Alberta announces 11.6 billion surplus

Strong year-end positions Alberta for stability

A solid end to 2022-23 secures Alberta’s long-term financial outlook and provides stability against future economic uncertainty.

Alberta ended the fiscal year with an $11.6-billion surplus, exceeding the Budget 2022 projected surplus by $11.1 billion. In 2022-23, the province paid down $13.3 billion in debt, eliminating an estimated $260 million in debt servicing costs annually and reducing the overall debt burden on Albertans.

The province’s strong financial situation also resulted in the market value of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund growing by $2.5 billion to $21.2 billion. The Heritage Fund’s year-over-year growth was primarily due to actions taken by the Alberta government to retain $1.25 billion in net investment income from 2021-22 and deposit $753 million into the fund.

Growing the Heritage Fund benefits current and future generations of Albertans by ensuring the province is well equipped to handle future uncertainty.

In March of this year, Alberta’s government made legislative changes to ensure the fund continues to grow to support Albertans now and in the future. These changes allow the government to retain all investment income within the Heritage Fund instead of it being transferred to general revenue.

“The 2022-23 year-end report is a very positive one. We promised to keep our economy moving forward and Alberta is reaping the benefits. Albertans can rest easy knowing that Alberta’s prosperity today means more stability tomorrow as we continue to pay down debt and save for the future.”

Nate Horner, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance

Alberta’s government remains committed to responsible financial management. For the current and subsequent years, Alberta’s new legislated fiscal framework will continue to address Alberta’s unique economic and revenue volatility. The framework requires government to put at least half of any surplus toward debt repayment, with the remainder going toward additional debt repayment, the Heritage Fund or one-time initiatives that do not permanently increase government spending.

Revenue

Revenue in 2022-23 was $76.1 billion, $13.5 billion more than estimated in Budget 2022, including:

$25.2 billion in non-renewable resource revenue, $11.4 billion more than estimated in Budget 2022.

$26.5 billion in tax revenue, $3.5 billion higher than estimated in Budget 2022. This included:
- $8.2 billion in corporate income tax, $4.1 billion more than estimated in Budget 2022.
- $13.9 billion in personal income tax, $543 million more than estimated in Budget 2022.

At the time the Budget 2022 forecast was developed, the global economy was experiencing significant uncertainty related to COVID-19, global growth and energy demand. Budget 2022 was based on a West Texas Intermediate (WTI) forecast of US$70 per barrel in 2022-23.

Oil prices surged last year due to many global factors. WTI reached US$120 per barrel in June 2022 and averaged US$89.69 for the 2022-23 fiscal year, a large reason for the increase in resource and corporate income tax revenue.

Expense

Expense in 2022-23 was $64.5 billion, $2.4 billion more than estimated in Budget 2022, including:

$25.2 billion in health expense to expand capacity and for higher costs in response to Albertans’ evolving health-care needs.
Investments of $8.9 billion and $6.1 billion in K-12 and post-secondary education, respectively, providing quality learning for Alberta’s youth and building on the province’s world-class post-secondary environment.

Among other factors, the overall increase from Budget 2022 was due to:

A $2.2-billion increase in operating expense, mainly for health, increased compensation costs from settled agreements, electricity rebates and other affordability measures, and the cost of selling oil.
A $300-million increase in COVID-19 recovery costs.
A $167-million increase in debt servicing costs, mainly due to the impact of higher interest rates.

Affordability

In response to rising living costs, Alberta’s government introduced a series of affordability measures in 2022-23 that helped slow inflation and make life more affordable for Albertans. In 2022-23, the government provided $2.9 billion in affordability supports, including:

$1.1 billion for the fuel tax relief program, funded through a reduction in revenue.

$304 million for indexation of the personal income tax system to inflation retroactive to the 2022 tax year, funded through a reduction in revenue.
$644 million for electricity rebates.

$441 million for affordability payments to eligible seniors, families with children and vulnerable Albertans on core benefits programs.
$51 million for indexation of benefit payments to inflation (Alberta Seniors Benefit, Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped, Income Support, Persons with Developmental Disabilities).

To further reduce the cost burden on Albertans, Alberta’s government recently extended the pause on the collection of the provincial fuel tax, saving Albertans 13 cents on every litre of gasoline and diesel until the end of 2023.

Related Topics:#11.6BillionSurplus #AlbertaYearEndSurplus #GovernmentOfAlberta feature

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

Published on April 9, 2025

Todayville Content Team

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

Alberta

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

Published on April 9, 2025

Todayville

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.

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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.