Kenney moves to avert hospital ‘disaster,’ as Alberta’s COVID rates sit 80% higher than Ontario’s

Just one month after Jason Kenney foretold the “best summer in Alberta history” the embattled premier reversed course Tuesday night with a suite of new pandemic restrictions designed to curb one of the highest COVID-19 case rates in North America.

In a rare solo dinnertime address streamed by local TV stations — after which reporters were not allowed to ask questions — Kenney said the province has set a record for people currently in intensive care, and that the spike in cases threatens even the expanded hospital capacity that’s been implemented in recent weeks.

Many of the new measures will be familiar to residents of other provinces — all students are moving to online learning; in-person dining and outdoor patios must close; and churches must limit capacity to just 15 people — but they will curtail much of the activity currently permitted in Alberta.

Over the past year Kenney, a staunch advocate of personal freedoms, has largely resisted the type of stay-at-home orders seen in Ontario, for example. Speaking Tuesday, he used his oft-repeated line about the importance of protecting both lives and livelihoods, but this time said it was time for action.

“Governments must not impair people’s rights or their livelihoods unless it is absolutely necessary to save lives and, in this case, to prevent disaster from unfolding in our hospitals.”

According to Health Canada, Alberta’s case rate last week was 308 per 100,000 people, which is higher than every other jurisdiction not only in the country, but in the United States as well.

Here in Canada, the second highest rate is Ontario’s, at 170 cases per 100,000, making Alberta’s rate about 80 per cent higher.

While cases spike, Kenney’s government has taken heat for public health restrictions critics have decried as too lenient and poorly enforced. But even those rules put in place have caused some to bristle, including members of Kenney’s own party.

Kenney has battled significant pushback on restrictions, including from government MLAs representing mostly rural areas, who say the pandemic response has been overblown.

Several of them, including a minster, left the province over the holidays, in defiance of advice to avoid non-essential travel and, more recently, penned a letter pushing back against the government’s own policy.

But over the weekend, a rodeo held in a pasture north of Calgary drew hundreds of unmasked spectators in an event that both violated public health guidelines and drew national attention to what Kenney called the province’s “compliance problem.”

While Alberta Health Services says it notified organizers that the event was illegal, it went ahead with, so far, few consequences.

Kenney said Tuesday the fine for violating public health orders is doubling to $2,000 and that his government will introduce a new enforcement protocol for repeat offenders, “because we will not tolerate those who endanger the health of their fellow Albertans.”

Vaccines are arriving in greater numbers, he said, but, until then, these new measures will protect hospitals.

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Now, summer is in the hands of Albertans, the premier said.

“What it will look like depends on what all of us do. So let’s come together and show that we are Alberta strong.”