Alberta’s minister in charge of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is defending the government’s plan, despite criticism from some in the health-care sector about the province’s decision to charge for shots and stray from national eligibility recommendations.
While not all seniors in Alberta qualify to get the vaccine for free, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange says many will end up not having to pay.
“We have approximately 800,000 seniors in the province that are 65 years of age and older. Of these, about just shy of 700,000 are eligible because they have an underlying health condition or they are immunocompromised,” LaGrange told the Calgary Eyeopener.
The ministry says those figures come from population estimates and health administrative records.
Calgary EyeopenerAlberta’s COVID-19 vaccine program
Alberta’s Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Adriana Lagrange, joins us to explain changes to the province’s COVID-19 vaccine program.
But Dr. James Talbot, the province’s former chief medical officer of health, says Alberta is still not adhering to National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) guidelines.
“The NACI recommendations are crystal clear that everyone over the age of 65 is to be eligible for the vaccine,” says Talbot.
The NACI recommendations for 2025 also include Indigenous people and members of racialized communities getting a COVID-19 vaccine, and says individuals previously vaccinated or not may also get vaccinated.
Alberta on the other hand will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to those who are immunocompromised or who have underlying medical conditions, as well as continuing care home residents and people who are homeless.
Health-care workers also now qualify, after the province reversed its initial policy and added them to the list last month.
For everyone else, the vaccine comes at a cost of $100, and those who want them will need to pre-register. Shots will only be available at public health clinics — not at pharmacies.
Vaccine wastage
The Alberta government has says the decision to charge comes as a result of the federal government transferring the financial responsibility of the vaccines to provinces and territories this year, and to account for the cost of doses going unused due to decreasing demand.
“We have many areas where our dollars have to go,” says LaGrange. “We have to also look at making sure that we align what we procure with what people want.”
LaGrange says Alberta saw more than $200 million of wasted vaccines over the past three years, with much of that waste coming from pharmacies.
“Once they tap into a vial, they had to utilize that within 24 hours,” says LaGrange. “So if they only had one walk-in and they gave one shot out, then the rest of the bottle was thrown away.”
But Randy Howden, owner of the Crowfoot Medicine Shoppe in Calgary and past-president of the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association, feels pharmacists are being targeted unfairly, as they were following guidelines at the time.
“We were told, even though it’s a multi-dose vial, if somebody came in requesting a vaccine, that we were supposed to open the vial and just administer the vaccine,” says Howden. “As a pharmacist, it feels wrong that we’re almost being blamed for the wasted vaccine.”
Both Howden and Talbot note that this year, the doses ordered by the province are single-use vials, reducing the chance of waste.
I think that Alberta will become unfortunately a place where people study what this change and these changes in policy cost.– Randy Howden, Crowfoot Medicine Shoppe
The ministry says doses for people 12 years and older will be in pre-filled, single-use syringes. Pediatric doses for children ages six months to 11 years old will come in a multi-dose vial.
LaGrange also says this summer saw the fewest number of hospital admissions from the virus since the pandemic began.
Government figures for 2024 to 2025 show 3,364 hospitalizations, with 209 of those in intensive care, and 405 deaths from COVID-19.
Some 100,000 people have registered
Howden says he is hearing from patients who are still unclear about the registration process, or who are worrying about travelling across town since they cannot walk into any pharmacy for a vaccine this year.
“It’s led to a lot of confusion, and I feel that confusion is going to reduce vaccination rates,” says Howden, who would like the province to allow pharmacists to administer the vaccine.
LaGrange says so far, 90,000 to 100,000 people have registered. Doses are purchased for up to 500,000 people.
Over the 2024-2025 season, 742,000 doses were administered.
The ministry says the province’s procurement contracts allow for a 20-per-cent buffer allowance to order more doses if demand warrants.
“If only 90,000 to 100,000 people are going to get the vaccine in Alberta, it’s going to be a very bad COVID season for doctors, for emergency rooms, for people over the age of 65, for ICU admissions,” says Talbot.
“I think that Alberta will become unfortunately a place where people study what this change and these changes in policy cost.”