Alberta emergency room wait times rise, but still beat most provinces: MEI report
A new report from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) shows that emergency room wait times have grown across Canada, with Alberta’s median ER stay reaching 3 hours and 48 minutes in 2024 which is up nearly an hour from five years ago. While that figure places Alberta in the middle of the national pack, it still outperforms most other provinces. Quebec posted the longest waits at 5 hours and 23 minutes, while Newfoundland and Labrador had the shortest at 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The MEI warns that growing delays in emergency departments are a sign Canada’s healthcare systems are under stress. The report recommends looking to European-style reforms, such as mixed public-private urgent care systems, to help reduce pressure on hospitals. In France, for instance, independently run but universally accessible medical centres are used to treat less critical patients, easing hospital congestion.
“These long wait times are not just numbers — they represent real Canadians facing delays in critical care that cause needless pain or distress,” said Emmanuelle Faubert, the economist who authored the report. She added that median times in some Quebec regions exceed eight hours, and in certain Montreal facilities, such as the Pavillon Albert-Prévost mental health ER, patients wait over 13 hours on average.
But Alberta health officials pushed back on the broader conclusions. Kyle Warner, spokesperson for the Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, noted that Alberta’s emergency departments still perform better than many large provinces and emphasized that wait times alone don’t capture quality of care. “Patients are triaged based on medical urgency, not arrival time, meaning the most critical are seen first,” he said.
In a written statement, the ministry acknowledged that ER stays are still too long but said Alberta is taking steps to reduce pressure. That includes opening more hospital beds, expanding assisted-living spaces for patients ready for discharge, growing the number of family doctors, and building new urgent care centres to divert non-urgent cases away from ERs.
“While Alberta is doing better than most provinces, we’re not satisfied,” the statement said. “We’re focused on improving timely access to care for all Albertans.”
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