Alberta $8.8 billion education budget – plan to hire 3,000 new staff

Alberta’s government is committed to providing the support and services students need to succeed, and the resources schools need to support teachers and their staff. Budget 2023 increases the operating budget for the Ministry of Education by nearly $2 billion over the next three years. This will support hiring up to 3,000 education staff, including teachers, educational assistants, bus drivers and school support staff.

In the 2023-24 school year, Alberta will spend about $8.8 billion on education for students in kindergarten to Grade 12, the equivalent of $44 million for every day students are in school and an increase of more than five per cent.

“School authorities in Alberta deserve a government that will support them in addressing this year’s unprecedented enrolment growth, be properly resourced to address complex learning needs, and make transportation safer and more affordable. This investment addresses rising enrolment, helps meet students’ diverse needs and helps school authorities combat inflation.”

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education

“Our children are our future and Budget 2023 ensures every child is supported in the classroom. By investing in our education system, we are ensuring students are prepared for success throughout their lives. While inflation continues to be a challenge, we are providing stable, predictable funding so school authorities can hire the staff they need to help students learn.”

Travis Toews, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance

Welcoming more students

Alberta’s booming economy led to one of its largest-ever population increases in 2022, which has meant more students in Alberta schools. Budget 2023 will provide increased funding to school authorities of $820 million specifically to support enrolment growth over the next three years.

This increased funding will begin the work to address class sizes by allowing school authorities to hire more teachers and classroom staff over the next three years. The increase will come through a variety of existing grants that include an enrolment component.

“Dozens of school projects are in the planning, design or construction phases right now across Alberta. Through Budget 2023, we’ll be adding approximately 20,000 more new and modernized student spaces that will help to ensure our kids get to go to school in their own communities in world-class facilities.”

Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Infrastructure

Meeting students’ unique needs

Budget 2023 includes almost $1.5 billion in Learning Support funding for Alberta’s most vulnerable students, those with specialized learning needs and those requiring additional help at school. This includes specialized learning supports, program unit funding, English as a second language, refugee students, First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

On top of the funding increase for enrolment growth, Budget 2023 also includes targeted funding of $126 million over three years to increase staffing. This funding will allow school authorities to hire more educational assistants or increase their hours, provide more training opportunities for staff and/or hire specialists such as counsellors, psychologists, interpreters and more teachers.

These additional supports will give schools the ability to work more closely with students who have diverse learning needs, such as those with disabilities or those learning English as an additional language. This new funding will be delivered through a new targeted grant to school authorities. Overall, Budget 2023 includes almost $1.5 billion in Learning Support funding for Alberta’s most vulnerable students, those with specialized learning needs and those requiring additional help at school.

To help close learning gaps caused by the pandemic, Alberta’s government will spend an additional $20 million over the next two years to assist students in grades 1 to 5. This increased funding builds off previous successes to help students regain literacy and numeracy skills.

Increasing affordability for transportation

School authorities will also receive an additional $414 million over the next three years through Budget 2023 to support increased transportation funding that will result in more students having access to provincially funded transportation services. This increased funding will lower fees charged to thousands of parents, address rural ride times and cost pressures, and address rising costs for driver training.

Budget 2023 highlights

Budget 2023 will increase staffing supports in complex classrooms by up to 10 per cent, which will enhance experiences and have positive effects on students’ personal and social development.
The government is investing $50 million to support mental health pilot projects over the next two years to improve K-12 students’ well-being.
Rising inflationary pressures are affecting school authorities and families. Budget 2023 will boost transportation funding to offset rising transportation costs like insurance, fuel and driver training. These costs are often passed on to Alberta families, so increasing the amount of funding available will decrease the parent fees associated with school transportation.

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

Government of Alberta

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta bill would protect freedom of expression for doctors, nurses, other professionals

Published on November 22, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

‘Peterson’s law,’ named for Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, was introduced by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Alberta’s Conservative government introduced a new law that will set “clear expectations” for professional regulatory bodies to respect freedom of speech on social media and online for doctors, nurses, engineers, and other professionals.

The new law, named “Peterson’s law” after Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who was canceled by his regulatory body, was introduced Thursday by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“Professionals should never fear losing their license or career because of a social media post, an interview, or a personal opinion expressed on their own time,” Smith said in a press release sent to media and LifeSiteNews.

“Alberta’s government is restoring fairness and neutrality so regulators focus on competence and ethics, not policing beliefs. Every Albertan has the right to speak freely without ideological enforcement or intimidation, and this legislation makes that protection real.”

The law, known as Bill 13, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, will “set clear expectations for professional regulatory bodies to ensure professionals’ right to free expression is protected.”

According to the government, the new law will “Limit professional regulatory bodies from disciplining professionals for expressive off-duty conduct, except in specific circumstances such as threats of physical violence or a criminal conviction.”

It will also restrict mandatory training “unrelated to competence or ethics, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion training.”

Bill 13, once it becomes law, which is all but guaranteed as Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP) holds a majority, will also “create principles of neutrality that prohibit professional regulatory bodies from assigning value, blame or different treatment to individuals based on personally held views or political beliefs.”

As reported by LifeSiteNews, Peterson has been embattled with the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) after it mandated he undergo social media “training” to keep his license following posts he made on X, formerly Twitter, criticizing Trudeau and LGBT activists.

Early this year, LifeSiteNews reported that the CPO had selected Peterson’s “re-education coach” for having publicly opposed the LGBT agenda.

The Alberta government directly referenced Peterson’s (who is from Alberta originally) plight with the CPO, noting “the disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Jordan Peterson by the College of Psychologists of Ontario, demonstrate how regulatory bodies can extend their reach into personal expression rather than professional competence.”

“Similar cases involving nurses, engineers and other professionals revealed a growing pattern: individuals facing investigations, penalties or compulsory ideological training for off-duty expressive conduct. These incidents became a catalyst, confirming the need for clear legislative boundaries that protect free expression while preserving professional standards.”

Alberta Minister of Justice and Attorney General Mickey Amery said regarding Bill 13 that the new law makes that protection of professionals “real and holds professional regulatory bodies to a clear standard.”

Last year, Peterson formally announced his departure from Canada in favor of moving to the United States, saying his birth nation has become a “totalitarian hell hole.” 

Alberta

‘Weird and wonderful’ wells are boosting oil production in Alberta and Saskatchewan

Published on November 20, 2025

Todayville

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Deborah Jaremko

Multilateral designs lift more energy with a smaller environmental footprint

A “weird and wonderful” drilling innovation in Alberta is helping producers tap more oil and gas at lower cost and with less environmental impact.

With names like fishbone, fan, comb-over and stingray, “multilateral” wells turn a single wellbore from the surface into multiple horizontal legs underground.

“They do look spectacular, and they are making quite a bit of money for small companies, so there’s a lot of interest from investors,” said Calin Dragoie, vice-president of geoscience with Calgary-based Chinook Consulting Services.

Dragoie, who has extensively studied the use of multilateral wells, said the technology takes horizontal drilling — which itself revolutionized oil and gas production — to the next level.

“It’s something that was not invented in Canada, but was perfected here. And it’s something that I think in the next few years will be exported as a technology to other parts of the world,” he said.

Dragoie’s research found that in 2015 less than 10 per cent of metres drilled in Western Canada came from multilateral wells. By last year, that share had climbed to nearly 60 per cent.

Royalty incentives in Alberta have accelerated the trend, and Saskatchewan has introduced similar policy.

Multilaterals first emerged alongside horizontal drilling in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dragoie said. But today’s multilaterals are longer, more complex and more productive.

The main play is in Alberta’s Marten Hills region, where producers are using multilaterals to produce shallow heavy oil.

Today’s average multilateral has about 7.5 horizontal legs from a single surface location, up from four or six just a few years ago, Dragoie said.

One record-setting well in Alberta drilled by Tamarack Valley Energy in 2023 features 11 legs stretching two miles each, for a total subsurface reach of 33 kilometres — the longest well in Canada.

By accessing large volumes of oil and gas from a single surface pad, multilaterals reduce land impact by a factor of five to ten compared to conventional wells, he said.

The designs save money by skipping casing strings and cement in each leg, and production is amplified as a result of increased reservoir contact.

Here are examples of multilateral well design. Images courtesy Chinook Consulting Services.

Parallel