On November 1, 2026, Alberta Views published a feature by Naomi K. Lewis examining Alberta’s 2025 decision to charge $100 for COVID-19 vaccinations. Quebec is the only other Canadian province to adopt a similar fee. The article looks at the barriers this has created for people trying to get vaccinated. Patrick Fafard, Research Director of Public Health Institutions at the Global Strategy Lab, was quoted offering his expert analysis of the politics behind the decision.
The article notes that attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines in Alberta have become closely tied to political identity. Roughly one in five Albertans never received a COVID-19 vaccine, and that group overlaps closely with the governing party’s base of support. Fafard explains that this leaves the provincial government in a bind it helped create, trying to strike “a balancing act” between its supporters and the broader public.
Fafard also points out that when much of the public isn’t paying attention to the issue, the government can cater to its core supporters without facing much backlash. Lewis reports that both Fafard and Chris Gallaway of Friends of Medicare see this dynamic as clearing the way for a broader push toward privatizing health care in Alberta.
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