Alberta Health has given more details on how the province's budget will impact healthcare in Airdrie. 

According to Alberta Health officials, the province's Capital Plan includes $3 million over three years for, 'planning and exploring health care options for the north Calgary and Airdrie areas.' The capital plan's details include a line item for the North Calgary/ Airdrie Regional Health Centre planning, which according to Alberta Health officials is broken down as follows:

  • $300,000 in 2024-25
  • $800,000 in 2025-26
  • $2 million in 2026-27

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Alberta Health has given more details on how the province's budget will impact healthcare in Airdrie. (Graphic credit to Government of Alberta) Alberta Health has given more details on how the province's budget will impact healthcare in Airdrie. (Graphic credit to Government of Alberta)


"These funds will be used to complete the required service and capital planning to inform health infrastructure funding decisions in both north Calgary and Airdrie. Funds may be used to develop business cases and functional programs, and to support preliminary design work and related studies," an Alberta Health official stated in an email. 

Alberta Health also underlined that Airdrie's Community Health Centre's renovations will be completed in the summer of 2025. Previously, the government allocated over eight million dollars for the renovations. 

"... [The] Airdrie Community Health Centre serves more than 40,000 patients annually. The planned renovations will increase its treatment room capacity by more than 37 per cent."

On Thursday, March 28, Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt enquired about more details regarding the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre's renovations. Health Minister, Adriana LaGrange, explained that the renovations will occur in three phases.

"...The development of the new community clinical services, the development of the expanded urgent care centre, and the development of new administration and home-care space. We will continue to work with AHS [Alberta Health Services] and project managers to complete the three-phase renovation project by the summer of 2025 so that Airdrie can better serve its growing community," Minister LaGrange explained.

She also added that the government recognizes the unique challenges families in Airdrie face when accessing health care services in their communities.

"We want to ensure that every Albertan can access the care where and when they need it. AHS recently submitted a major capital needs assessment for health capital projects to Alberta Health, which outlines the Airdrie community health."

When Budget 2024 was initially released, Rachel Notley, Alberta NDP Leader was critical of the province, singling out healthcare in her critique.

"The budget contains no plan to build the public hospitals to meet the needs of Albertans, including the South Edmonton hospital, the Airdrie Health Centre or the Cardiac Care Centre in Lethbridge," Notley previously said. "What the UCP delivered today amounts to massive cuts that leave Albertans behind. Instead of hiring more nurses and front-line health-care workers or building hospitals, Danielle Smith chose to fund private surgeries." 

What else is allocated for Airdrie in Budget 2024? 

Education

Other Airdrie-centric projects in the province's budget include education. The province's 2024 budget has allocated money for full construction funding for two new K-8 schools within the Rocky View School Division (RVS), as well as design funding for a new grade 9-12 school from the 2024 provincial budget. The funding of construction for the K-8 schools will be located in South Windsong and Bayview., while the design funding is meant for a school to be located in Southwinds. 

Full/construction funding approval includes all activities to take the project to completion, including construction and post-occupancy review, while design funding activities include the preparation of construction tender documents such as drawings and specifications. Planning funding activities include site analysis and scope development activities.

In early March, Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides also made a stop in Airdrie to announce that the government has allocated more than $1.2 billion in funding for enrolment growth over the next three years. In addition to this, more than $1.5 billion will be provided to school authorities over the next three years so they can continue to provide specialized learning support. 

"Included in the funding for specialized learning supports is a targeted $26-million increase, over the next three years, to the Program Unit Funding (PUF) program, bringing the total funding to $209 million in the 2024-25 school year," a provincial release stated.

According to the province, the increase in PUF funding means, 'more children with severe disabilities and delays will receive help earlier, and parents will have the peace of mind that their children are receiving the supports they need to reach their full potential.'

Another $44 million for the 2024-25 school year will also be aimed to address increasing classroom complexities.

"Of this $44 million, $1 million would be used to increase the number of educational assistant graduates in the province through a Provincial Education Assistant Training program that will support training for current or aspiring educational assistants."

However, it is not yet clear how funding support for students in classrooms will impact RVS.

"As the specific details (known as the funding profile) for RVS have not yet been received, understanding the implications of the province’s increased education funding is difficult. The funding profile should be received shortly and will help the division understand the impact of Budget 2024," RVS previously underlined. 

Roads

$1.9 billion that was allocated as part of Budget 2024 for planning, design and construction of major highway and bridge projects, will include projects impacting Airdrie residents. The 2024 Provincial Construction Program Highway & Water Management Projects lists the following details for Airdrie projects:

Design:

This is defined as, 'project management and hiring engineering consultant(s) to design the project (may include work to complete tender preparation).'

  • Nose Creek Culvert on Highway 2, at the south boundary of Airdrie: replace culvert.
  • Between Highway 566 and the City of Airdrie: 11 kilometres of repaving.
  • Balzac Interchange Replacement Project, Highway 566 over Highway 2 interchange (one kilometre east of Balzac), CPR Overpass and Nose Creek culvert: interchange upgrading.
  • Sheep Coulee Culvert on Highway 581, 4 kilometres east of Carstairs: replace culvert.

Engineering

This is defined as, ' planning studies and the preliminary analyses completed for major capital projects.'

  • Highway 2 Project, 8-laning between Stoney Trail (Calgary) and Highway 567 (Airdrie)

Airdrie is also mentioned in the Passenger Rail Master Plan, which according to budget documents is part of the Transportation and Economic Corridors (TEC) Business Plan 2024-27.

"The Master Plan will look forward and include a 15-year delivery plan to prioritize investments. The plan will be informed by engaging Albertans, municipalities, Indigenous communities, and the private sector. TEC will assess connecting Calgary and Edmonton airports to their downtowns, regional communities to Calgary and Edmonton, Calgary to the Rocky Mountain parks system, and commuter rail service opportunities, such as from Airdrie to Okotoks."

A provincial surplus of $367 million is forecast for 2024-25. 

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