Less than a week after unveiling its plans to roll back COVID-19 restrictions, the Alberta government is facing multiple calls to release the data and recommendations it got before making the decision.
© Provided by Edmonton JournalThe Alberta legislature on Nov. 5, 2020.
Ashley Joannou - Yesterday 7:12 p.m.
Edmonton Journal
Former Alberta cabinet ministers have differing opinions on whether the information — which is currently protected under cabinet confidentiality — should be made public.
Alberta is one of several provinces to announce plans to roll back restrictions. Alberta’s mandatory vaccine passport program has already ended and as of Monday, masks will no longer be required for students in the province’s schools. Additional stages lifting more restrictions come into effect on March 1, if hospitalization numbers trend down.
News of the restrictions being loosened has led to requests from municipalities and one of Alberta’s largest school boards to see the province’s data and recommendations made by chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
Let us share perspectives: Sohi
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi sent a letter requesting the information to Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping on Friday, after council passed a motion earlier in the week.
“Given that some of the next stages of the plan are tentatively scheduled, we are asking you for an opportunity to share our perspectives, including what we have heard from a wide variety of Edmontonians, on the timing and staging of the relaxations,” Sohi’s letter says.
“To have this discussion, and support city council’s further discussions on this topic, it would be helpful to understand the data which informed the Government of Alberta’s recent plan.”
In Calgary, city council has agreed in principle for Mayor Joyti Gondek to make a similar request but they still need to give it a final sign-off next week before a formal letter could go out.
Edmonton Coun. Andrew Knack said he trusts Hinshaw but doesn’t trust the government to follow medical advice after previous restrictions were lifted too soon.
Knack said city council makes the vast majority of its decisions after debating the facts in public.
“People can see clearly how we came to our decision and that builds trust in the decision-making process — being able to understand why somebody has decided made a decision the way they have, even if they don’t agree,” he said.
On Wednesday, Edmonton Public School Board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said the division will be asking Hinshaw to outline the data and rationale for the government’s decision to remove the masking requirement for students.
“That, to me, is critical data that needs to be shared publicly,” Estabrooks said.
At a press conference Thursday, Hinshaw deferred questions about the masking requirement to Copping and said she couldn’t share what recommendations she’s made because she took an oath of cabinet confidence.
Copping did not commit to sharing data with municipalities. He said the government is using a “prudent, phased approach” to lift restrictions.
“We take very seriously the recommendations made by our chief medical officer of health.
“We, as a cabinet committee, are balancing the needs of Albertans not only protecting health and protecting people from Delta, and Omicron and COVID, but also mental health, because of the cost that we have with putting in restrictive measures, and then also the overall economy.”
Former cabinet ministers weigh in
Former Alberta justice minister and Progressive Conservative MLA Jonathan Denis said cabinet confidentiality allows for free discussion of many competing views and he’s concerned about the precedent that would be set if information discussed in cabinet could be made public.
“You would not have the same free-flowing discussions and high-level decision making if the actors, in this case the ministers of the Crown, would know that this type of information could actually be disclosed,” said Denis, a Calgary lawyer, adding that provincial and federal governments of every stripe uphold the same rules.
“Having sat at the cabinet table before in five different ministries, there are often very many competing interests. There’s often competing data, competing studies that you have.”
If a municipal government wants to gather its own information, they can do that, he said.
“I know no situation where one government goes and asks for confidential information from another government.”
Retired Alberta politician Brian Mason, a former leader of the provincial NDP who was also the transportation minister in the Notley government, acknowledged that Hinshaw’s recommendations would be covered under cabinet confidence but said the government could and should voluntarily release them to restore confidence in the decision making process after restrictions were previously lifted too soon.
“Nobody’s suggesting that the government release the individual comments of cabinet ministers in a confidential cabinet meeting. They’re just suggesting that the information provided to the government upon which it claims to be making this decision be made publicly available, and that’s not a slippery slope,” he said.
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