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Premier Jason Kenney said he’s confident Alberta doctors will get on board with the province’s reforms surrounding their compensation once they better understand the changes.

Speaking Friday in Calgary, the premier responded to concerns raised by physicians after the UCP government terminated its funding contract with the Alberta Medical Association the day prior and announced it would impose 11 changes in an effort to control rising health-care costs.

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The province would have hit $2 billion in cost overruns in the next three years without significant changes, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Thursday.

“We honour and respect those physicians, our medical practitioners, as well as our nurses and everybody in our health system,” Kenney told reporters during a news conference at the Glenbow Museum.

“But we cannot allow that physician compensation to continue to grow much, much faster than our population or than inflation at a time of real fiscal and economic challenge. So we are turning to our great doctors to say, ‘Please work with us to find a more efficient way of delivering services.’”