More money for health care and COVID fight
Alberta's UCP government has budgeted more cash for health care this year than in any of its previous budgets, but plans to go back to its cost-saving mandate when the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Thursday's budget shows spending on health care in Alberta in 2021-22 will be $23 billion — an increase of about $877 million, or four per cent — from last year's estimated total.
Another $1.25 billion will go to COVID-19 spending across the government that will include COVID-19 testing centres, contact tracing, PPE, vaccine deployment and acute care and continuing care.
Of its $23 billion in expenses, the health ministry plans to keep operating spending flat at $21.4 billion until 2023-24.
Finance Minister Travis Toews said at a Thursday briefing the plan will ensure Alberta gets through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Adequately resourcing health care is our No. 1 priority in Budget 2021,” said Toews, adding the government is not on a path of cost-cutting, but of finding efficiencies.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the government plans to continue implementing the recommendations of a 2020 review of Alberta Health Services (AHS) aimed at finding cost-savings. Last year, the government estimated cutting 11,000 jobs — mostly by outsourcing positions in laboratories, housekeeping, food services, and laundry over three years — could save AHS $600 million annually when the plan is fully implemented.
In 2019, the UCP government set a target of reducing the public service by 7.7 per cent over four years.
In the 2021-22 budget, AHS job numbers are set to go up to 83,510 full-time equivalents — an increase of 2,940.
Toews said the UCP is still set to meet the four-year target.
“Right now we are well on track with respect to the Alberta public service, and our plans on rightsizing the public sector. In terms of health, right now our priority is ensuring health is resourced and staffed to meet the pandemic,” said Toews.
The health staffing increase represents a jump of four per cent from last year. The added positions are meant to address staffing pressures not related to COVID -19 in things such as continuing care, diagnostics, and surgeries.
While the budget projects an overall staffing increase, AHS pay is set to go down to $8.6 billion in 2021-22 from $9.3 billion the previous fiscal year. The entire public sector will see an overall three per cent reduction — or $822 million — in compensation to $26.7 billion.
`IT'S A TAX ON HEALTHCARE WORKERS'
Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said that means workers are being asked to subsidize health care.
“Their answer to deal with inadequate staffing is to have healthcare workers pay for it. It's a tax on health-care workers,” said Smith.
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said the added resources won't be enough to make up for the long-standing concerns members in the health-care system have, including workload and short-staffing.
“If this small infusion is just to see us through the pandemic, that's not enough. We need longterm sustainability in the healthcare system and we must not go down the road of privatization,” said Smith.
NDP Opposition leader Rachel Notley said Premier Jason Kenney failed to keep his campaign promise to support public health care, and that even with the increase, the health budget represented cuts.
“(Premier) Jason Kenney is basically forcing our frontline healthcare providers to do far, far more with much, much less,” said Notley.
NDP health critic David Shepherd said the budget still falls short of the increases the government needed to make to account for population growth and inflation.
“Health care is going to cost more and there will be more people who need it, and we still have a massive backlog to get through,” said Shepherd.
He said the budget shows the government is not pivoting from its efforts to restrain spending in previous years.
“We are going to have a system that is trying to recover from a massive crisis that is under-resourced, with a workforce that is exhausted, demoralized and under attack by the government,” said Shepherd.
Shepherd also said he was concerned that the government was not being transparent about its private contracts while leaving AHS with fewer resources.
Meanwhile, the province's surgical initiative, aimed at lowering surgical wait times, will see $30 million in capital spending this year, and a total of $120 million over the next three years. As part of a strategy introduced last year, the move involves funding more private clinics to perform procedures.
Friends of Medicare president Sandra Azocar said she worried the budget increase would lead to an increased role for private sector providers, and called on the government to be more transparent about private contracts.
“We need to have a public healthcare system that is expanded and well-resourced and well-staffed to continue in this recovery,” she said.
The government is aiming to count an additional 55,000 surgeries in 2021-22, above the roughly 290,000 surgeries typically performed in a year. That includes 36,000 surgeries that are anticipated to be in the backlog by the end of March due to COVID-19.
Gil Mcgowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said by forcing pay cuts, especially in health care, it was a “pass-thebuck” budget from Kenney.
Trudy Thomson, vice-president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, said in a statement Thursday the government was praising health-care workers and threatening their livelihoods at the same time.
“Calling for pay cuts for the professionals Albertans trust will not fix our economic problems,” she said.
The government still plans to work on implementing a physician funding framework it estimates will prevent $1 billion in cost overruns by 2022-23.
Physician pay, including academic medicine post-secondary grants, is estimated to cost the government $5.39 billion, up from an estimated $5.15 billion in 2020-21, according to budget documents.
The cost of the COVID-19 vaccine program remains uncertain, although it could cost more than $100 million, which will come out of the $1.25 billion contingency fund.
Other spending plans include $2.2 billion over three years toward new and ongoing health facility infrastructure projects. Edmonton Hospital is slated to receive $43 million in capital spending, and the Misericordia Community Hospital Modernization Program $20 million.