A history of health care and workers’ struggles.
Paula E. Kirman
The Misericordia Community Hospital is operated by Covenant Health and is known as Edmonton’s west end hospital. However, it was not always in the west end and has been the site of a number of health care-related union labour actions.
Downtown Beginnings
The Misericordia Hospital first opened as a 60-bed institution in 1906 on 111th Street between 98th and 99th Avenues. Its founders were four Quebec nuns and one nurse who, in response to an appeal from Bishop Grandin of the St. Albert Diocese, moved to Edmonton in 1900 to build a mission and care for unwed mothers and their babies. Prior to the hospital being built, the sisters used a four-room warehouse in the same area to complement the General Hospital which was also nearby and had opened five years earlier.
The Misericordia Sisters also established a nursing school one year after opening the hospital. The first three students graduated in 1910, and the school graduated over 2800 nurses before closing in 1996.
The Misericordia Hospital expanded over the years, eventually having room for over 400 patients. However, by 1959 the building was showing its age and the facility was beginning to close down. A boiler explosion in the early 1960s caused structural damage. The east and west wings remained into the early 1970s as housing for children with mental disabilities, but everything was eventually torn down.
Source:“Misericordia Hospital”, Edmonton Historical Board, https://www.edmontonhistoricalboard.com/structures/misericordia-hospital/
Moving to the West End
The Misericordia Hospital opened in its west end location at 16940 87th Avenue on July 18th, 1969. The Misericordia Sisters had purchased 50 acres of land in the Jasper Place area, with the hospital having 555 beds and 100 bassinets after it opened. The hospital, which cost $21 million to build, offered services that included general practice, surgery, medical services, psychiatric services, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. It also had a laboratory and rehabilitation medicine, an intensive care unit, an emergency department, and state-of-the-art operating rooms.
The Misericordia Sisters left Edmonton in 1976 as their numbers were decreasing and they were not able to keep up with the increasing complexities of running a hospital. A non-profit organization, The Alberta Catholic Hospitals Foundation, was formed to continue the Sisters’ work.
The Misericordia Community Hospital, as it is now known, continues to function as a full-service acute care facility and is part of Covenant Health, which was formed in 2008 as a Catholic health care provider operating numerous sites and services throughout Alberta as part of the province’s health system. A new emergency department opened at the Misericordia in 2023.
Source: “Misericordia Hospital celebrates 50 years in west Edmonton,” Covenant Health, https://covenanthealth.ca/news-and-events/news/misericordia-hospital-celebrates-50-years-in-west-edmonton
Labour Strikes and Struggles
Workers at the Misericordia Hospital belong to a variety of labour unions involved with the delivery of front line health care services, as well as workers in other roles like support staff. These unions include:
- United Nurses of Alberta (UNA)
- Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA)
- Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
The Misericordia has been the site of a number of strikes and protests over the years. The labour actions usually focus on wages and working conditions. Some of the actions have been specific to the Misericordia site, as recently as a July 2025 AUPE action demanding better wages and working conditions from Covenant Health. In October 2009, members of the UNA and supporters marched from West Edmonton Mall across the street to the Misericordia with the message to keep healthcare public.
Other actions were connected to the state of health care throughout the province of Alberta and affected all hospitals in Edmonton and beyond. In August 2021, while still in the thick of COVID-19 restrictions, a UNA Day of Action saw pickets outside health care facilities throughout Alberta, including the Misericordia, to protest cuts to health care. Union members and supporters wore required face masks and held up signs on the sidewalk outside the hospital1.
Pickets and protests have been more common than strikes, although the latter have happened. In March 1998, hospital support workers with AUPE held an illegal walkout and formed picket lines around Edmonton hospitals. The walkout only lasted a few hours until negotiators on both sides reached a deal2. In September 1971 workers with SEIU including cleaning, clerical, and dietary staff struck for a better contract3.
There have been far too many health care and hospital-related actions to cover in this article. An expanded version will eventually be posted online at jasperplacehistory.org.
References for this section
1Many health care-related protests since 2005, including the ones mentioned here, are documented at radicalcitizenmedia.com/health
2Thorne, Duncan. “Short-lived strike brings new deal for hospital support workers”. Edmonton Journal, Saturday, March 21, 1998, page 1.
3“Workers walk out at Misericordia.” Edmonton Journal, Saturday, September 18, 1971, page 34.
Paula E. Kirman is a freelance writer who grew up, and still lives, near the Jasper Place area.
[This post is appeared as an article in Autumn/Winter 2025’s SPANN.]
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