Alberta doctors are calling for a ‘state of emergency.’ What does that entail?

A physician's stethoscope is shown in this file photo.

Earlier this week, the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) called on the province to declare a state of emergency for a second time amid overcrowding in Edmonton hospitals.

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Doctors in emergency rooms around the city have been chronicling their experiences in watching over-capacity strain the system, especially in the wake of Alberta’s flu season.

Warren Thirsk, an Edmonton ER doctor, told The Canadian Press on Saturday that asking the province to declare a state of emergency was a method to begin a conversation surrounding Alberta’s health-care system.

The province, in turn, has said it’s using all resources already available to navigate the increased pressure, and a public health state of emergency would not be of use.

But what is a state of emergency in this context?

Those living in Alberta, and the majority of Canada, for that matter, during the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago already have experience with health-related declarations of emergency.

Under Alberta’s Public Health Act, the provincial government is able to call what’s officially known as a “public health state of emergency” for 30 days, 90 days in the case of a pandemic.

That’s precisely what Jason Kenney, Alberta’s former premier, did in March 2020.

Alberta fell under a three-month-long state of emergency at the precipice of COVID-19. Another state of emergency was declared after an uptick of cases in November 2021.

In its simplest form, this meant health-care providers could, under section 52 of the Public Health Act, take central control of a crisis by enacting emergency powers over a short period of time.

In the updated 2025 act, the provincial health minister, a provincial health agency or a provincial health corporation would be given the following powers:

• acquire or use any real or personal property;
• authorize or require any qualified person to render aid of a type the person is qualified to provide;
• authorize the entry into any building or on any land, without warrant, by any person; and
• provide for the distribution of essential health and medical supplies and provide, maintain and co-ordinate the delivery of health services.

A local state of public health emergency can also be declared – which is what Edmonton itself did in 2020 on top of the Alberta government’s response to COVID-19.

The full force of a public health state of emergency was not used locally or provincially, but was instead what Kenney had called an aid for reinforcing health-care administration.

That was the only time in recent history the province, or Edmonton, had declared a public health state of emergency.

Other emergency declarations, however, have been made as recently as 2016 and 2023 during Alberta wildfires under the Emergency Management Act.

With files from The Canadian Press