Alberta aims to tackle surgical backlog: Minister Shandro Poll Yes The Albertan government has an ambitious plan to eliminate the current surgery backlog. In a press conference last Friday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced that the government and its health partners are pursuing an ambitious plan to provide 55,000 more scheduled surgeries in the coming fiscal year starting on April 1, in addition to the normal pre-pandemic volume of 290,000 surgeries, that would eliminate the pandemic backlog of postponed surgeries, and move towards completing their goal of treating every patient within a clinically acceptable time. Shandro noted that before the pandemic started, the UCP government had promised better access to the public all funded health care system.