Alberta government projects $2.4-billion surplus for 2023-24 in pre-election budget

The Alberta government is boosting funding for health, K-12 education, public safety and paying down debt as it wraps up the current fiscal year with an anticipated $10-billion surplus.

In the first budget tabled under Premier Danielle Smith, three months before a provincial election, the United Conservative Party government also signaled it will bring back legislation requiring balanced budgets, save for exceptional circumstances.

"We're securing the health and education of Albertans by increasing access to family doctors, surgeries and emergency services," Finance Minister Travis Toews said at an embargoed news conference on Tuesday. 

"And making sure our children and grandchildren have the education system they need to reach their full potential."

Should it pass as proposed, Alberta's $68.3-billion budget for 2023-24 would include about a four per cent spending increase from its forecasted expenses for the current fiscal year. 

It would leave the province with a $2.4-billion surplus by March 2024.

After three years of trying to rein in spending on public services and cut the size of the public service, the UCP government is increasing health-care spending by nearly four per cent, or close to $1 billion.

An estimate of full-time equivalent workers pegs the number of Alberta Health Services employees growing by nearly 3,600 from April 2023 to March 2024.

Although some of that cost is offset by an increase in federal government health transfers, the budget does not account for a new bilateral health agreement revealed on Monday.

The government's targets include more paramedics and ambulances, churning through more surgeries to reduce inappropriately long wait times, more home-care workers and expanding primary care.

Toews said everywhere he's travelled in Alberta, people tell him access to health care is an issue.

Growing urban school boards that have spent the past three years trying to educate more students while inflation drove up costs and funding remained nearly flat may have more room to breathe next year.

Operating funding from the government will rise by more than five per cent from the current year's forecast, Toews said.

The budget includes increased funding for student transportation – including new funding for private schools to bus students.