Alberta Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is calling on Premier Danielle Smith’s government to reconvene the legislature five weeks early, saying her government needs to take accountability during a crisis of hospital overcrowding.
Nenshi says major hospitals operating at 102 per cent capacity is “not normal” and says the province needs to declare a state of emergency until capacity becomes manageable.
“This is not just ‘it’s a bad flu season.’ This is an unprecedented crisis in our emergency rooms and our ambulance services, symptomatic of a system that is broken down,” he said Tuesday.
“We need the premier to answer questions.”
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nenshi’s call to reconvene.
Emergency bells rung by Edmonton ER doctors
Demands for urgent measures have intensified since the death last month of a man who waited nearly eight hours in an Edmonton emergency department.
Since then, doctors have compiled and sent to the government front-line horror stories of recent preventable deaths and patient suffering. Their letter describes emergency department hallways and waiting rooms as “death zones.”
Hospitals Minister Matt Jones, at a news conference in Calgary, offered condolences to anybody who has lost a loved one that received care.
But, he noted of the some two million emergency department visits each year, roughly 0.07 per cent lose their lives.
“If someone requires critical care, urgent care, they should seek it and they should have confidence that they will get it,” Jones said.
“And I don’t feel that these anonymized cases are representative of the incredible care that our system and our front-line professionals provide on a day-to-day basis.
He added, “I do take (the reports) seriously. We must learn from them. But we also do incredible work every day for Albertans and their families.”
Exploring solutions
He said they are exploring measures, including extra funding for staffing, to ensure long-term or continuing care facilities can accept discharged patients on evenings and weekends as part of an effort to improve patient transfers.
Jones took questions as part of an announcement that a $151-million expansion at the Peter Lougheed Centre, a hospital in Calgary, is complete.
He said 97 new patient beds, including 28 emergency beds, are to be phased in starting in late February.
Continued response and criticism towards the issue
Nenshi told reporters the province needs to restore a centralized provincial command structure he said was broken during Smith’s recent dismantling of the previous provincial health authority, Alberta Health Services.
Jones has previously said the province doesn’t need to declare an emergency because it has the necessary tools, and that its agencies work with providers to co-ordinate patients provincewide.
The minister said Tuesday while it’s done “very well” in Calgary and Edmonton, he’s looking at doing more. “We’re looking to expand that further to leverage provincewide command centre co-ordination,” he said.
Dr. Brian Wirzba, president of the Alberta Medical Association representing doctors, said earlier this week that when integrated operations rely on collaboration and consensus, “no one owns it.”
“Without clear authority, progress will stall when swift decisions are needed most,” Wirzba said.
The government is launching a triage liaison physician program on Feb. 1 to expedite care in emergency departments and has pointed to longer-term hospital bed expansion plans.
Still, Nenshi questioned whether the government is doing everything it can to channel patients where they need to go.
The NDP has long pointed to the government’s decision in 2024 to halt work on a new south Edmonton hospital. Nenshi said had that planning not been cancelled, a hospital could be opening right now.
Jones has acknowledged there should be more hospital capacity in Edmonton and Calgary but has also said “government deals with competing priorities across the board.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.