — one that only imposes restrictions that are necessary based on data, and allowing for as much freedom as possible. But he has been much less consistent in his execution of that philosophy, preferring instead to avoid restrictions altogether for as long as he can, then bringing them in all at once.
He quelled one burgeoning party rebellion in the spring, when several MLAs signed a letter criticizing restrictions , followed a few weeks later when one backbencher publicly called for him to resign , which led to the ouster of two members from caucus. The premier is wily, but his tank of political capital must be close to empty.
Kenney made a big show about lifting all restrictions at the beginning of July so the province could be “ open for good .” A review of data coming from the United Kingdom did show a decoupling of case rates and hospitalizations, but other highly vaccinated jurisdictions like Israel and some American states did not show the same trend.
Even still, removing enough restrictions to permit the Calgary Stampede to take place need not have resulted in the current crisis. However, the province had no plan to ensure its test-and-trace system was capable of managing any spikes in cases and, in fact, the government had planned to do away with routine testing altogether.
Other measures that also could have allowed more freedom, while limiting spread, would have been the distribution of higher-quality masks, improved indoor ventilation systems in schools and businesses, and rapid testing. It is incredible that a year and a half into this mess, rapid tests are still controversial.
The summer was also exactly the time to test the $100 incentive to get vaccinated, rather than when hospitals were already overflowing.
Had Kenney and Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw pivoted even in August when it became obvious that intensive care units were filling up, largely with the unvaccinated, and brought in even modest restrictions, we might have avoided this. Instead, Alberta could run out of intensive care beds within 10 days and the government says it has asked other provinces to make room in their hospitals. Elective, but often still serious, surgeries have been postponed.
Health policy experts react to Stampede recording of Jason Kenney
A province-wide mask mandate was brought in earlier this month, and starting Monday businesses will be asked to either implement proof of vaccination or a negative test in order to avoid restrictions on capacity and distancing, and elementary schools will be required to enforce distancing and classroom cohorting.
Weddings and funerals do not have the option to avoid restrictions, upending long-planned events. Nor do places of worship, though one suspects not even giving churches the option to use vaccine passports was a political calculation to avoid blow-back from congregations that have been skeptical of any COVID measures.
Perhaps most infuriating for the average Albertan, certainly for me, is restrictions on private indoor gatherings that limit them to no more than 10 people from only two households for the vaccinated. Those who live alone are limited to two contacts. The unvaccinated are banned outright from socializing indoors, but good luck enforcing that. While it is true that it is more difficult to regulate private spaces than public ones, it is bizarre that one can go to the bar and dance up close with strangers, but a routine game night with vaccinated friends from more than two homes is now illegal.
I am skeptical vaccine passports will be effective. The system is based around health information Albertans are asked to download and either keep on their phone or print off, which if you’re concerned about security or fraud, is a completely laughable system.
Mandates incentivize people to find ways around the rules. And, whatever your thoughts on vaccine refusers, and I have as little patience for them as anyone, a common theme among them is their distaste for government. So, even if passports succeed in lowering case counts, it could mean even less trust in the health system, and less trust between Albertans.
Vaccine passports will also impose costs on businesses now tasked with policing everyone who comes in their doors.
But, if passports are going to be imposed, giving people less than five days notice is the worst possible way to do it. Any gains that might have happened from the unvaccinated choosing to get their shot ahead of the mandate coming into effect have been negated.
All of us are now scrambling. When I went Wednesday night to sign into the health website, I was put into a lineup that was over 100,000 people long — and frozen.
There has been some speculation that Kenney’s relative absence in recent weeks was to help federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, by removing a target the Liberals could use as a wedge in the election campaign.
But it isn’t only Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau that the Tories should worry about. People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, once dubbed the Albertan from Quebec, seized on the new restrictions. Fixing to be a spoiler in the election, Bernier accused Kenney of declaring “war” on our charter rights and called him a “despot.”
As ever in Alberta, the most potent political threats are on the right.
EDMONTON — The Alberta government was apparently so keen to avoid bringing in vaccine passports, or as it likes to call them out here, a “restriction exemption program,” that it waited until the last possible minute , ensuring not only would we be subject to one, but also to new restrictions on schools, onerous limits on private gatherings and caps on weddings and funerals — and all just in time for the health-care system to still collapse. It is the best of all COVID worlds.
Alberta might be a singularly difficult place for a Conservative premier to govern. Whereas his counterparts in other provinces are largely criticized for not doing enough to slow the pandemic, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney faces equal pressure from those who say he is doing too much.
Kenney has been consistent in expressing his belief in a limited-government approach to pandemic management — one that only imposes restrictions that are necessary based on data, and allowing for as much freedom as possible. But he has been much less consistent in his execution of that philosophy, preferring instead to avoid restrictions altogether for as long as he can, then bringing them in all at once.
He quelled one burgeoning party rebellion in the spring, when several MLAs signed a letter criticizing restrictions , followed a few weeks later when one backbencher publicly called for him to resign , which led to the ouster of two members from caucus. The premier is wily, but his tank of political capital must be close to empty.
Kenney made a big show about lifting all restrictions at the beginning of July so the province could be “ open for good .” A review of data coming from the United Kingdom did show a decoupling of case rates and hospitalizations, but other highly vaccinated jurisdictions like Israel and some American states did not show the same trend.
Even still, removing enough restrictions to permit the Calgary Stampede to take place need not have resulted in the current crisis. However, the province had no plan to ensure its test-and-trace system was capable of managing any spikes in cases and, in fact, the government had planned to do away with routine testing altogether.
Other measures that also could have allowed more freedom, while limiting spread, would have been the distribution of higher-quality masks, improved indoor ventilation systems in schools and businesses, and rapid testing. It is incredible that a year and a half into this mess, rapid tests are still controversial.
The summer was also exactly the time to test the $100 incentive to get vaccinated, rather than when hospitals were already overflowing.
Had Kenney and Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw pivoted even in August when it became obvious that intensive care units were filling up, largely with the unvaccinated, and brought in even modest restrictions, we might have avoided this. Instead, Alberta could run out of intensive care beds within 10 days and the government says it has asked other provinces to make room in their hospitals. Elective, but often still serious, surgeries have been postponed.
Health policy experts react to Stampede recording of Jason Kenney
A province-wide mask mandate was brought in earlier this month, and starting Monday businesses will be asked to either implement proof of vaccination or a negative test in order to avoid restrictions on capacity and distancing, and elementary schools will be required to enforce distancing and classroom cohorting.
Weddings and funerals do not have the option to avoid restrictions, upending long-planned events. Nor do places of worship, though one suspects not even giving churches the option to use vaccine passports was a political calculation to avoid blow-back from congregations that have been skeptical of any COVID measures.
Perhaps most infuriating for the average Albertan, certainly for me, is restrictions on private indoor gatherings that limit them to no more than 10 people from only two households for the vaccinated. Those who live alone are limited to two contacts. The unvaccinated are banned outright from socializing indoors, but good luck enforcing that. While it is true that it is more difficult to regulate private spaces than public ones, it is bizarre that one can go to the bar and dance up close with strangers, but a routine game night with vaccinated friends from more than two homes is now illegal.
I am skeptical vaccine passports will be effective. The system is based around health information Albertans are asked to download and either keep on their phone or print off, which if you’re concerned about security or fraud, is a completely laughable system.
Mandates incentivize people to find ways around the rules. And, whatever your thoughts on vaccine refusers, and I have as little patience for them as anyone, a common theme among them is their distaste for government. So, even if passports succeed in lowering case counts, it could mean even less trust in the health system, and less trust between Albertans.
Vaccine passports will also impose costs on businesses now tasked with policing everyone who comes in their doors.
But, if passports are going to be imposed, giving people less than five days notice is the worst possible way to do it. Any gains that might have happened from the unvaccinated choosing to get their shot ahead of the mandate coming into effect have been negated.
All of us are now scrambling. When I went Wednesday night to sign into the health website, I was put into a lineup that was over 100,000 people long — and frozen.
There has been some speculation that Kenney’s relative absence in recent weeks was to help federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, by removing a target the Liberals could use as a wedge in the election campaign.
But it isn’t only Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau that the Tories should worry about. People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, once dubbed the Albertan from Quebec, seized on the new restrictions. Fixing to be a spoiler in the election, Bernier accused Kenney of declaring “war” on our charter rights and called him a “despot.”
As ever in Alberta, the most potent political threats are on the right.
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