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Europe’s energy crisis has Canada weighing future of oil and gas industry – Global News
At 76 years old, Gwyn Morgan is not one to sit still.
The former oil executive, recipient of the Order of Canada and self-described “outdoors guy” remains a long-distance runner and led Global News on a jog through side streets and forest paths of Vancouver Island during an interview about his career — itself something of a marathon.
He says he got used to early mornings working alongside his father at a “hardscrabble” farm in Alberta. An engineer by trade, he made his career in the province’s oil and gas industry from the 1970s to the ’90s. He would found EnCana, known today as Ovintiv, and reigned at the helm of the gas giant when it overtook Royal Bank of Canada as the country’s most valuable company in 2005.
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Landlocked — A Global News series exploring Canada’s energy dilemma
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It was around that time Maclean’s magazine dubbed him “the most powerful man in Canada’s oil patch.”
“It was a golden time for the oil and gas industry,” he recalls in an interview from the dock of his home near Victoria, B.C., where he has easy access to the beauty of Canada’s west coast.
Gwyn Morgan, president and CEO of EnCana Corp., smiles before addressing investors at the company’s annual meeting in Calgary, Wednesday, April 27, 2005.
(CP PHOTO/Jeff McIntosh)
The retired oil patch veteran tells Global News he considers himself an “environmentalist” — he even has a compostable toilet at his estate.
Yet Morgan has been among the loudest voices chiding the Liberal government for not doing more to build new pipelines to get Canadian oil and gas to new markets.
He’s called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s policies towards Canada’s economically vital oil and gas industry a “fiasco” and has gone as far as to say that the decline of the sector has left him “ashamed” to be a Canadian in recent months.
When it comes to climate change, Morgan says he’s “not a denier” and supports decarbonization efforts.
“There’s being an environmentally-aware and concerned person and understanding, also, what the realities are,” he says. “It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying, but we have to do it strategically.”
Morgan’s views might be at odds with climate activists and growing investor sentiment against fossil fuel production, but experts caution against undervaluing the importance of Canada’s oil and gas sector to not only the domestic economy, but to global energy security.
European energy crisis puts Canada in the hot seat
The devastating impacts of climate change and the dire timelines to control greenhouse gas emissions have long driven efforts to decarbonize and set clean energy transition goals.
But Russia’s war in Ukraine has put the world’s energy crisis in sharp focus.
Europe is bracing for a lean winter as Russia — the European Union’s primary provider of gas used to heat homes — stymies energy deliveries.
While Russia cites maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline as the primary cause for delay, the west has accused President Vladimir Putin of crafting an energy war in an attempt to weaken support for Ukraine.
And if Russia is indeed using its vast resources as a weapon in the war on Ukraine, critics such as Morgan charge Canada with loading the gun for Putin.
Experts including commodities analyst Rory Johnston say Canada is not currently in a position to meaningfully offset reduced oil and gas shipments from Russia.
While allies such as Germany have floated Canadian energy as a reliable replacement for Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), a project to get those resources overseas has not been approved and would not be ready in time to heat European homes this winter, Johnston says.
That limitation butts up against political assurances that Canada will support Europe through their crisis.
“We have a political responsibility to do whatever we can to help them with this energy crisis that they are going through,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Aug. 25.
“They know that Canada is there, and we are working on all the practical ways that we can support Europe.”
But had Canada continued with pipeline-building policies forged under former prime minister Stephen Harper, Morgan argues the country would be in a position to help.
“Our oil production would be at a level right now where Russia doesn’t have any power. … They wouldn’t be the swing producer. There’s no doubt about that,” he says.
Pipeline building ‘extraordinarily’ slow in Canada
Canada’s pipeline progress in recent years has faced intense scrutiny.
The federal government purchased an expansion to the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2018 for $4.5 billion in an effort to get the project to completion after Kinder Morgan threatened to kill it amid environmentalist opposition. But it continues to face hurdles.
The Keystone XL pipeline, meanwhile, faced back-and-forth approvals and blocks from successive U.S. regimes before President Joe Biden put a kibosh on the plan shortly after taking office.
Johnston tells Global News that even if Keystone XL were approved today, it would take half a decade of investment and construction before a meaningful amount of Canadian resources made land in Europe.
“Unfortunately, part of the stability of our industry comes from the fact that we move extraordinarily slowly,” he says.
But Johnston notes that even after the war in Ukraine ends, European allies will likely never again be comfortable relying on Russian energy to the degree they did before — opening an opportunity for Canadian oil and gas to play a role in global energy security in years to come.
“I think it’s important not to think about, always, what we can do immediately, but how we can prepare for the next crisis. Because this will not be the last one,” he says.
Canada’s status as a resource-rich but increasingly difficult place to get pipelines built has not only affected the country’s reputation as a key energy supplier but as a trusted ally on the global stage, Morgan says.
“Canada became well-known as a place where you simply can’t get anything done. That is probably the worst kind of reputation you could have,” he says.
“Right now, we’ve got people dying and a war going on. And that is when I said, ‘I am ashamed to be a Canadian.’”
Oil and gas still the ‘backbone’ of Canadian economy
Despite setbacks in Canadian pipeline building, the oil-and-gas sector remains a “backbone” of Canada’s economy, says Tu Nguyen, economist and director of environmental, social and governance at RSM Canada.
At just under 10 per cent of Canada’s annual GDP, oil and gas is “one of the largest contributors” to the national economy, she says.
Much of this output revolves around the Albertan oil sands, the fourth-largest reserve of oil in the world and the largest such source outside of the powerful Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The oil-and-gas sector usually makes Alberta an outsized contributor to the Canadian economy — it feeds more into the federal budget than it receives, in other words. This had been the case since the mid-1960s until the COVID-19 pandemic saw Albertans receive more from the feds than usual due to emergency response benefits in 2021, per a report from the National Post.
Alberta seems to have bounced back to form in 2022, however, with a ranking of the 30 top-performing companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange released this week showing half were headquartered in the province and the oil and gas sector comprising the bulk of the list.
But investments in the oil sands — a particularly high-emissions source of fuel — have waned in recent years.
Nguyen says that oil extraction projects have lost favour in both the court of public opinion and the investment community in the past five or so years as investors realized that economic development would have to shift away from fossil fuels to foster a “liveable” future.
“That leads to hesitation in investing in the oil and gas industry,” she says.
Many Canadians who live outside Alberta may not realize the impact the oil sands have on their daily lives, says Johnston.
Prices soaring past $2-a-litre at gas pumps across Canada earlier this year could mark a wake-up call for many Canadians previously unconcerned about investment in the oil sands.
A gas station sign is seen in front of a wall mural as gas prices surpass $2 a litre Monday, May 9, 2022 in Montreal.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
The Canadian dollar has historically performed well when gas prices rise, giving consumers a “safety blanket” that protects their purchasing power and mitigates pain at the pumps, Johnston says.
But a lack of investment in the oil sands has “weakened the relationship between oil prices and the Canadian dollar,” he says. Canada’s dollar value did not experience traditional highs even as a tight supply of gas worldwide sent prices soaring this past spring and early summer.
“That’s the issue that a lot of Canadians don’t fully understand, is that just because they’re not personally affected by the changes in investment out west, they’re still fundamentally, very personally affected by the changed relationship between the price of oil and the Canadian dollar,” Johnston says.
Governments, industry players and markets worldwide have recognized “the existential importance of decarbonizing our economies,” Johnston says, and have adopted emissions targets and policies to accelerate transitions to renewables and technology like electric vehicles.
But fossil fuel use could prove sticky because of the enormous role it plays in sectors such as transportation — long-haul trucking and air travel are two major sources of oil demand that will be “much harder to replace,” he says.
With increasing attention paid to global carbon emissions, pressure will be intense on oil sands producers in the next few years to clean up and reduce emissions tied to fossil fuel extraction, he says.
Canada’s status as a politically-reliable source of fuel makes it an attractive target for investment to meet future energy needs, Johnston says, even as he projects global oil demand could peak around 2030.
“This is not going to be a smooth transition. It’s going to be bumpy,” Johnston says.
“While I do believe that governments and policymakers should continue to press down on reducing demand for these fuels, this entire kind of connected suite of crises are highlighting how important it is to have a reliable supply when you need it.”
Where to go with oil and gas?
Climate scientists could not be clearer that the status quo on greenhouse gas emissions is not good enough. Current policies have Canada on a trajectory for hundreds of billions of dollars in damages tied to wildfires on the west coast and lost revenue from reduced seafood harvests in the east, according to a February report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Yet oil and gas remains the lifeblood of Canada’s economy. It’s a critical source of funding for government services like health care. It has insulated Canadian households against economic downturns before and it’s become a front in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“When we look at how much oil and gas really contributes to our domestic economy, how are we going to decarbonize without hurting our economy? And that is, I think, that’s a difficult question,” says Nguyen.
Walking along Bay Street in Toronto, the epicentre of the country’s financial activity, Nguyen tells Global News she sees a possible path to reconcile these seemingly opposing forces pressing on Canada’s energy sector and a future economy that doesn’t rely on “volatile” oil and gas.
She notes that some traditional oil companies have already rebranded themselves as “energy companies,” sensing the need to shift their long-term focus.
Shell, for instance, announced this week that it would replace its CEO with the head of the oil giant’s renewables program after years of criticism that it was not investing enough in the clean energy transition.
If Canada is going to protect its economy while keeping its energy industry relevant, Nguyen suggests that these corporations are best equipped with the talent to understand the industry and the world’s energy needs.
“If we want to move forward and decarbonize, we need to consume less fossil fuel. In order to do that, we need to transition to more renewables,” she says. “And it so happens that oil and gas companies just have a lot of expertise, have a lot of capital and human capital in order to invest in renewables as well.”
At the start of 2022, Morgan says he might have agreed with industry observers who had said oil and gas was “sunsetting.”
But he says the war in Ukraine and resultant energy crisis has put the question into a harsher light that could see Canadian oil eventually wrest some power from Putin’s hands and enable the global transition to a cleaner energy future.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
News
Just bought a used car? There’s a chance it’s stolen, as thieves exploit weakness in vehicle registrations
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The fight against Canada’s worst-ever auto theft epidemic has largely focused on ramping up inspections at shipping ports, where organized crime groups have exported the overwhelming majority of stolen vehicles.
But criminals are adapting, police say, by increasingly selling hot vehicles in Canada to unsuspecting buyers with little protection, exploiting a weakness in provincial registration systems that veteran investigators argue needs to be fixed.
“The market is so lucrative it’s easy cash,” said Det. Sgt. Greg O’Connor of Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto.
While it is impossible to know what criminals do with all stolen cars and difficult to track shifting trends, police now estimate nearly one-third of stolen vehicles are being resold in Canada, marking a significant increase from just six months ago when the vast majority of vehicles were believed to have been exported.
And often, buyers have no idea.
Derek Crocker bought a used Ford F-150 pickup truck from a dealership in Toronto in 2022. Just a few months later, his own investigation revealed the truck’s vehicle identification number — or VIN — had been replaced, mirroring the VIN of a similar truck registered in Utah.
“The whole reason you buy it from a dealership is so you don’t have to worry about dealing with that sort of thing,” he said.
In retrospect, there were small tells.
After Crocker entered what should have been the truck’s unique VIN in Ford’s app, the function to remotely start the vehicle never worked. The app also listed the vehicle as being located in the United States and indicated a different amount of fuel than his own vehicle tank was holding.
But it wasn’t until his F-150 was in an accident and required body work that the problem with the VIN was revealed. The repair shop ordered parts based on the VIN it saw on the dash. But the parts did not match.
“So I Googled the VIN number that was on my truck, and I found a truck for sale in Utah,” said Crocker.
It turns out that was the true VIN, which thieves had cloned, placing fake VIN stickers with the Utah truck’s VIN on top of the true number for the truck Crocker bought.
VINs are most prominently displayed on a vehicle’s dashboard, as well as on the ownership title. When a vehicle is stolen, the VIN is flagged across North America to prevent it being sold.
But criminals are replacing the VIN plate, often with one from a comparable vehicle that has been totalled, legally exported or one registered in another province or U.S. state. They may go through junkyards, export records or simply walk through a mall parking lot to find a VIN to clone.
In doing so, they re-VIN or “wash” the vehicle of its stolen status.
Crocker called police, who seized the vehicle and returned it to the insurance company of the original owner.
Crocker’s own insurance would not cover his loss because he’d — albeit unknowingly — purchased a stolen vehicle. After a long discussion with the dealership that sold him the stolen truck, his money was returned.
“They did nothing extra,” Crocker said. “They didn’t help me at all.”
How could 2 cars with the same VIN be registered?
Provincial centres that administer vehicle registration, such as ServiceOntario, do not have a system that checks if VINs already exist in other jurisdictions.
“You can have a vehicle registered in one province and the same VIN on a different vehicle registered in another and we need to stop that,” David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, told a recent auto theft summit in the Greater Toronto Area.
Neither Canada nor the United States has a national vehicle registry. Multiple police agencies are urging federal and provincial governments to create one.
“The reality is this is a national issue. And that’s why a national registry that moves itself beyond any sort of provincial jurisdiction is important in all capacities,” Nick Milinovich, deputy chief of Peel Regional Police, said in an interview.
CBC News asked Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General why the province’s database can’t detect whether the same VIN is actively being used in another province or state.
“If changes to the provincial registration process are required, we won’t hesitate to make them,” it responded in a statement.
How to spot a potentially stolen car for sale
While it is impossible to know precisely how many fraudulently registered stolen vehicles are back on the road, recoveries have surged.
“The number of re-VINS is just blowing through the roof right now,” said O’Connor. “It’s costing drivers, banks, insurance companies big money. It’s a massive problem.”
It is impossible to know the full extent of the illegal economy and the proportion of vehicle exported versus those kept in the country. But police forces across southern Ontario have reported a surge in recoveries of vehicles that have had their VINs altered.
Car buyers are being advised to look at the VIN on the dashboard and the pillar between the front and back driver’s side doors to see if the numbering is bubbling, a sign there may be a sticker on top of the real VIN.
Running the VIN through a paid service like Carfax could also yield key warning signs. For example: a vehicle that records show has been declared salvage after a crash later reappearing undamaged. Or a VIN with a sales and registration history almost exclusively in one province or state suddenly being for sale in another.
If an insurance company discovers a vehicle has a fraudulent VIN, the policy is voided. When police seized Crocker’s truck, insurance would not pay to replace it. He was only able to recover his money when the dealership that sold the stolen truck paid him out.
But police and insurance investigators have begun to warn of a proliferation of re-VINed vehicles being sold exclusively through social media platforms like Instagram.
“If you’re paying cash for that vehicle [in a private sale] or you do a bank transfer,” said O’Connor, “there’s no recourse.”
WATCH | A stolen car is found in Ghana:
CBC’s David Common informs Len Green that his stolen car has been found in Ghana, 8,500 kilometres from Toronto, where it first went missing a year ago.
Registry employees alleged to be in on the crime
Police also allege organized crime has recruited employees at ServiceOntario, the registration centres operated on behalf of the province that offer an array of services, including issuing licences and managing the database of registered vehicles.
At the end of 2023, Toronto police charged seven ServiceOntario employees with a collective 73 charges, including fraud over $5,000, tampering with a vehicle identification number, breach of trust by a public officer and trafficking in identity information.
They allegedly provided an auto theft ring with registered addresses for specific vehicle models. Once stolen, the same employees assisted the ring in “re-VINing” the vehicles.
Fraudulent VINs may never be detected, although Peel police alone have seized more than 50 such vehicles in 2024 alone.
At other times, employees at ServiceOntario have flagged suspicious activity, such as when the same person shows up dozens of times to register different vehicles. That was allegedly the case with Milton Hylton, who was charged with 168 counts of various Criminal Code offences in March.
He was released on bail, pending trial. No charges are yet proven.
WATCH | An alleged repeat re-VINer is arrested:
CBC News takes you inside a police surveillance operation, witnessing an auto theft takedown connected to a growing aspect of the billion-dollar crime. Criminal rings are increasingly selling stolen cars in Canada to car buyers who often have no idea.
According to the warrant used to search his home and requested by Peel Regional Police Const. Gurinder Athwal, the 24-year-old travelled to “multiple ServiceOntario locations throughout the province and fraudulently registered vehicles.” Police say more than 100 vehicles were involved, and describe stolen Dodge Rams, Dodge Durangos and BMWs among them.
CBC News was present at the moment of Hylton’s arrest in Mississauga as multiple undercover police vehicles conducting surveillance moved in.
As investigators searched and then towed his silver Mazda, they say they found documents to register even more vehicles inside.
Hylton had just a few weeks earlier been banned from entering ServiceOntario locations without an appointment, because of suspicions. He was in the company of a woman he identified as his girlfriend. His sister was also arrested days later and now faces 36 charges of uttering forged documents and trafficking of stolen goods.
3rd-party registration being exploited
In a news release, Peel police describe Hylton as using “loopholes in the ServiceOntario procedures that allow ‘authorized’ individuals to conduct third-party transactions.”
While third-party registration is intended for car dealers, provisions for it mean nearly any individual can transfer registration of a vehicle or register a vehicle in another person’s name.
This process is typical in other Canadian provinces, too.
“It’s a huge problem,” said O’Connor. “And that’s how a lot of these vehicles are getting through.”
For instance, the warrant in the Hylton case alleges he transferred vehicle ownerships to both a speciality tool shop in Etobicoke and an automotive exporter in St. Catharines. Neither business authorized the transfers, and both insist Hylton is neither an employee nor known to them.
Were the vehicles in question stolen, the new registration would have detached them from their previous owners. Anyone buying the vehicles would be none the wiser and would have no insurance or other protection if the vehicle’s stolen status was ever uncovered.
Peel police say Hylton sold dozens of vehicles over a year through social media under the Instagram handle “Royalty in the Building.”
That name is associated with Facebook and Instagram accounts where apparent car buyers offer testimonials.
“I called up Milton. I told him I got my money up, I need plates, I need a car. And he got it just like that,” a person said in a testimonial while standing in front of a Honda Civic.
“Got my new SUV, fully loaded. Tints, light, rims, inside’s clean. Everything’s legit,” another person said in a testimonial.
“You give him your cash. You’re on the road. You ain’t got to go to ServiceOntario. You don’t got to do no running around,” said another.
WATCH | Inside a weeks-long auto theft investigation:
CBC’s David Common gets exclusive access inside an auto theft surveillance operation, targeting a suspect who allegedly re-vinned more than 100 stolen vehicles to be resold, sometimes to unsuspecting buyers in Canada.
CBC News spoke with several police and insurance officials from across the Greater Toronto Area about third-party registrations.
Each insisted the loophole needed to be closed to prevent illegal transfers. But none wanted to speak on the record, citing the provincial Ministry of Transportation as a good partner they did not want to publicly besmirch.
Meanwhile, the auto theft problem continues to grow.
In 2022, an unprecedented $1.2 billion worth of vehicles were stolen across the entire country. By 2023, more than $1 billion was lost in just Ontario alone, according to the Équité Association, the national organization charged with reducing insurance fraud.
“It’s one of the top three revenue generators for organized crime,” said Milinovich. “It’s high reward, low risk, and an easy crime.”
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OTTAWA –
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
Just shy of half the respondents to Leger’s latest survey said they had a negative opinion of the federal budget, which was presented last Tuesday.
Only 21 per cent said they had a positive opinion, and one-third of respondents said they didn’t know or preferred not to answer.
Still, 65 per cent of those surveyed said the plan to spend $8.5 billion on housing, aimed at building 3.9 million homes by 2031, is good for the country.
Leger’s poll of 1,522 Canadians last weekend can’t be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.
People in Alberta were most likely to say they had a very negative impression of the budget, with 42 per cent selecting that option compared to 25 per cent across the entire country.
More than half of the people who took the poll said they are in favour of the government’s plans to spend more on energy efficiency, national defence and student-loan forgiveness for health care and education workers.
And 56 per cent said they think the increase to the capital gains tax inclusion rate — a move that’s estimated to raise another $19.4 billion in revenue over the next four years — is a good thing.
The Liberals are billing the change as critical to their plan to improve generational fairness by taxing the ultra-rich.
It has drawn criticism, including from the Canadian Medical Association, which warned on Tuesday that it could affect the country’s ability to recruit and keep physicians.
The budget proposes to make two-thirds of capital gains — the profit made on the sale of assets — taxable, rather than half. For individuals, this would apply to profits above $250,000, but there is no lower threshold for corporations.
The medical association said many doctors will face higher taxes because they have incorporated their practices and used those companies to save for retirement.
While the Liberals are aiming changes to the capital gains tax at younger Canadians including millennials and gen-Zers, Leger’s poll found it had the support of 60 per cent of respondents over the age of 55 — the highest among any age group.
People between 18 and 35 were least likely to support the Liberal plan to spend another $73 billion on defence in the next two decades. Just 45 per cent of respondents in that age group said ramping up defence spending is good for the country, compared with 70 per cent of people over the age of 55.
Leger also asked questions about the country’s fiscal future.
Almost half the respondents, 47 per cent, said they want to see the government cut back on spending and programs to get the budget balanced as quickly as possible.
Just 16 per cent said spending more and running large deficits is the best plan for the next five years, and 14 per cent want to see the government increase taxes to bring the deficit down.
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Alberta’s health ministry says an audit has determined that more than 40 medical clinics in the province are advertising membership fees for services, nearly a year after one such plan landed a Calgary clinic in hot water.
The audit was launched last December. In July, CBC News reported that a medical clinic in Calgary’s Marda Loop district was moving to a membership system and planned to charge $4,800 a year for a two-parent family membership, covering two adults and their dependent children.
The next day, Health Canada said the arrangement at the Marda Loop Medical Clinic equated to patients purchasing “preferential access” and warned Alberta that it could face cuts to federal health transfers if the situation wasn’t handled.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange directed Alberta Health to investigate, and the clinic halted its plan for membership fees shortly after.
In December, LaGrange told CBC News that “appropriate action” would be taken if audits determined that violations were found, adding the province would do whatever it took to ensure clinics were in compliance.
The province promised the audits early in the new year. Now, the health ministry says it has conducted interviews to gather information on operations and business models of the clinics, adding this work is ongoing.
“Over 40 clinics in the province [advertise] a membership meant to pay for a defined set of uninsured services, while also providing insured services covered under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan at no cost to Albertans,” wrote spokesperson Andrea Smith in a statement.
“Once this review is completed, its findings will be used to inform next steps. Alberta’s government will also determine if additional audits of more membership clinics is required.”
In July, Health Canada said executive and primary health clinics charging patients enrolment and annual membership fees exist in a number of provinces. Generally, investigations have indicated that clinics provide members with an variety of uninsured services, such as life coaching and nutritional services.
“However, in some cases … these fees are also a prerequisite to accessing insured services at the clinic (i.e., medically necessary physician services). Mandatory fees to access or receive preferential access to insured services are contrary to the Canada Health Act,” the government department wrote in a statement.
A spokesperson for LaGrange told CBC News in July the ministry wasn’t aware of any other clinics offering services for membership fees that didn’t align with legislation.
What comes next for those 40 clinics is a murky grey area, said Fiona Clement, a professor at the University of Calgary in the department of community health sciences. Much of it has to do with the exact language being used when services are outlined as parts of packages.
“We’re on the razor’s edge of exact wording there that runs them afoul. Really, I think it will come down to what the government is willing to fight with these clinics about,” she said.
CBC News asked the provincial government for a list of the clinics identified, but did not receive it by publication time. A spokesperson with the province said if any clinics are found to be non-compliant with legislation, appropriate action would be taken.
Report had identified 14 clinics
Clement said the big issue that got the Marda Loop Medical Clinic in hot water was the concept of guaranteed access.
“That’s the problem that Marda Loop got into, because there you are charging access to medical care, which is the part that contravenes the Canada Health Act,” Clement said.
At the time the Marda Loop clinic fell under scrutiny, it was clear there were other such clinics providing membership programs, in Calgary and Canada.
In 2022, researchers from Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University released a paper tracking the number of clinics taking private payment across the country. Between November 2019 and June 2020, the period of the analysis, there were 14 private clinics in Alberta with a range of membership fees and private payment.
“So, 40 is a larger number than I was expecting. And I think it speaks to growth in this area, the number of clinics that are charging fees for different parts of care,” Clement said.
“I think it underscores the lack of stability, and the need to really think about how we’re funding primary care, because more and more clinics are turning to this private charge as a revenue source to keep the doors open.”
Provinces that allow private health-care providers to charge patients for medically necessary services have dollars clawed back by the federal government under the Canada Health Act.
According to Health Canada, Alberta was subject to a $20,450,175 deduction to its Canada Health Transfer payment in March 2024 under the diagnostic services policy. That’s up from $13,781,152 last year.
But the province received $20,538,796 in partial reimbursements tied to its March 2023 and 2024 deductions, which represents actions that Alberta Health has taken to limit patient pay for publicly funded goods or services, according to Clement.
“I guess we’re making some progress. But it’s still a big number, which says there’s still a lot of patient billing going on,” she said.
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