Kenney, Shandro, Toews to tout Alberta health care spending

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Watch Live: Premier Jason Kenney, Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Finance Minister Travis Toews will hold an 11 a.m. press conference

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Photo by David Bloom/Postmedia/File

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Premier Jason Kenney, Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Finance Minister Travis Toews will hold an 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday morning to promote the province’s health care spending in the budget.

The budget, tabled last week, listed spending on health care in Alberta in 2021-22 at $23 billion, a four per cent jump over last year’s estimated total. The budget shows another $1.25 billion will go to COVID-19 spending including COVID-19 testing centres, contact tracing, PPE, vaccine deployment and acute care and continuing care.

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, which the president of the nurses union called “a tax on health-care workers.”

– With files from Lisa Johnson


Watch Live at 11 a.m.