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

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.

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.