New mental health and addictions agency officially takes over from AHS, first of four new pillars

The Alberta legislature on Dec. 10, 2023. (Craig Ellingson/CTV News Edmonton)

Recovery Alberta has taken over mental health and addictions service delivery from Alberta Health Services (AHS).

While the new entity was established as a legal entity on July 1, the official transition of service delivery accountability and 10,000 employees to it took place on Sunday.

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Kerry Bales, the chief executive officer of Recovery Alberta, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday the goal was to minimize disruptions in care for patients and staff.

He said hiring and keeping workers is an ongoing effort as the agency looks to improve services.

"Our aim is to certainly improve access and quality of service going forward but that is going to be a process," said the Red Deer-based Bales.

"Part of that process is going to include engagement with both staff, clinicians, patients and families."

Recovery Alberta, which falls under the governance of the ministry of mental health and addictions, is the first of four new organizations the UCP government is forming after announcing late last year it would break up AHS.

The new agency will cost a little more than $1 billion annually to operate.

AHS had been the Alberta's sole provider of health care services since 2008, when the then-Progressive Conservative government under Premier Ed Stelmach eliminated the nine provincial health regions to form the single governing authority.

Janet Eremenko, the Alberta NDP's critic for mental health and addictions, said in a media release last week the creation of Recovery Alberta "has been a costly downward spiral into chaos and uncertainty."

“Rather than seeking to improve the health-care system, the UCP government decided to dismantle it, incurring tremendous costs and resulting in workforce attrition, and stress to workers, patients and their families," Eremenko said.

Three more service delivery entities are slated to be formed alongside Recovery Alberta: for acute care, primary care and continuing care. AHS was slated to become a service delivery provider under the acute care umbrella.

Premier Danielle Smith had promised reform of AHS a year before the government outlined its plan in early November for its breakup. In 2022, she fired the AHS board and replaced it with a single administrator.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski and The Canadian Press