Thread by @CanadianPro2

Wonder what that loophole might be?

JUST KIDDING!

I FOUND IT.

Read on.

Please.

Meddings asked the right question.

"why would I pay for one if I had to wait 2 years - bet there's a loophole."

There is.

It's not hidden.

It's just never been put in writing where anyone could hold the government to it.

laGrange's "MD ordered ones are done first" is a talking point, not law.

Search Bill 29 (SA 2026 c9) top to bottom -

There is NO CLAUSE REQUIRING private facilities to prioritize doctor-ordered tests over self-referred ones.

That promise exists nowhere the Minister is bound by it.

What the bill actually gives the Minister

s.6.1 -
Minister may, BY ORDER, decide what counts as a "preventative health testing service" and set the rates.

Not regulation.

Order.

That skips the Regulations Act process entirely.

s.1.941 -
Minister "may" make rules on self-referral conditions.

May.

Not must.

And the document that would actually spell any of this out?

The Preventative Health Testing Services Benefits Regulation.

The one that lists which tests qualify

And what they cost.

Still hasn't been published.

Royal Assent was May 14.

Proclaimed by O.C. 268/2026 on July 22.

The rulebook everyone's supposed to trust?

Still DOESN'T EXIST PUBLICLY.

Even a "we'll prioritize MD-ordered" verbal commitment runs into a structural problem.

Private and public diagnostics pull from the same shrinking pool of technologists.

MULTIPLE MLAs raised this on the floor.

A promised queue order doesn't fix a workforce that's being pulled in two directions.

So Meddings is right not to pay.

The loophole isn't a secret clause.

It's the ABSCENCE of one.

This entire "we'll ensure" framework rests on a Minister's word,

An order she can issue or revise without coming back to this Chamber,

And a regulation Albertans still haven't seen.

There are your loopholes.

Be well. Be loud. Be love.
😊🤗💖

@threadreaderapp please unroll, thank you.