Premier Klein’s plans for health care reform and his unfounded claims that Medicare is unsustainable have drawn sharp criticism from concerned Canadians in every province. In fact, the Alberta government is so far off base that even conservative media sources like the Globe and Mail are calling them to task.

"Be wary of the prophets of "unsustainability." Take that Alberta report, prepared by a committee headed by former deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski. It warned that Alberta will spend half of its annual budget on health by 2008, if present trends continue. But read the footnote. The report assumed that health spending would jump 10 percent a year, while revenue would grow by only 4 per cent per year. A little drastic isn’t it? (The truth is that) the province’s GDP has grown faster than its health spending in recent years. And Alberta’s government and private sector spent just 7.8 per cent of that province’s GDP on health in 2000. Spending is well in hand … the health system’s demise is not around the corner."
Globe and Mail, Editorial, January 31, 2002

"It will be one of the enduring shames of this infant century if public health care is destroyed by lies, statistics and politicians … At the centre of the current debate is the Big Lie that medicare is spiraling out of control …Bunk. Health-care costs as a percentage of GDP, are now marginally lower than they were a decade ago and remain comfortably below what the U.S. pays for a system that penalizes the poor ... Even if (Klein’s) statistics were credible, they would still miss the point. Canadians are fully aware that health care costs money … and they are willing to pay."
Jim Travers, Toronto Star, January 29, 2002