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Alberta

Alberta and British Columbia set to gain federal ridings from Liberal-held Ontario areas

Published

1 year ago

6 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Three Liberal-held ridings in Toronto and northern Ontario are set to be given to British Columbia and Alberta this spring, providing a potential benefit to the Conservative Party in the next election.

Alberta and British Columbia are set to gain more federal ridings, which could increase Conservatives’ chances of a federal victory in the next election.  

According to a memo published October 10 by Blacklock’s Reporter, the next federal election will see fewer Members of Parliament (MPs) in Toronto and northern Ontario, and more in Okanagan, British Columbia, and suburban Alberta. 

“One of our election readiness activities this year relates to electoral boundaries redistribution,” Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault testified at the House affairs committee.   

The changes will come into effect under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act on April 22, 2024, and elections after that date will “take place under the new map.” 

The redistribution aims to rebalance the seats proportionately to population growth within the provinces. It will mean a record 343 seats in the House of Commons. Currently, ridings are divided into 122 in Ontario, 78 in Québec, 43 in British Columbia, 37 in Alberta, 14 in Saskatchewan, 14 in Manitoba, 11 in Nova Scotia, 10 in New Brunswick, 7 in Newfoundland and Labrador, 4 in Prince Edward Island and 1 each in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.  

Under the new distribution, Toronto will lose the Scarborough-Agincourt riding held by Liberal MP Jean Yip, going from 25 to 24 federal ridings. Last election, all 25 Toronto ridings voted for the Liberals, at 51 percent support, making it the party’s largest popular vote in any major Canadian city. 

“It is necessary to move a district to other areas of the Greater Toronto Area that, while equally diverse, are growing much faster than the City of Toronto,” said the Final Report of The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission For The Province Of Ontario. 

“The population of the City of Toronto only grew by 6.9 percent from 2011 to 2021 compared to 11.7 percent for the remainder of the province,” it wrote, arguing that keeping 25 seats in Toronto would “unfairly impact other parts of Ontario.”  

Additionally, Northern Ontario is set to lose one of its nine ridings. In 2021, most ridings in Northern Ontario voted Liberal, with the exception of Kenora (Conservative MP Eric Melillo) and Timmins-James Bay (New Democrat MP Charlie Angus). 

“We are in a very fragile time for democracy,” MP Angus testified May 8 at the House affairs committee. “We must do our best to reassure citizens that their voice counts and that they are being heard.” 

Ontario’s ridings are set to be given to western provinces. British Columbia, which typically votes Liberal or New Democrat, will gain one new seat, Vernon-Lake Country in Okanagan.  

On the other hand, Alberta, a historically Conservative province, is set to gain three ridings in Calgary McKnight, Airdrie-Chestermere and Spruce Grove-Leduc.

The Alberta ridings are not the only factor pointing to a Conservative victory next fall. Recently, Canadians have become increasingly fed up of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership.   

A September poll revealed that Trudeau’s disproval rates have reached a record high of 57 percent. The number should not come as a surprise as the polling also showed that 72 percent of Canadians are concerned with rising costs of living amid Trudeau’s ever-increasing carbon tax and energy regulations.   

According to a September 5 report by Statistics Canada, food prices are rising faster than the headline inflation rate – the overall inflation rate in the country – as staple food items are increasing at a rate of 10 to 18 percent year-over-year when compared to the overall inflation rate of 4 percent.   

Earlier this year, the Bank of Canada admitted that Trudeau’s federal “climate change” programs, which have been deemed “extreme” by some provincial leaders, are indeed helping to fuel inflation.  

Furthermore, as a result of the Trudeau government’s Online News Act, Canadians can no longer access news on Facebook or Instagram as Meta refuses to pay the fees mandated by the act.  

On the other hand, Conservative Party leader Poilievre has openly condemned the Online News Act, comparing it with George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”   

Furthermore, Poilievre has repeatedly promised Canadians that he will axe the carbon tax and restore the economy if elected prime minister.  

While Trudeau came out to condemn the September 20 Million Person March against LGBT indoctrination in schools, Poilievre initially failed to support the immensely popular pro-family effort, and even went as far as having his office tell his caucus to refrain from making any statements about the movement. 

Poilievre did eventually break his silence on the matter, slamming Trudeau for his condemnation of concerned parents and encouraging the federal government to leave LGBT discussions to families and not the education system.

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Alberta

Alberta takes big step towards shorter wait times and higher quality health care

Published on April 9, 2025

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Nadeem Esmail

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
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Alberta

Alberta’s embrace of activity-based funding is great news for patients

Published on April 9, 2025

By

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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