Alberta government to provide $13.8B to acute care in deficit budget

While Alberta’s 2026 budget has not yet passed, the province is continuing to spell out what its health care funding plan would mean for Albertans.

In a news conference on Tuesday, the province announced $13.8 billion for its acute care system for 2026-27, a $1.7 billion increase over the previous budget.

CEO of Acute Care Alberta David Diamond acknowledged the wait times and lack of access to acute care in the province, saying the funding is going provide better access to care.

“We’re keenly aware that Albertans are waiting too long to access acute care … Though we are working very closely with our partners in government and across the healthcare system to address these challenges, the reality is that it can be a very frustrating process to access the services that you need,” he said in Calgary.

Diamond says with a 6.4 per cent increase in global hospital and surgical services this year, Albertans can expect shorter wait times for surgeries and better access to health care.

He also says $525 million over three years will be provided to complete the additional 50,000 surgeries.

“That’s 50,000 surgeries above and beyond the approximately 321,000 surgeries that the minister talked about that were performed in our province last year,” he said.

Minister of hospital and surgical health services Matt Jones says this funding exceeds population and inflation while expanding hospital-based services and reducing wait times through enhanced funding for surgeries, cancer care, emergency services, and diagnostics.

Alberta’s 2026 budget forecasts three consecutive deficits totalling nearly $24 billion, pushing the province’s debt load to an estimated $137.5 billion by 2029 while maintaining the lowest overall taxes in Canada.

It’s predicting a $9.4 billion deficit, followed by $7.6 billion in 2027 and $6.9 billion in 2028.