Alberta
Alberta bill proposes regulatory ‘sandbox’ to help financial-tech companies grow
By Dean Bennett in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Alberta is proposing rules that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to test products in the emerging field of cryptocurrencies and online banking.
Finance Minister Travis Toews says a bill before the legislature calls for setting up what is known as a regulatory “sandbox.”
Companies would be allowed to temporarily break or ignore select financial rules and regulations under close government supervision to test new programs.
Companies would also be able to get access to Albertans’ private information, but only within strict parameters and only with that person’s permission.
Toews says the “sandbox” is being used in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom to help create tech jobs and to keep those regions on the cutting edge of financial technology.
If the bill passes, companies could look at innovations in everything from cryptocurrencies to financial apps, security protections and real-time, multi-user financial accounting.
The government hopes to begin taking applications on July 1.
“This will be a strong incentive for fintech companies to move to Alberta and create jobs,” Toews said Wednesday before introducing the bill in the legislature.
“In turn, it will further help diversify our economy and add to our growing reputation as a hub for world-class financial services.”
The government says the legislation would make Alberta the first such “sandbox” jurisdiction in Canada.
Companies would have to have some physical presence in the province, such as an office or senior staff.
They would be offered certificates granting them permission to perform tests or functions normally declared out of bounds under the Loan and Trust Corporations Act, the Credit Union Act and other related rules governing finance.
The companies would have their names, details and programs on a public website.
The government would be free to change the rules to adjust to changing circumstances during testing.
Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner would have to sign off on exemptions.
“(The bill) is carefully designed to ensure any companies participating in the sandbox operate in a safe and sound manner,” said Toews.
Breaking the rules could result in fines up to $100,000 for a first offence and up to $200,000 for subsequent violations.
Toews said the province is seeking a higher profile and to gain benefits from the emerging fintech industry.
The province expects interest in a range of technologies, including blockchains, which are decentralized online record- keeping and authentication programs for cryptocurrency transactions.
There are also developments in software allowing apps to talk to each other and security precautions such as fingerprint and facial recognition.
There is emerging work in database accounting programs that can be shared in real time across multiple platforms.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2022.
From the Fraser Institute
On Monday, the Smith government announced that beginning next year it will change the way it funds surgeries in Alberta. This is a big step towards unlocking the ability of Alberta’s health-care system to provide more, better and faster services for the same or possibly fewer dollars.
To understand the significance of this change, you must understand the consequences of the current (and outdated) approach.
Currently, the Alberta government pays a lump sum of money to hospitals each year. Consequently, hospitals perceive patients as a drain on their budgets. From the hospital’s perspective, there’s little financial incentive to serve more patients, operate more efficiently and provide superior quality services.
Consider what would happen if your local grocery store received a giant bag of money each year to feed people. The number of items would quickly decline to whatever was most convenient for the store to provide. (Have a favourite cereal? Too bad.) Store hours would become less convenient for customers, alongside a general decline in overall service. This type of grocery store, like an Alberta hospital, is actually financially better off (that is, it saves money) if you go elsewhere.
The Smith government plans to flip this entire system on its head, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. Instead of handing out bags of money each year to providers, the new system—known as “activity-based funding”—will pay health-care providers for each patient they treat, based on the patient’s particular condition and important factors that may add complexity or cost to their care.
This turns patients from a drain on budgets into a source of additional revenue. The result, as has been demonstrated in other universal health-care systems worldwide, is more services delivered using existing health-care infrastructure, lower wait times, improved quality of care, improved access to medical technologies, and less waste.
In other words, Albertans will receive far better value from their health-care system, which is currently among the most expensive in the world. And relief can’t come soon enough—for example, last year in Alberta the median wait time for orthopedic surgeries including hip and knee replacements was 66.8 weeks.
The naysayers argue this approach will undermine the province’s universal system and hurt patients. But by allowing a spectrum of providers to compete for the delivery of quality care, Alberta will follow the lead of other more successful universal health-care systems in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and create greater accountability for hospitals and other health-care providers. Taxpayers will get a much better picture of what they’re paying for and how much they pay.
Again, Alberta is not exploring an untested policy. Almost every other developed country with universal health care uses some form of “activity-based funding” for hospital and surgical care. And remember, we already spend more on health care than our counterparts in nearly all of these countries yet endure longer wait times and poorer access to services generally, in part because of how we pay for surgical care.
While the devil is always in the details, and while it’s still possible for the Alberta government to get this wrong, Monday’s announcement is a big step in the right direction. A funding model that puts patients first will get Albertans more of the high-quality health care they already pay for in a timelier fashion. And provide to other provinces an example of bold health-care reform.
Nadeem Esmail
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
From the Montreal Economic Institute
Alberta’s move to fund acute care services through activity-based funding follows best practices internationally, points out an MEI researcher following an announcement made by Premier Danielle Smith earlier today.
“For too long, the way hospitals were funded in Alberta incentivized treating fewer patients, contributing to our long wait times,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI. “International experience has shown that, with the proper funding models in place, health systems become more efficient to the benefit of patients.”
Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.
Under the government’s newly proposed funding system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered.
An Economic Note published by the MEI last year showed that Quebec’s gradual adoption of activity-based funding led to higher productivity and lower costs in the province’s health system.
Notably, the province observed that the per-procedure cost of MRIs fell by four per cent as the number of procedures performed increased by 22 per cent.
In the radiology and oncology sector, it observed productivity increases of 26 per cent while procedure costs decreased by seven per cent.
“Being able to perform more surgeries, at lower costs, and within shorter timelines is exactly what Alberta’s patients need, and Premier Smith understands that,” continued Mrs. Wittevrongel. “Today’s announcement is a good first step, and we look forward to seeing a successful roll-out once appropriate funding levels per procedure are set.”
The governments expects to roll-out this new funding model for select procedures starting in 2026.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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