Thread by @RachelNotley

Albertans waited 12 days.
In that time, 94 Albertans died.
And more than 13,000 Albertans got sick with COVID-19. 1/17 #ableg #abhealth

Albertans waited 12 whole days expecting to see strong action, but once again, this Premier let them down.
Today’s announcement is simply not enough.
We don’t know what Dr. Hinshaw recommended to the Cabinet but I don’t for one second think it was this. 2/17 #ableg #abhealth

I suspect today’s decisions by this Premier were NOT governed by the advice of the public health officials, but by his own ideology combined with the internal political motivations of the UCP Caucus. 3/17 #ableg #abhealth

Today’s announcement is the product of political bargaining inside the UCP and not the product of a serious engagement with public health advice.
Today, what we needed to see was strong action to stop the spread of COVID-19 in its tracks. 4/17 #ableg #abhealth

Overall, with a few exceptions, there were very few new restrictions announced and where action was taken, I didn’t hear any new support for businesses that will suffer. 5/17 #ableg #abhealth

Let’s be clear, in the last 12 days our case count has spiralled out of control.
Jason Kenney’s mishandling of this pandemic has already caused far more damage to the economy. 
Based on today’s announcement, that’s not going to stop anytime soon. 6/17 #ableg #abhealth

These half-measures will mean prolonging the pandemic, prolonging the suffering, and prolonging the economic pain.
At a time when we have mass spread of a deadly virus throughout our communities, we are more interested in granting exemptions than making rules. 7/17 #ableg

On masks: Alberta remains the only place in the country where there is no mask mandate despite having the worst per-capita cases in Canada. 
This is ridiculous.
It is dangerous.
And it will only help further the spread. 8/17 #ableg #abhealth

A cowardly decision by this Premier that is catering to the extreme fringes of his party and his caucus at the expense of the health and safety of Albertans.
This government has completely abandoned medical science… in service of political convenience. 9/17 #ableg #abhealth

I also want to talk specifically about schools.
In July , our Caucus proposed a 15-point plan to ensure Alberta had safe schools and smaller class sizes in Sept. 
The UCP refused to implement it, claiming schools were safe and not the source of community spread. 10/17 #ableg

To date, we’ve seen more than 500 schools with cases of COVID-19. There are thousands of students, teachers and staff in isolation as we speak.
In fact, we actually learned today the Government has banked savings in education. 11/17 #ableg #abhealth

Now, their eleventh-hour solution is to rip hundreds of thousands of kids out of school in the middle of the term.
They’re doing this with no plan for the challenges this presents students, especially students with complex needs or those with learning challenges. 12/17 #ableg

The Premier is far too late to act and what he is doing is far too little. 
We have the highest number of active cases in Canada and projections show cases will continue to rise.
We have more active cases than Ontario, which has 3 times the population 13/17 #ableg

Our contact tracing system is completely overwhelmed and falling further behind each day.
Yesterday Dr. Hinshaw made the frightening decision to simply abandon tracing cases that were diagnosed ten days ago or longer. 14/17 #ableg #abhealth

There are so many Albertans being admitted to hospital that we have reached capacity in our ICUs and doctors expect we are two weeks from triage. 
We have lost more Albertans to COVID-19 so far this month than we have since the pandemic began. 15/17 #ableg #abhealth

It should have never gotten to this point. 
The Premier failed to prepare for this second wave and now it feels a bit like he’s giving up. 16/17 #ableg #abhealth

It's clear that the official position of the Government of Alberta is to do the bare minimum to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Jason Kenney had one last chance to make the hard choice. He failed to do so.
And now we all have to live with the consequences. 17/17 #ableg #abhealth