MLA de Jonge on the 2024 Provincial Budget

This past week there have been some major announcements including Alberta’s Budget for 2024. I look forward to sharing more on local wins for our Constituency in the coming days.
We recently announced that more than 2,300 childcare providers will receive advance payments to help them continue to provide the services families rely on. Starting March 1, child-care providers will receive about 80 per cent of their monthly claim at the beginning of each month, in addition to the fees they collect from parents. This change to monthly claim advances will help achieve the government’s commitment to introducing a new payment approach, ensuring child-care providers receive grant payments sooner. The claim advance will apply to child-care facilities, family day home agencies, pre-schools, and out-of-school care providers.
Alberta’s government is also setting a clear and responsible path forward for renewable project development to ensure the province’s grid is reliable, affordable, and sustainable. Our province is a global leader in responsible energy development and leads the country in renewable energy projects and investment. Based on the Alberta Utility Commission’s inquiry, Alberta’s government is working on five policy and regulatory changes to clarify the rules for renewable energy development. Taking an agriculture first approach to protect prime agricultural land; making developers responsible for reclamation costs; establishing 35-kilometre buffer zones around protected areas and “pristine viewscapes”; conducting meaningful engagement on the possibility of renewable development on Crown lands; and, developing changes to Alberta’s Transmission Regulation.
Budget 2024 prioritizes investments in health, education, and safety. Our responsible plan ensures our province will continue to grow and thrive for generation to come. Health care is a key pillar of Budget 2024. The budget invests $1 billion over three years to transform the continuing care system in response to the Facility-Based Continuing Care Review; $475 million to support the continued implementation of the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System initiative, including $200 million over two years to improve access to family physicians; $10 million for primary health care initiatives in Indigenous communities; and $15 million to further develop a compensation model for nurse practitioners.
Budget 2024 also focuses strongly on education. The government is investing $1.9 billion to support 98 school projects over the next three years. $681 million in new funding would be invested to support priority school projects, including 43 new projects announced in the budget, creating a total of 35,000 new or modernized student spaces for children around the province. And an additional $1.5 billion would be invested for educational learning supports for vulnerable students, children with specialized learning needs, and other students requiring additional supports.
Alberta provides among the most generous affordability measures and social supports across the country and Budget 2024 continues to help alleviate the financial burdens on Albertans. This includes $717 million in capital grants over three years to advance Alberta’s Affordable Housing Strategy, which incorporates $254 million in new funding to help build about 3,300 new affordable housing units and complete 1,800 units already underway.
Alberta’s most vulnerable will also receive support through Budget 2024 with an increase of $24.5 million in 2024-25 and $70 million over three years to add hundreds of new homeless shelter spaces through the Homelessness Task Force Action Plan and support operational cost pressures at shelters.
Through Budget 2024, the three-year Capital Plan improves emergency response and coordination, increases capacity in the province’s court system and invests in crime prevention. This includes adding 100 more street-level police officers in high-crime locations in Edmonton and Calgary, as part of the $1.2 billion operating budget for Public Safety and Emergency Services in 2024-25.
As well, through Budget 2024, $251 million will also be committed for flood and drought mitigation projects, such as berms, dams, reservoirs, and flood walls, and an additional $206 million will be allocated to enhance wildfire response, readiness, and planning. This funding also encompasses operations and wildfire fighting equipment and facilities, such as sprinkler trailers and weather stations.
Finally, Budget 2024 focuses on paying down debt. An estimated $6.4 billion in surplus cash is projected at the end of 2023-24 and Alberta’s government is using half to pay off maturing debt this fiscal year. Of the remaining $3.2 billion surplus cash, a forecast $2 billion will be put in the Alberta Fund, and the other $1.2 billion is being allocated to debt repay