Alberta budget announces record high health spending including money for new and redeveloped hospitals

Alberta’s government is providing another year of record-high investment, with $24.5 billion in the Ministry of Health’s operating expense this year, an increase of 4.1 per cent from last year. This new funding will focus on addressing areas of priority in the Healthcare Action Plan to improve the health-care services Albertans expect and deserve. In addition, Alberta’s primary health-care system is being strengthened and modernized with a record investment of $243 million over three years.

Budget 2023 provides $3.1 billion in capital funding over three years to further build up Alberta’s valuable health-care infrastructure, an additional $529 million in capital maintenance and renewal for health facilities and a further $732 million in self-financed funding. The $3.1 billion includes funding for the redevelopment and expansion of the Red Deer Regional Hospital, increasing critical services and capacity in one of Alberta’s largest hospitals.

Additionally, $18 million over three years is for further planning for proposed health capital projects across the province, including the stand-alone Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, a north Calgary/Airdrie regional health centre, expansion of the Strathcona Community Hospital, and new or upgraded facilities in Bassano, Cardston and Whitecourt.

A total of $237 million over three years will go towards the Alberta Surgical Initiative Capital Program, with $120 million in new funding to expand and modernize operating rooms in 15 communities across the province and reduce wait times for surgeries.

The new Health Workforce Strategy will help get Albertans the care they need, when and where they need it. Budget 2023 includes $158 million in 2023-24 to retain and support, attract, grow, strengthen and evolve the health-care workforce, including physicians and nurses.

“Building a resilient and responsive health-care system that meets the needs of Albertans is essential to keeping our province healthy. This is why Budget 2023 includes another record-high health-care investment, so we can put the right health-care professionals, resources and services where they are needed most.”

Jason Copping, Minister of Health

Budget 2023 invests in emergency medical services (EMS) to improve ambulance response times. An increase of $196 million over three years will help hire more staff and implement recommendations from the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee. A new capital program will provide $15 million over three years to put more ambulances on the road.

As part of the initiative to improve primary health care, Alberta’s government is investing more than $2 billion in 2023-24. This includes $243 million over three years to strengthen the province’s primary care system, including implementing the recommendations from the three advisory panels of Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) established in fall 2022. These recommendations will inform the government’s immediate next steps and a path forward over the next five to 10 years.

“Investing in health care is not just a cost, it’s an investment in our future. By increasing critical health-care capacity, we can ensure that our health-care system is equipped to meet the needs of our citizens and provide the highest quality of care possible.”

Travis Toews, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance

“Over the next three years, Alberta’s government is investing $23 billion into public infrastructure through the 2023 Capital Plan. By building and revitalizing hospitals, schools, courthouses and other public facilities, we are investing in the critical infrastructure projects that Albertans need and help keep people working.”

Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Infrastructure

Budget 2023 includes nearly $4.3 billion in combined operating support for community care, continuing care and home care programs, an increase of more than 15 per cent, or $570 million from the 2022-23 forecast. An investment of $1 billion over three years will support continuing care transformation that will shift care to the community, enhance workforce capacity, increase choice and innovation, and improve the quality of care within the sector. In addition, there is $310 million over three years for the Continuing Care Capital Program, which supports modernizing continuing care facilities, developing innovative small care homes, providing culturally appropriate care for Indigenous Peoples and building new spaces in priority communities having the greatest need.

Budget 2023 includes operating expense of $148 million in 2023-24 for the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction. In addition, it supports Alberta Health Services with additional funding to reduce wait times for mental health and addiction services and address gaps in the system. Alberta spends more than $1 billion per year on mental health and addiction programs and services, excluding physician billings. Over the next three years, Alberta’s government will also invest $155 million in capital funding to continue building holistic, long-term recovery communities where Albertans will be able to access detox services, treatment medications, peer support, and help with skills and training.

“Alberta has emerged as a national leader in building out recovery-oriented systems of care for addiction and mental health. The historic investments included in Budget 2023 will help us further expand treatment and recovery services, enabling us to support more Albertans in their pursuit of recovery.”

Nicholas Milliken, Minister of Mental Health and Addiction

Budget 2023 highlights

$6.2 billion budgeted in 2023-24, increasing to more than $6.4 billion by 2025-26 for physician compensation and development programs.
More than $250 million over four years (beginning in 2022-23) for recruitment and retention programs under the agreement with the Alberta Medical Association so more Albertans can access family doctors, and to provide more support to help physicians keep their clinics open and running.
More than $2 billion per year for Drugs and Supplemental Health benefit programs. The Seniors Drug program budget is the largest component of this suite of programs, with $693 million budgeted in 2023-24, supporting more than 700,000 seniors.
More than $2 billion in 2023-24 to support primary care in Alberta, including payments to family doctors.
$125 million over three years as an initial investment, providing funding for early opportunities to improve primary care identified through the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care Systems (MAPS) initiative.

Budget 2023 secures Alberta’s bright future by transforming the health-care system to meet people’s needs, supporting Albertans with the high cost of living, keeping our communities safe and driving the economy with more jobs, quality education and continued diversification.

Government of Alberta

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

Published on November 2, 2024

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

Published on November 1, 2024

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.