Danielle Smith says province is working to send unused Turkish pain medication to Ukraine

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is working on a deal to send its stash of unused children's pain medication to Ukraine.

Smith told reporters Friday that an unnamed group had approached the government with the idea to ship the medication to war-torn areas around the world.

"We said we'd work with them," Smith said.

She added the province is now seeking Health Canada's approval to send the drugs to Ukraine.

"They have children who have fevers and don't have medications, and we have agreements with Ukraine to help them."

Alberta's government paid $70 million for the Turkish medication in 2022 during a countrywide shortage.

The province received about 30 per cent of the shipment and, since the spring of 2023, has been sitting on 1.4 million bottles after health officials determined the medication posed serious health risks when given to infants.

Opposition NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman questioned the timing of the plan and said sending the medication to already vulnerable children in Ukraine is a bad move.

"They're already in the fight of their lives, and now we're going to say to the parents, here's, you know, some leftovers that weren't good enough for our kids," Hoffman said.

In a statement, Health Canada said an application made by Alberta Health Services to export the medication is being assessed.

Lorian Hardcastle, health policy professor at the University of Calgary, says it makes sense for the province to try to find a way to make sure the pain medication will not go to waste.

"We don't want medication that could potentially benefit someone go unused, especially when there are shortages of various medications around the world," she said.

Hardcastle adds, however, because of the atypical move to procure drugs from one country and then sell them to another, the province should be fully transparent about the safety concerns around the drug, such as dosing requirements.

"One way of mitigating those potential concerns is to have a clause in that agreement that addresses concerns around liability for any issues that may arise," Hardcastle said.