Frustration mounts over delays, cost of Alberta’s fall COVID-19 immunization program

Some seniors say they're struggling to get COVID-19 vaccine bookings, facing long waits, and they're questioning why they have to pay.

Alberta’s fall immunization campaign for the COVID‑19 vaccine opened to the general public on Monday, but some are expressing frustration over long delays, limited appointment availability and a $100 out-of-pocket fee.

According to Primary Care Alberta, the provincial Health Link 811 line was inundated on the first day of broader vaccine eligibility.

By noon, the line had received 10,346 calls for COVID-19 immunization and 1,458 for flu shots.

The agency said it has brought in all available staff and extended hours to cope with the surge.

“Albertans are encouraged to try calling back later or to book their fall immunization appointments online at primarycarealberta.ca/immunize,” spokesperson Nicole Merrifield said.

“Extended staff coverage is scheduled for the rest of the week and will continue as needed.

Merrifield noted the delays are exacerbated particularly because there are more family bookings.

She says group bookings have also been removed from the online system and must now be done individually.

“Primary Care Alberta continues to add appointments to our busiest public health clinics to meet the demand for immunization bookings,” she said.

“We continue to monitor the activity and will adjust staffing levels at both Health Link 811 and in public health clinics as we are able.”

Impact on seniors

Lucille Olson, who lives just east of Vulcan, celebrated her 73rd birthday this week, but she didn’t imagine she’d be spending it stuck in front of a computer screen.

Despite living with a rare cancer, she wasn’t eligible to book an appointment for a COVID vaccine in the first phase of Alberta’s rollout.

“I’ve been treated for my cancer in the past, but because I wasn’t being treated right now under active treatment, they pushed me to the second group with everyone else,” Olson said.

Olson resorted to Alberta’s online vaccine booking system.

“I knew 811 wasn’t open until 8 a.m., so I started at about midnight on the website on Monday and tried every couple hours to get on,” she said.

“I was finally able to get through on the website by 7:15 a.m., but by then all of the spots were full and the only appointment I could find was in High River, which I was fortunate enough to get.”

When Olson attempted to book an appointment for her husband, however, it became an even bigger challenge.

“Every place I tried was full. I couldn’t get anything within two and a half weeks; I needed to get something because we’re going to a big function for a wedding, and for some places, you couldn’t get a vaccine until December,” she said.

“Every time you tried to get a vaccine booking and you couldn’t get one, you had to go start all over, put all the information in again. I went on 811 at the same time as I was booking, and they basically hung up on me. It said, ‘We’re busy,’ and then they just hung up.”

Although Olson was eventually able to get a booking, the cost has sown anger and disappointment.

“We have to pay $100 for a COVID vaccine or $155 at a pharmacy that offers them. This is just wrong,” she said.

“It’s not fair that the province is charging for this; they’re going to cause an even bigger health-care crisis.

“Alberta’s government is hurting not just the people, but they’re hurting the province by not giving out free vaccines to people that want to be protected.”

Province responds

In a statement attributed to the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services, the government said it is taking “a responsible, targeted approach, focused on protecting those most at risk while maintaining a sustainable immunization program for all residents.”

It noted that the decision to charge for the vaccine for non-high-risk groups aligns with current guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which, the statement said, “does not recommend universal vaccination” given strong population-level immunity and low hospital admissions for COVID-19 so far in 2025.

Regarding pricing, the ministry said, “The COVID-19 vaccine is now also available on the private market, and participating community pharmacies can purchase it directly from wholesalers.”

Pharmacies that offer the vaccine, however, are not part of the government-run fall immunization program and have been forced to charge upward of $155 in some cases for the vaccine.

“Pricing is determined independently by pharmacies. For information on availability and cost, Albertans should contact pharmacies directly,” the statement said.

The ministry also addressed circulating misinformation, noting that there is no requirement for Albertans to pre-order a vaccine this year in order to receive one next year.

The pre‐ordering tool, it said, is used to forecast volumes and minimize waste.

Pharmacies face fallout

Pharmacist-owner Randy Howden of The Medicine Shoppe (Crowfoot) said the private-market rollout has been “a bit late to the show.”

He described patients as “very confused.”

“We got information that we’d be able to order some private-stock vaccine, and being private stock, of course, we have to charge patients for that vaccine,” he said.

Howden said most Alberta pharmacies that choose to purchase COVID shots are receiving individual doses of the Pfizer vaccine for ages 12 and up, but he noted the ordering rules keep shifting.

“Last week, I was told we could order 20 doses per week, and then today I was told something different.”

Howden said the cost differential is confusing for patients.

Many private insurance plans will cover some or all of the fee, he acknowledged, but “better communication would be very, very helpful.”

“What we found in the pharmacy is we’re getting a lot of phone calls, a lot of seniors and a lot of patients calling us, asking us how they can access the vaccine, so we’re spending a lot of our time directing people to the Alberta booking website and also to call 811 for support,” he said.

“I even had patients in yesterday that hadn’t heard any of the information. … They booked for a flu shot and just assumed they could get their COVID shot at the same time. That’s the service that pharmacies have been offering, and that’s what they expect now, so it’d be really nice if next year we could have access to public health vaccines again.”

‘C-’ on vaccine access

The national seniors’ advocacy organization CanAge evaluated provincial vaccine programs and assigned Alberta an overall grade of C-.

“Alberta has some of the best vaccine delivery infrastructure in the country—excellent digital records, outstanding outreach programs to long-term care,” said CEO Laura Tamblyn Watts.

“But then they charge seniors $100 for a COVID-19 vaccine? That’s like building a state-of-the-art highway and then putting up a toll booth that only a portion of the population can afford.”

She noted that 66.8 per cent of Alberta’s 740,710 seniors live with multiple chronic conditions and cost remains one of the principal barriers to vaccination.

“The No. 1 reason why people don’t get vaccinated isn’t vaccine hesitancy; it’s cost. We were horrified at this decision to charge for the COVID vaccine in Alberta and now Quebec,” she said.

“What it’s going to mean is that we’re going to have much more COVID in Alberta, and people are going to get profoundly sick. This is going to hit across generations, making older people get more frail, making our hospital systems back up.”

Poll shows opposition

A new online survey from the Angus Reid Institute of 4,330 Canadian adults finds a deep national resistance to charging for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Nationwide, 69 per cent oppose the policy, while only 24 per cent support it.

In Alberta, support is stronger than in other provinces—36 per cent back it, but 57 per cent “strongly oppose” it.

Angus Reid research associate Jon Roe said the polling suggests most Canadians still see vaccination as a collective public health responsibility, not a consumer product.

“There is the majority belief that COVID vaccines are effective at preventing the spread of the virus,” he said.

“Though concern over the virus has declined over time—it’s not nearly as high as it was during the pandemic—this poll shows that people still believe that getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent the spread.”

He said charging for the vaccine runs counter to that goal.

“If we want to have a campaign to protect people from COVID-19 and make sure that we do get enough people vaccinated, charging for it is perhaps not the way to get that done,” he said.

Roe noted the issue also exposes a deep political divide in Alberta, based on results from the poll.

“UCP voters are much more supportive of this policy than everyone else in the province,” he said.

“Conservative voters, including those who voted conservative federally or for the UCP provincially in the last election, are much less likely to believe in the efficacy of vaccines and are generally less concerned about COVID-19 in general.”

Roe said that contrast likely explains why Alberta stands out in the national data.

“It is one of those policies, I think, that Danielle Smith has brought in that maybe plays a bit more to her base, whereas there are a lot of other Albertans out there who are against it,” he said.

The survey was conducted online from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5, among a randomized national sample of 4,330 adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum.

The results were weighted to be representative of the Canadian population by region, gender, age, income and education.

For comparison purposes, a probability sample of that size would carry a margin of error of ±1.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.