DynaLIFE Privatization Failure Cost Albertans Millions: GOA Docs
Back in 2023, the Government of Alberta promised big savings when it privatized community lab services to DynaLIFE, a for-profit company. Instead, it ended in chaos with long wait times, mismanaged transition planning, and a $100-million taxpayer-funded bailout.
Today, because your Union asserted the power of your agreement and pushed back, all Laboratory professionals have higher wages and a strong pension and all Laboratory services are publicly delivered.
Now, documents obtained exclusively by CBC News reveal that DynaLIFE was struggling financially even before it won its bid to take over Alberta’s community lab services. Just two weeks before the contract began, the company told the government it needed more money. Within just 90 days, DynaLIFE was threatening to declare insolvency, jeopardizing Alberta’s entire medical laboratory testing system.
Rather than admitting failure, the government kept the crisis quiet, even during the May 2023 provincial election. Only months later, Alberta Health Services (AHS) took over DynaLIFE, paying $31.5 million in cash and assuming $66 million in debt.
Despite the government’s claims that privatization would save money and improve efficiency, these documents prove it was a complete DISASTER:
- Wait times in Calgary skyrocketed.
- Errors in lab testing led to patient care concerns.
- DynaLIFE’s leadership tried to cut corners on wages and pensions for lab workers.
But laboratory workers fought back. When DynaLIFE attempted to avoid paying fair wages and pensions to workers transitioning from Alberta Precision Labs (APL), HSAA members stood together in opposition.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board ultimately ruled in our favor, forcing DynaLIFE to uphold its obligations and the hard-fought rights secured in our Collective Agreement.
Slides from Government of Alberta Briefing Documents (2023):
What’s The Lesson? Privatization Doesn’t Work!
The failure of the DynaLIFE contract is just the latest example of why privatization doesn’t work. Multiple experts have warned the government that private companies taking over public services will always seek to cut corners—either by reducing service quality, charging more, or underpaying workers.
Researchers from the Parkland Institute told CBC News that DynaLIFE based their bid off an assumption that they could pay one group of their workers less than the other.
"Advocates for public health care have said for a long time that if you build a profit margin into one of these contracts, you either have to cut corners somewhere, you have to charge more, you have to pay your workers less, or you have to deliver less."
- Rebecca Graff-McRae, Parkland Institute
What Happens Next?
The Alberta Auditor General continues to investigate how this deal went so wrong.
In the meantime, your Union will continue to fight for transparency and protections against privatization because health care should be public, not a profit-making experiment.
Questions? Contact: mdykstra@hsaa.ca