Alberta UCP promise to create jobs, boost health-care capacity in throne speech

Adding jobs and health-care capacity while also addressing the rising cost-of-living will be the United Conservative Party government’s main priorities in the months ahead, according to Tuesday’s speech from the throne.

Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani delivered the speech in the legislature this afternoon.

“We are carefully lifting COVID-19 health restrictions and we’re seeing a strong economic turnaround that is bringing jobs and investment to our province,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

Throne speeches are intended to lay out the government's direction for the coming session and Premier Jason Kenney's government faces a series of controversial choices.

It comes ahead of Thursday’s budget and hints at “a dramatic improvement in Alberta’s finances” due to high oil prices, reduced costs and economic growth.

HEALTH-CARE CAPACITY

Tuesday’s speech indicated a shift toward using more chartered facilities to help clear the province’s backlog in surgeries.

Kenney said the change would come in through the Alberta Surgical Initiative and would represent a shift from 15 per cent of surgeries being performed in charter facilities up to 30 per cent “in the coming years.”

“This is one way of getting more surgeries done more efficiently and more quickly,” Kenney said.

Health Minister Jason Copping said in December that the backlog stood at more than 81,000 surgeries and that Alberta Health Services hoped to reduce that number by mid-2022 to the pre-pandemic level of 68,000.

“Rather than acknowledging their failed and incompetent leadership, they’ve decided to use those failures instead as justification to carve up and hollow out our healthcare system,” said NDP Leader Rachel Notley.

JOBS

The speech touts the government’s recovery plan with a focus on updating Alberta’s image with an emphasis on the environment.

Kenney described the effort as a “whole of government campaign” that would attract business and workers to Alberta.

“We need to do a better job of telling the story of our improving environmental performance,” he said.

“If we don’t properly manage this issue it could become an existential threat to the future of our largest industry.”

The speech also cites forthcoming legislation to make the province “one of the freest and fastest-moving economies in North America” but doesn’t provide details.

It also cites forthcoming legislation aimed at reducing red tape.

“There should have been a specific commitment to creating jobs, instead we got more empty promises and vague continuations of programs and initiatives that have failed Albertans over and over,” said Notley.

“We see no further support for small businesses, and no details at all on the expansion of rural broadband.”

COST-OF-LIVING

Alberta also appears poised to bring in a rebate program to offset high energy costs.

Kenney declined to provide details on the program but said they would be included in Thursday’s budget.

The government is also dissolving the Balancing Pool, a public agency created in 1999 amid industry deregulation as a backstop to power purchase arrangements.

Premier Kenney said getting rid of the organization will save consumers money.

“The balancing pool no longer serves any useful purpose,” he said. “We need to reduce power costs for Albertans and this one small way of doing so.”

The speech also sets out changes in education with the creation of more charter schools and the expansion of specialized services to home education families.

Other elements in the speech include a pledge to launch a review of recent hate-motivated attacks.

The speech also outlined a plan to memorialize prominent Alberta historical figures in the names of provincial buildings, starting with the Terrace Building on the legislature grounds which will now be named after Cree Chief Poundmaker.

The first bill of the upcoming legislative session, Bill 1, will recognize the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and establish new honours for Albertans who “have done remarkable things caring for their communities.”

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her MLAs would not support the speech, for a number of reasons.

“Albertans who hoped to hear something beyond platitudes and politics were sorely disappointed today,” said Notley. “Today’s Speech from the Throne did not include any help for Albertans struggling with soaring electricity bills, auto insurance, income taxes, property taxes, school fees, post-secondary tuition and interest on student debt.”

Alberta’s 2022 budget will be published at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday.

The legislature is to sit until the end of March.

With files from the Canadian Press