Alberta
Budget 2023 – Alberta’s Affordability Action Plan
Budget 2023 funds ongoing programs and services that support Albertans and builds on Alberta’s Affordability Action Plan, expanding relief for high utility costs and providing new measures for students, workers in the social services and disability sectors, and in continuing care.
Alberta’s government is permanently extending the natural gas rebate program. Moving forward, whenever natural gas prices exceed $6.50 per gigajoule, the rebate will take effect.
“Inflation continues to challenge Albertans, and affordability remains top of mind for many. That’s why we are working hard to save Albertans money so they can focus on what really matters. Budget 2023’s strong affordability measures – including extended fuel tax relief, continued utility rebates and new supports for students and social services workers – will help to keep life affordable for families, seniors, individuals and vulnerable groups across the province.”
Supporting post-secondary students
Post-secondary students in Alberta will see real relief, thanks to $238 million for new, targeted affordability measures.
Budget 2023 caps tuition fee increases for domestic students at two per cent annually effective for the 2024-25 school year.
Students receiving financial assistance will get more help repaying their loans, with an extension of the student loan grace period from six months to one year and an increase to the threshold for eligibility for the loan repayment assistance plan to $40,000, up from $25,000 in income.
Albertans repaying student loans will see their payments drop by an average of $15 per month thanks to the new student loan interest rate being reduced from prime plus one per cent to prime.
“These new measures will help all students keep up with the increased cost of living. We are committed to keeping post-secondary education accessible and affordable so that all Albertans can gain the skills and knowledge they need to build successful careers and secure Alberta’s future.”
Supporting families
Parents shouldn’t have to choose between filling up the car and putting food on the table. Budget 2023 leaves more money in the pockets of Alberta families by funding affordability measures, including direct payments of $100 per month through June 2023. All parents or guardians of a dependent under 18 can still apply to get $100 per month for six months for each child if their adjusted household income is below $180,000, based on the 2021 tax year.
Through Budget 2023, investments of $90 million over three years will help secure more supports for families with young children by indexing the Alberta Child and Family Benefit to inflation, increasing benefit amounts by six per cent in 2023.
Enabling parents to expand their families and helping more children find their forever home by making in-Alberta adoptions more affordable is an important initiative in Budget 2023. Alberta’s government is investing $12 million more over three years and providing supplementary health benefits for children adopted from government care or through licensed adoption agencies to ensure more successful adoptions. In addition, there is $6,000 in grant funding for prospective adoptive parents making less than $180,000 a year and an increase of the provincial adoption expense tax credit to $18,210 to match the federal threshold in 2023.
Budget 2023 allocates $1.3 billion in 2023-24, $1.4 billion in 2024-25 and $1.6 billion in 2025-26 in operating expense in the Child Care program from provincial funding and Alberta federal-provincial child-care agreements.
An additional operating expense of $143 million over three years responds to the increasing complexity of children receiving child intervention services and an additional $26 million over three years will support youth and young adults in care transitioning to adulthood.
“We want a better future for our children, which is why we are continuing to prioritize making high-quality child care more affordable and accessible for Alberta families. We are also providing more supports to reduce barriers in the adoption process as well as increasing supports for vulnerable children and youth in care while advancing our government’s priority of making life more affordable for all Albertans.”
Supporting seniors and other vulnerable Albertans
Seniors aged 65 and over with a household income under $180,000 based on the 2021 tax year are still eligible to receive direct payments of $100 per month for six months (January 2023 to June 2023).
Albertans who receive the Alberta Seniors Benefit, AISH and Income Support have been automatically enrolled to receive the same Affordability Relief Payments of $600 over six months.
Alberta’s government is further supporting seniors, low-income and vulnerable Albertans with a six per cent increase to core benefits in 2023. Benefits including AISH, Income Support and the Alberta Seniors Benefit are indexed to inflation, which is helping Albertans combat today’s increased cost of living.
Budget 2023 helps put food on Albertans’ tables by funding local food banks, including $10-million direct funding through the Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta and $10 million to match private donations, over two years.
Alberta’s government values the work done by disability service providers and workers throughout the province in caring for the disability community. That is why Budget 2023 provides a five per cent increase to the disability sector to help with administration costs in Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) and Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) provider contracts and family-managed agreements.
It is important that Albertans are able to get to and from work, to a doctor’s appointment, the grocery store or a pharmacy. To support low-income transit pass programs, Budget 2023 is investing $16 million in 2023-24 to support municipalities throughout the province as they provide affordable transit to their residents.
“For so many seniors, low-income individuals and Albertans living with disabilities, the increased cost of living has made life more and more difficult to afford. Alberta’s government is continuing to take steps to support these individuals and families, which I know will have a huge impact for many households across the province.”
Supporting social services and disability services workers
The government is helping to attract and retain more social service workers to support more people in need. Budget 2023 includes $102 million in 2023-24 to increase wages for more than 20,000 workers in disability services, homeless shelters and family violence prevention programs. This funding builds on the $24 million the government provided to service providers in February to enable wage increases retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023.
Alberta’s government is also providing $8 million in 2023-24 for disability service providers to address increasing administrative costs.
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.
Alberta
Business owners receive court approval to proceed with COVID lawsuit against Alberta gov’t
From LifeSiteNews
A judge ruled that businesses impacted by COVID lockdowns are allowed to claim compensation for harm and losses incurred due to the provincial chief medical officer’s illegal orders.
A class-action lawsuit on behalf of dozens of Canadian business owners in Alberta who faced massive losses or permanent closures due to COVID mandates has been given the go-ahead to proceed by a judge.
Lawyers representing businesses from Alberta-based Rath & Company announced in a press release on October 30 that it was “successful in its application for certification on behalf of Alberta business owners impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and closures imposed through Chief Medical Officer of Health (“CMOH”) Orders.”
“Justice Feasby of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta released his decision today certifying the class action in Ingram v Alberta, 2024 ABKB 631,” Rath & Company said.
Lead counsel Jeffrey Rath said the Alberta government has been placed on notice for its actions against businesses during the COVID lockdown era.
The Rath lawsuit proposal names Rebecca Ingram, a gym owner, and Chris Scott, a restaurant owner, as “representative plaintiffs who suffered significant financial harm due to (former Alberta Chief Medical Officer) Dr. (Deena) Hinshaw’s Public Health Orders.”
According to Rath, the class action seeks to certify that “affected Alberta business owners who suffered losses due to the CMOH orders, which were found to be ultra vires — outside legal authority and therefore unlawful — under Alberta’s Public Health Act (“PHA”).
“As a result, the Court Certified multiple claims, including negligence, bad faith and misfeasance in public office. The Court allowed affected businesses to claim compensation for harm and losses incurred due to the illegal CMOH Orders including punitive damages,” Rath said.
Any business operator in Alberta from 2020 to 2022 who was negatively impacted by COVID orders is now eligible to join the lawsuit. Any payout from the lawsuit would come from the taxpayers.
The government’s legal team claimed that the COVID orders were put in place on a good faith initiative and that it was Alberta Health Services, not the government, that oversaw enforcement of the rules.
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench’s Ingram v. Alberta decision cast into doubt all cases involving those facing non-criminal COVID-related charges in the province, allowing the class action to get this far.
As a result of the court ruling, Alberta Crown Prosecutions Service (ACPS) said Albertans facing COVID-related charges will not be convicted but instead have their charges stayed.
Thus far, Dr. Michal Princ, pizzeria owner Jesse Johnson, Scott, and Alberta pastors James Coates, Tim Stephens, and Artur Pawlowski, who were jailed for keeping churches open under then-Premier Jason Kenney, have had COVID charges against them dropped due to the court ruling.
Under Kenney, thousands of businesses, notably restaurants and small shops, were negatively impacted by severe COVID restrictions, mostly in 2020-21, that forced them to close for a time. Many never reopened. At the same time, as in the rest of Canada, big box stores were allowed to operate unimpeded.
Alberta
Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors
From LifeSiteNews
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.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
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.
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