Alberta
Alberta Budget 2024 – Health, Education, and Affordability announcements
Putting Albertans and Alberta families first
Budget 2024 is a responsible plan that puts Albertans and their families first by investing in strong health care, a modern education system and supports to keep life affordable.
Alberta’s government will ensure that the services and supports Alberta families rely on will be there for them. Budget 2024 continues to prioritize the delivery of high-quality, reliable health services across the province, with funding to continue planning the stand-alone Stollery Children’s Hospital, attract family physicians to rural areas and add more mental health and addiction facilities.
“With Budget 2024, we are ensuring that our province remains the best place to live and raise a family. We are investing in programs and services like new school builds, improved access to doctors and affordable housing to help Albertans stay healthy and build a successful future for themselves and their families.”
Budget 2024 highlights – Health care
- $475 million to modernize Alberta’s primary health care system, including:
- $200 million over two years to improve access to family physicians.
- $10 million for primary health care initiatives in Indigenous communities.
- $15 million to further develop a compensation model for nurse practitioners.
- $6.6 billion for physician compensation and development, up from $6.1 billion in Budget 2023.
- $1 billion over three years to transform the continuing care system to shift care to the community, enhance workforce capacity, increase choice and innovation, and improve the quality of care within the continuing care sector.
- $287 million over four years, part of a bilateral agreement with the federal government, for new mental health and addiction facilities, as well as for targeted supports for children and youth, adults and Indigenous communities.
- $62.4 million over three years to create two rural health professional training centres and expand physician education.
- $20 million over the next three years, including $17 million in new funding, to continue planning for a stand-alone Stollery Children’s Hospital.
- $35 million in capital funding over the next three years to purchase new emergency medical services vehicles and ambulances, upgrade the existing fleet and acquire additional equipment.
- $10 million over the next three years to create additional mental health professional spaces in post-secondary schools.
- $1.55-billion total expense to continue building the Alberta Recovery Model and ensure anyone suffering from the deadly disease of addiction or facing mental health challenges has an opportunity to pursue recovery.
“In Budget 2024, Alberta’s government is continuing to prioritize the delivery of high-quality, reliable health services across the province. This year’s record investment of $26.2 billion in health care will help us continue toward our goals of improving primary health care, adding capacity, reducing wait times, growing the workforce and advancing the Healthcare Action Plan.”
“Budget 2024 gives hope to those suffering from the deadly disease of addiction or facing mental health challenges. We are proud to invest in the Alberta Recovery Model and provide life-saving addiction treatment and care for those in need.”
Budget 2024 invests in a bright future for Alberta students with new and modernized schools, learning supports for students of all abilities and post-secondary programs to help build a skilled workforce.
Budget 2024 highlights – K-12 and post-secondary education
- $1.9 billion in capital funding over the next three years for planning, design or construction of new and modernized school projects across the province. This includes $681 million in new funding for 43 priority projects that will create 35,000 new or modernized student spaces.
- A total of 98 school projects are in various stages of the planning, design and construction process in 2024.
- $842 million in new operating funding over the next three years to further support enrolment growth, bringing additional enrolment-based funding to more than $1.2 billion over the next three years to enable schools to hire more than 3,100 education staff.
- More than $1.5-billion operating expense funding for educational learning supports for vulnerable students, children with specialized learning needs and other students requiring additional supports.
- $26 million over the next three years in additional funding for Program Unit Funding (PUF). PUF will total $209 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- $103 million in capital funding over three years to increase modular classroom spaces to address the most urgent needs for additional student spaces across the province.
- $55 million in capital funding starting in 2025-26 for the University of Calgary’s multidisciplinary hub to add 1,000 spaces in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.
- $63 million in capital funding over the next three years for Olds College to renovate and expand student spaces in the WJ Elliot Building.
- $43 million in capital funding over the next three years for NAIT’s trades and technology learning facility.
- $13 million in capital funding over the next three years for Red Deer Polytechnic to create a new space to help businesses conduct applied research.
“The Alberta Advantage is back and booming, and people from across Canada and around the world are once again flocking to our incredible province. This of course puts added pressures on our schools, and our government is ready to help. Budget 2024 will support 43 new school projects to create and update 35,000 more student spaces. We’re providing $842 million in new funding to help our school boards hire more than 3,000 teachers and educational staff over the next three years. We will also boost funding to vulnerable students by increasing funding to the PUF program by $26 million.”
“Demand for skilled trades workers and graduates from STEM programs is projected to increase as our economy continues to grow and diversify. That’s why Alberta’s government is making targeted investments in post-secondary institutions to create more opportunities for students in high-demand fields of study.”
Although inflation is expected to ease this year, many families are still struggling with high grocery and utility costs. Budget 2024 helps keep life affordable and supports Albertans most affected by inflation.
Budget 2024 highlights – Affordability
- $717 million in capital grants to give Albertans and families access to more affordable housing, in line with Stronger Foundations – Alberta’s 10-year strategy designed to increase affordable housing supply and supports for Albertans.
- $355 million for the Alberta Child and Family Benefit to provide lower-income families with benefits, an increase of $31 million from last fiscal year.
- $980 million in savings for Albertans in 2024-25 because of indexation of personal income taxes.
- Budget 2024 formalizes the schedule to phase in a new personal income tax bracket on the first $60,000 of income, which would save individual taxpayers up to $760 per year once the tax cut is fully implemented.
- 25 per cent discount for seniors on personal registry services and medical driving tests, scheduled to come into effect in 2024-25.
- $38-million increase to operational funding for the Seniors Lodge, Social Housing and Specialized Housing and Rental Assistance programs in 2024-25.
- $22 million increased operating expense over the next three years to index foster, kinship and other caregiver rates, which will support stronger foundations for children in care and provide them with the care and protection they need for a brighter and secure future.
“With each strategic investment in affordable housing, reducing homelessness and supporting our seniors and people with disabilities, we are strengthening our communities and empowering vulnerable Albertans to thrive and succeed.”
“Our government is helping make life easier and more affordable for Alberta families. By helping foster caregivers increase stability for children and youth in care, and ensuring survivors of domestic and sexual violence have the resources they need to heal, we’re enabling connections that will lead to a brighter future for Alberta families.”
Budget 2024 is a responsible plan to strengthen health care and education, build safe and supportive communities, manage the province’s resources wisely and promote job creation to continue to build Alberta’s competitive advantage.
Canada’s wealth is based on its success as a trading nation. Canada is blessed with immense resources spread across a vast country. It has succeeded as a small, open economy with an enviable standard of living that has been able to provide what the world needs.
Canada has been stuck in a situation where it cannot complete nation‑building projects like the Canadian Pacific Railway that was completed in 1885, or the Trans Canada Highway that was completed in the 1960s. With the uncertainty of U.S. tariffs looming over our country and province, Canada needs to take bold action to revitalize the productivity and competitiveness of its economy – going east to west and not always relying on north-south trade. There’s no better time than right now to politically de-risk these projects.
A lack of leadership from the federal government has led to the following:
- Inadequate federal funding for trade infrastructure.
- A lack of investment is stifling the infrastructure capacity we need to diversify our exports. This is despite federally commissioned reports like the 2022 report by the National Supply Chain Task Force indicating the investment need will be trillions over the next 50 years.
- Federal red tape, like the Impact Assessment Act.
- Burdensome regulation has added major costs and significant delays to projects, like the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, a proposed container facility at Vancouver, which spent more than a decade under federal review.
- Opaque funding programs, like the National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF).
- Which offers a pattern of unclear criteria for decisions and lack of response. This program has not funded any provincial highway projects in Alberta, despite the many applications put forward by the Government of Alberta. In fact, we’ve gone nearly 3 years without decisions on some project applications.
- Ineffective policies that limit economic activity.
- Measures that pit environmental and economic objectives in stark opposition to one another instead of seeking innovative win-win solutions hinder Canada’s overall productivity and investment climate. One example is the moratorium on shipping crude through northern B.C. waters, which effectively ended Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal and has limited Alberta’s ability to ship its oil to Asian markets.
In a federal leadership vacuum, Alberta has worked to advance economic corridors across Canada. In April 2023, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba signed an agreement to collaborate on joint infrastructure networks meant to boost trade and economic growth across the Prairies. Alberta also signed a similar economic corridor agreement with the Northwest Territories in July 2024. Additionally, Alberta would like to see an agreement among all 7 western provinces and territories, and eventually the entire country, to collaborate on economic corridors.
Through our collaboration with neighbouring jurisdictions, we will spur the development of economic corridors by reducing regulatory delays and attracting investment. We recognize the importance of working with Indigenous communities on the development of major infrastructure projects, which will be key to our success in these endeavours.
However, provinces and territories cannot do this alone. The federal government must play its part to advance our country’s economic corridors that we need from coast to coast to coast to support our economic future. It is time for immediate action.
Alberta recommends the federal government take the following steps to strengthen Canada’s economic corridors and supply chains by:
- Creating an Economic Corridor Agency to identify and maintain economic corridors across provincial boundaries, with meaningful consultation with both Indigenous groups and industry.
- Increasing federal funding for trade-enabling infrastructure, such as roads, rail, ports, in-land ports, airports and more.
- Streamlining regulations regarding trade-related infrastructure and interprovincial trade, especially within economic corridors. This would include repealing or amending the Impact Assessment Act and other legislation to remove the uncertainty and ensure regulatory provisions are proportionate to the specific risk of the project.
- Adjusting the policy levers that that support productivity and competitiveness. This would include revisiting how the federal government supports airports, especially in the less-populated regions of Canada.
To move forward expeditiously on the items above, I propose the establishment of a federal/provincial/territorial working group. This working group would be tasked with creating a common position on addressing the economic threats facing Canada, and the need for mitigating trade and trade-enabling infrastructure. The group should identify appropriate governance to ensure these items are presented in a timely fashion by relative priority and urgency.
Alberta will continue to be proactive and tackle trade issues within its own jurisdiction. From collaborative memorandums of understanding with the Prairies and the North, to reducing interprovincial trade barriers, to fostering innovative partnerships with Indigenous groups, Alberta is working within its jurisdiction, much like its provincial and territorial colleagues.
We ask the federal government to join us in a new approach to infrastructure development that ensures Canada is productive and competitive for generations to come and generates the wealth that ensures our quality of life is second to none.
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Devin Dreeshen
Devin Dreeshen was sworn in as Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors on October 24, 2022.
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