Expense

Expense summary

The government is making a record-high health-care investment to expand system capacity and keep fighting the pandemic. Alberta Health’s total operating expense budget is growing by $600 million this year, and it will grow by a total of $1.8 billion by 2024-25.

Budget 2022 moves Alberta forward with a package of new post-secondary education, skills training opportunities and employment programs.

More than $600 million in funding over 3 years for Alberta at Work will connect more young people with employment, address barriers to entry for women, Indigenous peoples and other under-represented groups, and help Albertans who are unemployed get back to work. This initiative brings together new and existing programs to build Albertans’ skills to meet current and future labour market demands and, where necessary, attract more skilled workers to the province.

Overall, the government has kept operating expenses relatively flat over the past several years to help maximize the efficiency of its service delivery. This was a response to the Mackinnon Panel report, which concluded that although Alberta has historically spent more on its programs and services, outcomes were no better than in other provinces. In other words, Albertans were not getting fair value for their tax dollars.