Alberta’s 2026 Budget

Albertans voted in a referendum to get rid of equalization. Albertans have been ignored. Why? Because most provinces get equalization payments, the biggest recipient of which is Quebec, receiving about $13.9 BILLION in equalization this year.

The Premier of Quebec said one of his favorite things about Canada is equalization.

Every year Alberta gets nothing from equalization while Albertans contribute the most into it.

Albertans will NEVER see the constitution amended to get rid of equalization.

Ottawa is too expensive for Alberta: taking hundreds of billions from Albertans more than it returns, enacting hostile laws and policies holding Alberta back, and as a sinking ship, dragging Alberta down with it.

2. Alberta has an immigration problem.

Many immigrants have values which align with Alberta values: a love of freedom, a willingness to work to earn prosperity, and a desire to love and serve their families and in our communities.

But Ottawa chose indiscriminate, out of control immigration, with a disproportionate number of these immigrants, along with families and individuals from other parts of Canada, coming to Alberta.

That is understandable. Alberta is the best province in Canada.

But in the last five years, Alberta has seen its population grow by about 600,000. For context, that is equal to adding more than the population of Red Deer, Alberta’s third largest city, each year, for the past five years!

And collectively, and not individually, we are seeing newcomers using Alberta government services more than they are paying in taxes to fund to these services, contributing to the Deficit, along with increased housing costs and employment pressures.

There will be an upcoming referendum where Albertans will be asked whether individuals with a non-permanent immigration status should reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for free access to public services such as healthcare and education, and whether in the interim, they should pay a fee to use such services.

Some media and NDP have called this “racist.” It is not. Many other countries require visitors to cover their own costs for public services. Such cost controls for visitors are not based on race, they are based on immigration status and seek to protect the sustainability of those services for residents who are paying for them.

3. Alberta has a spending problem.

While there have been some positive steps, there is still a lot of work to be done.

There should be means testing for all government support programs, including asset testing. Means testing protects the sustainability of these supports for those who truly need them.

Physician compensation is the largest line item in Alberta’s operating budget. And while many physicians are honest in their billings, some are not. And what are the consequences for overbilling? Except in the most egregious cases, extraordinarily little, often only requiring the overbilled amounts be returned, assuming they are even discovered. Physician billing is a self-assessment system, just like our tax system, and similar to our tax system, there should be penalties and interest for all overbillings.

While physicians should be well paid for the work they do, there must be better controls to identify and prevent overbilling on the front end, and proper deterrents on the back end to deter carelessness or even cheating. Physicians who are honest and careful in their billings should not be worse off than those who are not.

Alberta has a union problem.

For example, many Albertans would be surprised to learn that most Alberta public sector nurses chose to work part time. Why? In many cases, it is because the union contract provides that part time nurses begin earning overtime as soon as they work beyond their contracted part-time hours – even if their total hours fall short of full-time hours. This incentivizes nurses to choose part-time work and then regularly seek extra over-time shifts. Why should a full-time nurse get less money than a “part-time” nurse working the same hours?

Another example, the Alberta Teachers Association / ATA union was mad when the government ended their strike and restarted school. Like all jobs, there are challenges to being a teacher, but teachers receive: (i) complete health, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits fully paid by taxpayers, (ii) a gold plated secure defined-benefit pension, 50% of which is paid by taxpayers and 100% backstopped by taxpayers in event of shortfalls, (iii) up to 90 calendar days of paid sick leave, (iv) full salary while taking summers, Christmas, spring break, and other holidays off, working about 200 days a year, roughly 60 fewer days than the average Alberta worker, and also receive additional paid personal leave and professional development days each year, (v) average salaries of $107,000 a year and starting salaries of about $71,000 a year.

With all of this, Alberta taxpayers should not be surprised they will be seeing the education portion of their property taxes increasing in this budget.

4. Alberta does not have a revenue problem.

If Albertans confront these problems, there will be no deficits. There is no need to increase taxes.

Taxes are too high in Canada with all provinces, other than Alberta and Saskatchewan, having top combined marginal income tax rates of over 50% – unfortunately, Canada is seeing their per capita GDP falling like a rock compared to the US.

Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.”

By: Jason Stephan, MLA for Red Deer South

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or Pattison Media. Column/op-ed suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com.

by Jason Stephan

Alberta’s 2026 Budget

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