EDMONTON - Opposition critics in Alberta say internal documents released by the Klein government prove what they've known all along about Bill 11 - that the bill was intended to license private hospitals, and that Albertans were overwhelmingly opposed to it. 

INDEPTH: Curing Health Care

The province's new health minister, Gary Mar, made the documents public on Friday. 
The information was gathered from focus group sessions aimed at helping the government develop its health care policy. The government was warned it was taking a great risk going ahead with private hospital legislation, given the strong public opposition. 

Mar says the government listened to those concerns when it drafted the bill. "Private hospitals was a term that was used in the consultation and it became clear that Albertans were uncomfortable with that expression, so that's the reason why the use of the expression 'surgical facilities' came up." 

But Opposition House Leader Gary Dickson says no one was fooled by the government's new definition of private hospitals, and now their suspicions have been confirmed. 

"Now we find that what the government was using was something described as a 'policy statement on the future of private hospitals.' It would have been a blockbuster revelation if this had come in the spring, when we were still debating Bill 11," he said. 

Dickson says, if the information had been released when the Liberals asked for it, it may have forced the government to withdraw the bill. 

The Health Care Protection Act, which allows overnight stays at what are called non-hospital surgical facilities, will go into effect this fall. 

17:16 07/22/2000
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