Alberta
Premier Kenney announces Residential Recovery Centre, a critical addition in fight against opioid addictions
From the Province of Alberta
Building a recovery community in Red Deer
Alberta’s government is providing up to $5 million to build a recovery community in Red Deer, which will add 75 treatment beds in central Alberta.
As part of Alberta’s Recovery Plan, $25 million will support the construction of life-changing recovery communities, which will play a critical role in supporting the health, wellness and long-term recovery of Albertans.
“Today’s announcement is a big step towards supporting Albertans in their goal of recovery. We dedicated a portion of our Recovery Plan to ensure infrastructure was being dedicated to the vulnerable people in our communities. These recovery communities are a continuation of our efforts at creating 4,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province and building a full continuum of care for people struggling with addiction.”
Recovery communities, also known as therapeutic communities, are a form of long-term residential treatment for addiction, used in more than 65 countries around the world. Recovery is seen as a gradual, ongoing process of cognitive change through clinical and peer interventions. Program participants advance through the stages of treatment at their own pace, setting personal objectives and assuming greater responsibilities in the community along the way.
“I am excited to announce the first of five recovery communities will be in Red Deer. This is an important step in the expansion of our mental health and addiction recovery strategy. I want to thank the City of Red Deer for their tremendous partnership on this important project. Their commitment to the community and the people struggling with addiction has been second to none.”
Recovery Communities encourage participants to examine their personal behaviour to help them become more pro-social and positively engaged citizens – considered to be based on honesty, taking responsibility, hard work, and willingness to learn. The goal is for a participant to leave the program not only drug-free but also employed or in school or training.
Five recovery communities are being built across the Alberta. It is anticipated recovery communities will begin accepting participants in spring 2021.
“The City of Red Deer is proud to have worked closely with the Government of Alberta on this important initiative. Our friends, family, and neighbours suffering from addiction will have a place to go that’s close to home. We will continue to working with this government hand-in-hand as we build out further supports for the people of Red Deer.”
“I am pleased to hear that a recovery community is coming to Red Deer. This facility is poised to have a dramatic impact on those struggling with addiction in Red Deer and in central Alberta. I look forward to seeing the positive effects it has on its patients and the community as a whole.”
“Addiction is a challenge of human nature. Success in this complex matter must begin with the end in mind: supporting and loving our neighbors to become free from addictions. The announced therapeutic community for Red Deer is an innovative, game changing, service towards loving and supporting our neighbors seeking to become free from addictions, blessing families and communities throughout Central Alberta.”
This historic infrastructure investment complements government’s ongoing commitment to create 4,000 addiction and mental health treatment spaces in the province.
Alberta’s Recovery Plan is a bold, ambitious long-term strategy to build, diversify, and create tens of thousands of jobs now. By building schools, roads and other core infrastructure we are benefitting our communities. By diversifying our economy and attracting investment with Canada’s most competitive tax environment, we are putting Alberta on a path for a generation of growth. Alberta came together to save lives by flattening the curve and now we must do the same to save livelihoods, grow and thrive.
Quick facts
- Alberta’s Recovery Plan provides a total of $25 million to build five recovery communities across the province, adding 400 treatment beds – a 30 per cent increase to current capacity.
- Construction of these long-term residential treatment centres is part of the more than $10 billion infrastructure spending announced as part of Alberta’s Recovery Plan. This spending includes: $6.9 billion Budget 2020 capital spending, $980 million accelerated for Capital Maintenance and Renewal, $200 million for Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program and water infrastructure projects, $600 million in strategic infrastructure projects, $500 million in municipal infrastructure and $1.5 billion for Keystone XL.
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:
Alberta
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