Download:
- Complete Budget 2019 Capital plan chapter (PDF, 7.5 MB)
- 2019-23 Capital Plan details by Ministry (PDF, 208 KB)
- 2019-23 Capital Plan details by Ministry (XLSX, 39 KB)
Overview
The 2019 Capital Plan invests $24.2 billion over four years. It takes a financially sustainable approach to investing in infrastructure that reflects Alberta’s fiscal reality, supports economic growth, and honours previous commitments to build and maintain key projects.
Budget 2019 - Capital Plan
Funding highlights
Capital Plan funding will see continued support of critical ongoing projects and key public services:
Other funding includes:
- $17 million in the Enabling New Models of Care to support digital transformation and drive efficiency and improvement in health care business processes and practices.
- $5.3 million to the Integrated Decision Approach to deliver regulatory competitiveness and save an estimated $600 million once fully implemented.
- $39 million into the Alberta eCourts project to digitally transform court records and streamline and standardize court processes.
Continuing projects include:
- the Calgary Cancer Centre
- a new Edmonton Hospital
- the Grande Prairie Hospital
- Edmonton and Calgary light rail transit (LRT)
Municipal support
The MacKinnon Report found that Alberta’s provincial and municipal government’s capital stock per capita was above the average when compared to other provinces across Canada.
Further, Alberta’s capital grants to municipalities were found to be over 20% higher than the national average. Given our current fiscal capacity, the province can no longer afford to provide the level of funding that municipalities have received in the past.
The changes to municipal funding include:
- reducing the Municipal Sustainability Initiative Funding by $94 million in 2020-21 and $142 million in 2021-22
- creating a new Local Government Fiscal Framework, to begin in 2022-23
- maintaining $3 billion for Edmonton and Calgary LRT projects but adjusting the cash flows so most of the provincial funding is provided after 2022-23
Municipal Funding
Sources: Statistics Canada and Alberta Treasury Board and Finance
Planned reductions
Alberta spends more per capita than any other province in Canada. The 2019 Capital Plan maintains spending on fiscally responsible infrastructure projects while also slowly bring Alberta’s capital spending in line with other provinces, as recommended in the MacKinnon Report. This will ultimately lead to more effective use of tax dollars and better infrastructure choices for Albertans.
While maintaining many prior year commitments, the capital plan sees provincial spending on capital decrease by over $2.9 billion between 2019-20 and 2022-23, or roughly 12% compared to the 2018 capital plan.
Budget 2018 and Budget 2019 Capital Plan Provincial Funding
Source: Alberta Treasury Board and Finance
The plan reflects decisions from government’s program and project review. Many initiatives were removed or reduced, because they were too costly and did not provide the value that Albertans expect. Changes include:
- removal of the capital grants for the Petrochemical Feedstock Infrastructure Program ($800 million)
- removal of the capital grants for the Partial Upgrading Program ($215 million)
- removal of the Edmonton Clinical Laboratory Hub project ($579 million)
- removal of the carbon tax-funded Alberta Community Transit Fund and other short-term carbon-tax funded programs (programs such as the Light Rail Transit, the carbon capture and storage and other large-scale projects have been maintained)
- removal of the Provincial Operations Centre project ($122 million)
- ending the Alberta Community Resilience Program, after 2020-21
More budget information
A plan to get Albertans back to work, make life better and stand up for Alberta.
A summary of Alberta’s Budget 2019 economic forecast and analysis.
Revenue projections from taxes, transfers, investment income and resources.
Budget 2019 reduces the tax burden on Albertans and Alberta businesses.