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Alberta

With new $6,000 grant and $4,000 tax credit, Province making adoption far more affordable for Alberta families

Published

1 year ago

6 minute read

Making adoption more affordable

Alberta’s government is increasing subsidies, tax breaks and benefits so that more children can find their forever homes.

Budget 2023 includes $4 million per year in new funding over the next three years to make adoption more affordable. These new initiatives follow up on the commitment by Premier Danielle Smith to make adoption less arduous for Alberta families.

If the Financial Statutes Amendment Act, 2023 passes, the new $4-million package to make adoption more affordable for Albertans will cover the cost of dental, vision and other supplemental health benefits for children adopted in Alberta – regardless of whether they were adopted from the government system or through a private, licensed agency in the province. Alberta will become the first and only province to do this.

This funding support, which would take effect this fall, will help remove medical cost barriers to adoption, especially for children with specialized medical needs.

“We are following through on our commitment to make adoption more affordable for Albertans who are starting or growing their families. If a child can find a loving and stable home sooner – that’s good news for everyone, and most importantly, for the child. That is why we want to help reduce adoption expenses, so that more children can find their forever families.”

Mickey Amery, Minister of Children’s Services

In addition to covering the costs of supplementary health benefits, the provincial adoption expenses tax credit amount would be increased by almost $4,000, to $18,210 from $14,365, to help cover the costs of adoption, matching the federal tax credit. This can be claimed by families adopting locally or internationally, and will be retroactive to Jan 1. The increased credit will be available to Albertans when they file their 2023 taxes in spring 2024.

“Adoption shouldn’t create a financial burden for parents starting or growing their families. These new measures will make it easier for a child who needs a home to become part of a family.”

Travis Toews, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance

About 5,000 adopted children in Alberta who have already found their forever family and future adopted children will be eligible for these benefits.

If the legislation passes, the cost of private adoption through licensed adoption agencies in Alberta will be subsidized by $6,000 for families that earn less than $180,000. The subsidy would help reduce the cost of adoption by 40 to 50 per cent.

“We are very pleased to see these additional supports for adoptive families through licensed adoption agencies. These new supports mean there is one less barrier for couples experiencing fertility loss and hoping to form a family through adoption. It also means less financial stress for families looking to adopt a child with medical or complex needs.”

Erika Moore, domestic program supervisor, Adoption Options

“I think it’s fantastic for adoptive families and children to be supported this way. This initiative shows government is behind families and wants to help children in government care find permanent loving homes.”

Jenna Hoff, adoptive parent to four children

“As an adoptive parent myself, I know first-hand the expenses and red tape and long processes that prospective parents face when considering adoption. These new supports mean more Albertans can welcome a child into their home, and together, they can build their forever family.”

Searle Turton, MLA for Spruce Grove-Stony Plain

Budget 2023 secures Alberta’s future by transforming the health-care system to meet people’s needs, supporting Albertans with the high cost of living, keeping our communities safe and driving the economy with more jobs, quality education and continued diversification.

Quick facts

  • The number of approved adoptive families for children in government care has dropped by more than half – the lowest number of adoptive families in decades.
    • Typically, there are about 100 approved families at any given time but there are only about 30 now.
    • Currently, 27 children and youth are waiting to be matched with a loving, permanent home. Most of these children are over the age of seven, have special needs or are part of a sibling group.
  • The government covers the costs associated with adopting a child in government care but fees to adopt a child internationally can range between $10,000 and $40,000, while fees through an agency can range between $11,000 and $15,000.
  • Children’s Services launched an adoption recruitment campaign in early March focused on adopting children in government care.
Related Topics:

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans

Published on May 2, 2024

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill

Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.

And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.

According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.

Why should Albertans care?

First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.

For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.

Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.

Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.

In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.

By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.

Authors:

Spencer Gudewill
Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
and
Tegan Hill
Associate Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

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Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.
We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.
For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.
Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.
Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.
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