A United Conservative Party government would cancel the NDP’s new $590-million “superlab” planned for Edmonton and northern Alberta, party leader Jason Kenney said Monday.
“The NDP has put bureaucratic empires and their ideology ahead of patient care and value for tax dollars,” Kenney told reporters at a news conference in Edmonton.
“Our priority is patients and their timely care. The NDP priority is a government monopoly in everything including back-end lab services, which are already being done effectively by Albertans through an Alberta private company using … primarily a downtown office building.”
The government plan to integrate lab services into a central facility run by Alberta Health Services was announced by Health Minister Sarah Hoffman in 2016. A new structure to house the lab is planned for the South Campus of the University of Alberta.
Under the plan, AHS would pay current private provider Dynalife $50 million at the end of its current contract on March 31, 2022.
Kenney said a UCP government would reverse that payout.
Albertans are expected to go to the polls before May 31.