“Health decisions are the responsibility of the health minister with advice from whom he needs to seek advice from,” Smith said at an unrelated news conference in Sherwood Park on Monday.
“I have spoken to the justice minister about this, that we retain full authority to offer this advice at the provincial level.”
Alberta schools have more than 10 per cent of the student population absent, with more than 20,000 public school students sick in Edmonton last Wednesday alone. Two Alberta children’s hospitals are overwhelmed by the high number of respiratory cases.
On Monday, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health “strongly recommended” indoor masks to ease the strain on the province’s health care system.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said she has not received requests from Alberta school boards to invoke a mask mandate.
Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services remained silent. Information on the number of school cases is not available.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health during the first 2½ years of the pandemic, has not been seen or heard from in weeks.
When Smith was sworn in as prime minister on October 11, she said she would replace Hinshaw.
On Monday, Smith said a new advisory panel of doctors would be brought in later this week. Dr. Mark Joffe, vice-president of Alberta Health Services, has been appointed CMOH on an interim basis.
Smith said the government is now treating COVID as endemic, so no special measures are being planned to prevent the disease.
He said he is concerned about a national shortage of children’s cold medicine and long wait times at Alberta children’s hospitals. He suggested that pharmacies could help get children medication.
Smith said those are the actions parents want him to take.
“I think it’s important not to overreact or panic,” he said. “We want people to know that we take this seriously, but we also want to do the things that we know will help.”
The province is being urged to step up
Rakhi Pancholi, the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud, has a school-age child at home sick. He said the province needs to step up and start providing some information and advice. “They need to stand up, talk to the parents, talk to the school boards,” Pancholi said. “Tell us what information they’re based on, find out what experts are advising on this so we can all have some confidence in the decisions being made. “Right now, there are no decisions being made, no information, and school boards and parents are at a complete loss as to what to do.” Monday was Smith’s first press conference since Oct. 24, when she swore in her cabinet at Government House. Smith spent a few weeks campaigning to win her seat in the Nov. 8 Brooks-Medicine Hat primary. At a public forum in the final week of the campaign, Smith appeared to agree with another candidate about inviting Paul Alexander to Alberta to provide advice on COVID-19. “I have a group of doctors who are advising me and I know they’ve already contacted Dr. Paul Alexander, so I’m interested to hear what he has to say,” Smith told the forum. Alexander, an adviser to former US President Donald Trump, once called COVID-19 vaccines “bioweapons” and advocated encouraging herd immunity to fight the pandemic. When asked about those comments Monday, Smith denied extending an invitation to Alexander.
