Province adding 22 ambulance crews including 1 in Red Deer

Adding new EMS supports to improve response times

Record investments will build a stronger, more flexible and innovative system for emergency medical services (EMS) with better access to care and shorter wait times.

Alberta’s government promised that help is on the way for Albertans and the province’s health system. By hiring more staff, putting more ambulances on the road and strengthening mental health supports for front-line workers, Alberta’s government is delivering on that promise.

“We are adding new ambulances and front-line staff and investing in solutions now and into the future to make sure ambulances arrive as fast as possible when Albertans call 911 for a medical emergency.”

Jason Copping, Minister of Health

The funding boost also supports implementing Health Care Action Plan priorities and recommendations made by the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee to improve EMS response and the work culture for EMS staff.

Alberta has the best front-line health care workers in the world, and Budget 2023 will put the right supports in place to ensure Albertans get the care they need, when and where they need it.

“Budget 2023 delivers the needed support to the front line and adds more resources to implement the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee recommendations. The additional funding will help ease worker fatigue and provide more mental health supports to improve the work environment for all EMS staff.”

RJ Sigurdson, parliamentary secretary, EMS Reform

Adding EMS staff and more ambulances

To improve EMS response time, Budget 2023 invests in adding staff and boosting the number of ambulances on the road. The funding increase will add EMS crews to staff 10 more ambulances in Edmonton, 10 in Calgary, one in Lethbridge and one in Red Deer during peak hours this year.

As part of the ongoing work to improve the central dispatch system and implement the EMS advisory committee’s recommendations, Alberta’s government will provide more than $1.5 million to hire and train additional staff and conduct a review of EMS available resources and how they are used in communities.

Supporting EMS workforce

Front-line staff and community partners asked for more supports to create better work environments, as reflected in the provincial advisory committee’s recommendations. Budget 2023 delivers funding to improve scheduling practices to allow for more breaks, more flexibility in the length of shifts and opportunities to take time off, in addition to providing for more training and development opportunities.

Nearly $1 million will go towards boosting mental health supports for EMS staff across the province. A $3-million investment will address paramedic fatigue in rural communities by adjusting work hours and shift schedules as part of the AHS EMS hours of work initiative.

“This funding increase enables aggressive action on our priority of improving emergency response times. We will hire more staff, increase hours of ambulance capacity, expand partnerships with other community supports and deliver innovative projects. This is about getting Albertans the care they need, where and when they need it.”

Mauro Chies, president and CEO, Alberta Health Services

EMS-811 shared response, inter-facility transfers and treat and refer

Alberta’s Health Care Action Plan is helping to speed up EMS response times and free up highly trained paramedics from non-emergency calls and transfers. Additional funding will go towards the EMS-811 Shared Response program that transfers calls from Albertans with non-urgent conditions to registered nurses with Health Link.

All these actions will reduce EMS response time by empowering paramedics to focus efforts on urgent calls and diverting them away from situations when their level of care is not medically required.

Medical first response supports in rural communities

Medical first responders provide life-saving care in rural and remote communities until an ambulance arrives. Budget 2023 invests in supporting medical first response and implementing the EMS provincial advisory committee’s recommendations to add capacity and provide additional training and equipment.

Budget 2023 secures Alberta’s 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.

Quick facts

In 2023-24, Alberta’s government is providing $723 million in operating funds for EMS, an increase of $138 million to support EMS priority actions, including:

$47 million for additional EMS capacity to put more ambulances on the road, hire additional paramedics and emergency communications officers, and create dedicated inter-facility transfer capacity in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer.
$24 million for recruitment and workforce initiatives and supports, including training programs and mental health supports for front-line staff.
$24 million to continue initiatives that were implemented last year such as the 19 additional ambulances in Calgary and Edmonton, and enhanced scheduling changes made in high-priority stations around the province to reduce paramedic fatigue.
$21 million for ground ambulance contract changes, increased mileage and fuel, including for air ambulance/air ambulance supports and other operational pressures from the increase in the number of events.
$7 million to support strategies to enhance the EMS system, such as enhancements to the medical first response program, public education and response, and a review of the ground ambulance resource allocation policies and capacity.
Almost $7 million to support other initiatives such as clinical improvement initiatives like expanding the vital health response program to the south zone, which will make it possible for paramedics to provide life-saving heart medication in the event of a heart attack, and expanding the mobile integrated heart program to support community paramedics across the province.
$3 million for the EMS-811 Shared Response program.
$3 million for other initiatives related to implementing recommendations.
$2 million for a project related to air ambulances.
Budget 2023 provides $196 million in new EMS funding over three years to hire more staff, put more ambulances on the road and implement recommendations made by the EMS advisory committee and the EMS Dispatch Review Report.
In addition, $15 million over three years will fund a new capital program to purchase more ambulances and related equipment.

Government of Alberta

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

Published on April 26, 2025

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill

Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.

The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.

Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.

Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.

Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.

Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.

The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.

Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.

Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.

And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.

Alberta

Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

Published on April 26, 2025

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson

In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?

Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.

Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.

Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.

While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.

For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.

There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.

It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.