Letter to Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta: Concerns about B46 - Amendment to Alberta Health Information Act

 November 13, 2020


Dear Her Honour, the Honourable Salma Lakhani, AOE B.Sc. 


Hello Your Honour. My name is Laura Jean Rutherford and I am a resident of Calgary, Alberta. I am writing to you today about my concerns of the proposed Bill 46 - amendment of the Alberta Information Health Act, which is to being brought to the Legislature of Assembly on Monday, November 16, 2020 by Honourable Tyler Shandro, Minister of Health. 


Your Honour, before writing this letter, I read the roles for Lieutenant-Governor for Alberta. One the roles is that, “In order for bills passed by the Legislative Assembly to become law, the Lieutenant-Governor must give Royal Assent. The Lieutenant-Governor acts on the advice of elected officials, but may exercise the right to deny or “reserve” Royal Assent if the bill violates the constitutional rights of Albertans or infringes upon federal jurisdiction.” Your Honour, it was reading this description that I felt compelled to write my concerns of proposed Bill 46; which I feel violates my constitution right as an Albertan and a Canadian to prevent any government official (provincial or federally) or any person(s) to view my health record without my permission. 


What Minister Shandro is proposing with Bill 46, will increase his power to have unlimited access to any Albertan’s health record containing sensitive and private information that should be kept privy between a patient and a healthcare professionals under their care. A patient’s private medical information should not be allowed access for any government official or for another jurisdiction. To me, this a breach of privacy of my medical information. If proposed Bill 46 passes, it will open up for Minister Shandro, other jurisdictions and people who deems that they should gain access to the information found on the electronic provincial systems NetCare or the recent ConnectCare or Calgary’s electronic system Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM). My question, Your Honour, why does Minister Shandro feel it is within his right and power to gain access as well as give our health record information? What will be gained to Minister Shandro and others, by viewing my lab reports, dictated reports (ie. discharge summary, operation/procedural reports, emergency record, history & physical, and consultations) as well as our diagnostic imaging reports? The only people who should have access to my health record, is the physicians who under the care of the patients (family doctor, physician specialists who are being referred to by their family doctor or surgeon). My health record information can be given to a third party (lawyers, Workers Compensation Board, and to other physicians outside the province, these documents are given WITH my signed consent they can be delivered to the third party. What Minister Shandro is asking with Bill 46, is that in his position of Minister of Health, he would can access my personal medical information WITHOUT my permission. This is simply wrong Your Honour to have happen in Alberta. Your Honour, I am thinking of those patients who are diagnosed with or dealing with a mental health disease/disorder. This is especially personal information and if there is a breach of their information, the increased fines that are identified in Bill 46 if there is a breach of information and privacy, will not equate to the mistrust we would have with government officials, as well as the potential increase of decline in that person(s) mental and physical health. I am sorry, Your Honour, you cannot put a price tag on that. 


Your Honour, my career before having to go on long term disability from a debilitating disease, was a Health Information Management (HIM) Professional working in the Data Collection section of the Health Records Department in Calgary Zone Hospitals. In our role as Coding Specialists and Coding Coordinators, we are responsible to capture the diagnoses, interventions and any complications or adverse effects in our inpatient and outpatient visits to our facilities using the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 for Canada (ICD-10CA). This coding manual in attaching codes with diagnoses and interventions are used in hospitals and outpatient facilities across Canada. In Alberta, the HIM Coding Specialists in our facilities are responsible to have all inpatient discharges and any applicable outpatient visits to coded and abstracted within 30 days of the following month. We ensure our data is clean and accurate before sending it to AHS as well to the government’s Alberta Health. If the Minister Shandro wants to see specific information on a health issue, he should ask either AHS or Alberta Health who would be able to provide the same information without our personal information attached. On the Alberta NetCare Form Request for Information it states, “If you are requesting for another person, you will have to provide proof that you have the authority to act for that person.” I believe with the passing of proposed Bill 46, Minister Shandro and other would be able to bypass this important checklist before information is released. 


Ms Jill Clayton, Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, who has stated she received information about amendments being made in proposed Bill 46 on the same day this bill was brought to Legislative Assembly (Thursday, November 7, 2020). Your Honour, there is reason we have a Information and Privacy Commissioner to review bills, especially proposed Bill 46 which is focusing on releasing private medical information of Albertans to government officials and even to jurisdictions outside of Alberta. I know that both Premier Kenney and Minister Shandro have bypassed the proper process to get what they want. Minister Shandro behind closed doors approving the $200 million private orthopaedic surgery facility to be built in Edmonton or seemingly one day Minister Shandro rips up the contract between the government and the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) before it expires. In addition, Premier Kenney is in full support of it as his goal is to privatize or outsource the public sectors in Alberta such as healthcare and education. How are these Bills be passed using our taxpayer monies without Alberta citizens input? It just doesn’t seem right to me. With the recent Auditor General report of the UCP government under Premier Kenney has mismanaged $1.6 billion of Alberta’s taxpayer monies, this is cause for concern and what Premier Kenney is trying to do by deconstructing Canada’s national universal healthcare system in Alberta. 


Your Honour, I would be asking what additional information would he be looking for if he has  access to our records? Minister Shandro nor Premier Kenney have a background in medical field, so how can reviewing my discharge summary report or understanding my lab results assist Minister Shandro’s knowledge to improve the quality of healthcare in Alberta. I just do not understanding or rational other than to increase his power, just because he can being a part of a majority provincial government. Another question I would ask Minister Shandro has prepared for presenting Bill 46, did you research what data services within the AHS organization or Alberta Health, which can extract medical information from the their databases? All of the codes of diagnoses and interventions/procedures performed in Alberta’s facilities are sent AHS and Alberta Health so Data Analytics Team can keep track of trends, rates of infectious and complication rates in our hospital facilities. The Canadian Institution of Health Information (CIHI) provides the national coding standards to be used in all hospital facilities so that CIHI can have comparable data to used within a province or having comparable facilities compare similar issues such as Alternate Levels of Care (ALC) or with the Covid-19 diagnosis code, Minister Shandro would be able to access vital statistical information through these 3 organizations for decision making without needing to gain access to further medical information from Netcare/ConnectCare/SCM. To me, Your Honour, we have already seen Minister Shandro obvious abuse of power and performing a breach of confidentiality and privacy event by getting the personal phone numbers of 2 physicians who contradicted Minister Shandro at a press conference. Minister Shandro then used those phone numbers to call the physicians at their home, not their workplace, to berate them. First of all, that is just unprofessional for any elected official to act that way. Their incident, for me, is another example of the UCP government abusing their power as they must feel entitled to do what they wish due to massive majority government that there was no one hold accountable to their actions of pushing through bills, amendments and policies without due process or input from others like Jill Clayton, Information and Privacy Commissioner. 


I realize that this proposed Bill 46 to be brought to the floor of the Legislative Assembly this coming Monday. I am asking, Your Honour, please wait before providing a Royal Assent to make these amendments to law. Premier Kenney, Minister Shandro and the rest of the UCP Government, are required to follow the rules before bringing a proposed bill forward to the Legislative Assembly; which in this case providing appropriate time for Ms. Jill Clayton, Information and Privacy Commissioner, to read over proposed Bill 46, to ensure the rights of Alberta citizens private information is kept safe and low risk to being breached. Having any government to have access to my private medical information, whenever they want; which I can only assume increases the risk of breach of information to occur. AHS or Alberta Health are  the stakeholders in charge of my health record information, not the Alberta government. 


Your Honour, thank you for taking the time and consideration in reading my concerns in my letter. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, feel free to contact at laura2travel@yahoo.ca



Sincerely yours Your Honour,



Laura Jean Rutherford, CHIM 


Cc’d:

Honourable Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta 

Honourable Erin O’Toole, Federal leader of Conservatives Party of Canada, Leader of Oppositon

Honourable Rachel Notley, NDP Leader of Alberta, Provincial Leader of the Oppositon

Honourable Tyler Shandro, Alberta’s Minister 

Honourable Prasad Panda, Alberta Minister of infrastructure, MLA Calgary-Skyview

Dr. Deanna Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer 

Honourable David Shepherd, Alberta’s NDP Health Critic

Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Minister of Finance

Honourable Jagmeet Singh, Federal Leader of New Democratic Party

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer 

Honourable Patty Harju, Federal Minister of Health 

Honourable Heather McPherson, MP NDP Edmonton - Strathcona

Honourable Don Davies, Federal NDP critic for Health

Honourable Matthew Jeneroux, Federal CPC critic for Health

Ms. Kathleen Addison, Senior Provincial Director of Health Information Management at AHS 

Dr. Christine P. Molnar, MD, FRCPC, President, Alberta Medical Association 

Dr. Katharine Smart, President-elect, Canadian Medical Association 

Dr. Vishal Bhella, President, Alberta College of Family Physicians

Dr. Scott McLeod, Registrar, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta 

Ms. Shirley Schipper, President, College of Family Physicians of Canada 

Mr. David Weyant, Chair for Alberta Health Services Board

Dr. Verna Yiu - President/CEO of AHS  

Dr. Sid Viner - Calgary Zone Chief Medical Director 

Dr. Nicholas Etches, Interim Calgary Zone Lead Medical Officer 

Ms. Janice  Harrington,  Alberta  Health  Advocates, Health  Advocate

Ms. Jill Clayton, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta 


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