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CALGARY: The Canadian Constitution Foundation supports the principle behind Alberta’s proposed healthcare reforms and looks forward to seeing additional details. On November 14, 2025, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta Minister of Health Matt Jones announced that they would introduce healthcare reform legislation in the province. Broadly speaking the proposal would permit what is referred to as “dual practice.” Under this proposal, surgeons would be able to work in both the government healthcare system and to use their off hours to perform surgeries privately, outside the government system. To participate, surgeons would still commit to a minimum number of surgeries in the government system.  

Dual practice is not explicitly prohibited by the Canada Health Act, but it is prohibited by provincial legislation. The issue of dual practice was central in the British Columbia case Cambie Surgeries Corporation v British Columbia (Attorney General), which was brought by patients and private B.C. surgical clinics. That litigation was supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation. In Cambie, the patients argued that they suffered from long wait times for surgeries, which harmed their long term health, in violation of their Charter protected rights to life and security of person. The Cambie litigation argued that the prohibition on dual practice limited patient choice and forced them onto government wait lists that could not meet their needs.

Ultimately, in Cambie the majority in the B.C. Court of Appeal found that the B.C. law that prevents patients from accessing medical treatment outside the government monopoly system does deprive some patients of their rights to life and security of person. However, two of three judges found that the prohibitions are in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice and the third judge found that these limits on life and security were justified.

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeal in Cambie, which has left the law on a legislated government monopoly on healthcare unsettled in Canada. Cambie stands in contrast to the 2005 case of Chaoulli, where a majority the Supreme Court of Canada held that Quebec’s prohibition on private health insurance for medically necessary services is a violation of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. 

“We applaud the Alberta government’s initiative in principle to increase healthcare entrepreneurship, to increase opportunities for surgeons to perform more life changing surgeries, and to give patients choice and autonomy in how they access care,” said CCF Executive Director Joanna Baron. “We know that long wait times for patients worsen medical outcomes, and that patients even die on these government wait lists. This government monopoly is a bizarre form of social cruelty that traps patients in a dysfunctional government monopoly. It cannot be justified by the principles of fundamental justice, and we are optimistic that the Alberta proposal will improve how patients access care in Alberta,” concluded Baron.

More information about the Cambie litigation is available on the CCF website at theCCF.ca. The CCF supported the plaintiffs in the Cambie litigation, but was not itself a party to the litigation. More information on the case is available at YourHealthCantWait.ca.