EDMONTON — Alberta's wasteful purchase of children's pain and fever medicine three years ago helped inform the province's decision to charge some people $100 for a COVID-19 vaccine shot this fall, Premier Danielle Smith said Saturday.
Smith told her provincewide call-in radio show that a large portion of the approximately 1.4 million medicine bottles from Turkey, which Alberta paid $70 million to secure in 2022 during a national shortage, had to be donated this year to war-torn places around the world. Front-line health staff had said the medicine’s thicker consistency risked clogged feeding tubes.
She said the off-loading made the government think, 'What else is going to waste?'"
"People were really, really angry at the thought that there might be $20 million worth of product that went to waste," Smith said on her show's first episode Saturday following a summer hiatus.
"This was like big, glaring, red lights that this is a problem. And so we are trying to be respectful taxpayers. Heard you loud and clear. Let's try to find a way to make sure we minimize waste."
Alberta's government confirmed this week that the COVID-19 shot will cost $100.
The update came two months after the government first announced residents would have to pay out-of-pocket for the vaccine.
Health-care workers, some seniors and those with underlying medical conditions, such as those affecting lungs and the heart, will not be charged for the shot, which they can begin booking for appointments that will start on Oct. 1.
Everyone else can expect to get appointments that come with a fee starting three weeks after that.
The initial plan was for health-care workers to pay for the shot. Smith said this week that union demands during bargaining negotiations led to the change.
The province has also changed how vaccines will be doled out, as pharmacies are no longer being given a supply. Instead, COVID-19 shots will be available at public health clinics.
Smith’s government has been criticized for making Albertans pay for a vaccine that is administered in every other Canadian province and territory without a fee.
On Saturday, Smith called the fee a "trial run" and defended the province's decision, saying this is the first time the federal government is not covering the vaccine's tab and the drugs' short shelf-life risks further waste.
"When it came to (the federal government) telling us this season they weren't paying for it, we had to ask some pretty hard questions about how many people are accessing it, how much are we ordering and how much is going to waste," she said.
"The value of the product that has been thrown out of the last three years is $284 million," she said.
She said the government plans to be transparent in the future about how many doses go unused and are tossed away this year.
"We'll see how it goes this year....Then people will make a judgment on the policy at that point."
Public health experts have called the province’s COVID-19 strategy irresponsible and said it will create more barriers to getting vaccinated and lead to higher health-care system costs.
Advocates and the Opposition NDP have called for the United Conservative Party government to further expand coverage, including to all seniors.
Albertans can preorder their COVID-19 vaccine online until Sept. 30, where they can also preorder their flu vaccine.
Smith said flu shots will still be free.
"The guidance that Health Canada gives is that everybody get (flu shots) because influenza can impact negatively both the very young and the very old. It's so sad when somebody gets a respiratory virus and dies from it," she said.
"That's not what we've seen with COVID. COVID seems to be specifically most at risk to those who have multiple pre-existing conditions, immunocompromised and over certain age."
A caller on Smith's show asked about other provinces, such as British Columbia and Manitoba, offering Albertans a free COVID shot in their communities after the fee's announcement.
"It's kind of sad, right?" the caller asked.
"Well, you know, look, I don't think that they've done the analysis that we've done," Smith responded.
"They're going to have to be a bit shocked after they have to pay for themselves ... It's an expensive shot."
Alberta has said pregnancy, obesity and mental-health disorders are among the several other factors that will qualify people for a free COVID-19 shot.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2025.
-- With files from Matthew Scace
Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
