Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta's public safety minister have criticized the Edmonton Police Service over a social media post that urged residents to report hate incidents. Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said officers should concentrate on violent crime, theft, illegal drugs, and vandalism rather than policing opinions or hurt feelings, and said the Government would press police agencies to make those crimes the priority. Smith backed him, describing free speech as a foundational Alberta value and warning against a "slippery slope" of policing controversial or religious statements. Critics, including a former member of the Edmonton police commission, called the ministers' intervention an overreach and argued the issue belonged to the police commission, not the Government. Others warned the response could discourage people from reporting hate and undermine public trust in the police. The police service declined to comment.
A week into Alberta's new self-referral system for medical imaging, clinics and technologists are questioning whether it will work. Under the change, patients can book and pay up front for tests such as MRIs, X-rays and ultrasounds without a doctor's referral, and the Government will reimburse the cost only if a scan uncovers a previously undiagnosed cancer. Some clinics are turning away self-referrals while they work out how the policy operates. Gina McRae of the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists said the province does not have enough technologists to meet current demand, pointing to a shortage her organization estimated at about 202 full-time positions and expected to double by 2028. She warned that patients with no history of cancer could book scans and lengthen waits for higher-risk patients in the public system. Critics also argue nothing in the rules guarantees that publicly referred patients keep priority, raising questions about whether the move edges Alberta toward two-tier care, though the Government says physician-referred tests will still come first.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging the Alberta government to scrap its provincial fuel tax as oil prices climb. At a Calgary news conference, the federation's Alberta director, Kris Sims, said drivers pay roughly 27 cents per litre in tax at the pump, including a provincial fuel tax of 13 cents per litre that she argued the Government should remove immediately. Sims said many Albertans had been counting on fuel-tax relief and noted that the province's $100 rebate must be claimed through an online form, which she said is harder for seniors to access. She also called on Ottawa not to restore its 10-cent-per-litre excise tax, which the federal government has suspended. The appeal came with oil trading around $75 a barrel.
A new report from the Fraser Institute estimates the average Canadian family will pay between $6,464 and $21,115 for public health care in 2026, arguing that most people underestimate the true cost because the system is free at the point of use. The think tank found that a family earning about $88,572 will contribute roughly $8,644 toward health care through taxes, while the top 10% of earners, those making $454,221 or more, will pay about $66,350. Households in the lowest income bracket, earning $17,654 or less, will pay around $637. Comparing insurance costs from 1997 to 2026, the study found the price of public health care has climbed 2.3 times as fast as the cost of food and 1.5 times as fast as the cost of shelter. The authors argue that because Canadians pay for health care indirectly through taxes, they cannot easily judge what they are contributing or what they receive in return.
Alberta's new integrated driver's licences have led to long delays at registries for some applicants. Rolled out on July 2nd, the cards now embed a person's citizenship status and health care number, and applicants must show proof they are legally in Canada along with photo identification and their health card, where previously a current licence and a piece of secondary identification were enough. Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally acknowledged the added steps are lengthening wait times and said he regrets the stress the process is causing. Some long-time residents have been turned away repeatedly, including a Grande Prairie woman who immigrated in 1975 and made four visits totalling more than four hours at the registry without obtaining a card. Alberta's privacy commissioner has separately raised concerns that putting health numbers on the cards increases the risk of fraud, and the Government is offering an interim 60-day card to those still gathering documents.
