The 2024 Alberta budget is a “good news budget,” says Dale Nally, red tape reduction Minister and Morinville – St. Albert MLA.
The province is treating its wealth like “Albertans treat their own personal budgets,” Nally said.
“We're spending at unprecedented levels in both health care and education, and yet, we're still putting money aside into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund to save and to pay down debt.”
Due to population growth and inflation, the province’s spending on health care ($25.7 billion) and education ($5.7 billion), amount to a funding cut, according to NDP critics.
But Alberta has “never spent more on health care” than it does today, Nally said. The province also has “more doctors today than there was a year ago,” he said, despite recent survey data from the Alberta Medical Association that shows 61 per cent of family physicians are considering closing their doors.
Health care deterioration is “a national crisis” and not limited to Alberta, he said. He pointed to the $475 million that the province is spending to modernize primary care and the $200 million it is spending to improve access to family physicians as evidence of the UCP’s health care priorities.
The UCP are also investing $1.9 billion over the next three years to build schools, he said.
“I will say to those people that want us to build even more hospitals and even more schools, the previous NDP government borrowed $60 billion at a much lower interest rate, and that money has to be refinanced at much higher rates. Our debt servicing costs are $3.4 billion. That's incredible — $3.4 billion in interest rates that go to bond traders in New York and Toronto.”
Alberta is Canada’s least indebted province. The province’s debt-to-GDP ratio in 2023 — 24 was the lowest in the country, according to research from the Fraser Institute.
In budget 2024, the government is putting more money into private surgical clinics because “private surgical units allow us to do more surgeries to perform them faster and more efficiently and at less cost,” Nally said. He pointed to the success other jurisdictions have had with for-profit surgical clinics. However, in Alberta, which has embraced surgery privatization more vigorously than any other province, a 2023 study by the Parkland Institute found that the growth of chartered surgical facilities has “diverted resources away from public hospitals and, in turn, reduced provincial surgical volumes” and that “Alberta has the worst performance in reducing surgical wait times in Canada.”
More money going to the Local Government Fiscal Framework is “great news” for St. Albert, Nally said. By 2025-26, the city will get $9.2 million for capital investments. This year it will receive $7.9 million, which St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said was too little to dampen property tax increases.
“A council has never said they have enough money,” Nally said. “They will continue to ask for more, and it's their job to do so. I'd be disappointed if they didn't. But … [St. Albert] is getting over half a million dollars more this year and 1.3 million more on top of that next year. So that's just more good news for the constituents of Morinville—St. Albert.”
Red tape reduction
Nally said he’s excited for the province to begin, in short order, offering seniors a 25 per cent discount on personal registry services, medical driving exams and camping fees.
“We know that Albertans are struggling, specifically seniors … so it was important to us that we move on this quickly,” he said.
The province aims to see no “net increase” in red tape, according to budget documents. This spring Nally will introduce legislation that will mandate ministries show how they are limiting red tape.
“The last thing we want is for red tape to creep back in,” he said. “This is exciting for Albertans because it means we're not going to go back to those days of over-regulation.”
The province also budgeted $2.3 million for consumer protection initiatives. Nally indicated that life lease loan protections are on their way.
The Ministry of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction’s budget increased by 12 per cent, rising to roughly $212 million from $193 million.
Due to a misunderstanding between the Gazette and Nally’s office, a story published last week incorrectly stated that Nally did not respond to request for comment about the budget.
