AB Bill 11 Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2)*
Bill 11: Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2)*
Bill Sponsor: LaGrange
Bill Type: Government Bills
Amendments: Yes
Money Bill: No
Documents
A3- December 9, 2025
First Reading
November 24, 2025 passed 426
Second Reading
November 26, 2025 adjourned 555-64
November 27, 2025 adjourned 590-96
December 1, 2025 adjourned 637-46
December 8, 2025 passed on division 808-15
Committee of the Whole
December 9, 2025 adjourned 856
December 9, 2025 passed on division with amendments 867-73
Third Reading
December 10, 2025 adjourned on division 913-14
December 10, 2025 passed on division 916-22
Royal Assent
December 11, 2025 outside of House sitting
Comes into Force
on various dates SA 2025 c21 4/26/2026 9:46 AM
WHAT THIS BILL DOES
Bill 11 is a major consolidation of Alberta's health legislation. It folds the Hospitals Act hospitalization benefits framework into the new Alberta Health Care Insurance Act, creates a new public health investigator role with significant enforcement powers, restructures offence penalties and makes technical cross-reference updates across eight statutes.
WHO GAINS POWER
- Minister gets broad new regulation-making powers over health insurance registration, card issuance, cancellation and reinstatement
- LGIC gains expanded regulation powers over hospital capital costs, grant programs and approved hospital designations
- Multiple Deputy Chief Medical Officers can now be appointed — decentralizes a role previously held by one person
- Public health investigators — a brand new government-designated role with authority to enter public places, demand documents, take samples, photograph premises and issue administrative penalties without a court order
- Court of King's Bench can order compliance if an owner blocks an investigator
- Minister retains authority to enter federal-provincial health agreements and amend them
- ⚠️ Amended — LGIC gains new authority to define "insurer," "association," "organization," "policyholder" and "member" for the purposes of the group benefits exemption — government draws the lines on who qualifies
WHO LOSES POWER
- LGIC override power clipped — can no longer reverse decisions made by the Board or courts under the Public Health Act
- Hospital operators — unauthorized use of the word "hospital" is an offence; tighter controls on sale, lease or disposition of hospital property
- Insurers — further restricted from issuing new contracts covering insured services for Alberta residents
- Continuing competence programs — mandatory education for health professionals must now relate only to competence or ethics; no other mandated training without an exemption process
WHO GAINS MONEY
- Government — administrative penalties are court-enforceable debts if unpaid within 30 days
- Approved hospitals — expanded capital cost and grant payment mechanisms
- Minister — can pay authorized charges on behalf of patients with specific diseases or conditions
- ⚠️ Amended — Employers, insurers, associations and organizations operating group benefit plans get clearer and broader standing under the Act — the exemption from public insurance rules now explicitly covers contracts, programs, plans or arrangements paying benefits to employees, policyholders or members who are residents, and their dependants
WHO LOSES MONEY
- Individuals who violate the Public Health Act — new administrative penalties plus restructured offence penalties: fines or up to 1 year imprisonment or both (replaces old tiered $100K/$500K fine structure)
- Albertans on income support — shelter payment calculations restructured around new hospital classification system; some previous definitions removed
- Hospitals that provide incorrect information to the Minister — subject to suspension or cancellation of payments
THE CATCH
Most of this bill is housekeeping — the Hospitals Act Part 3 hospitalization benefits framework is repealed and absorbed into the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act. Eight other statutes get technical cross-reference updates to match.
Buried in the housekeeping is a significant new enforcement infrastructure: public health investigators with broad entry, document and penalty powers coming into force January 1, 2027. Government also gets to define the boundaries of that role entirely through regulation — qualifications, powers, circumstances for investigation — with no legislative floor set in the bill itself.
⚠️ Amended — The amendment expands who can operate outside the public insurance system — but hands government the pen to define every key term. Who counts as an "insurer" or "organization" is entirely a regulatory call, with no definition fixed in the legislation itself.
SOURCE
Alberta Legislature — Bill 11, Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2) https://www.assembly.ab.ca/assembly/bills/bill.aspx?leg=31&session=3&bill=011