Alberta
Gas prices will go up 9 cents / litre January 1. Partial fuel tax relief still in place
Fuel tax relief: Statement from Minister Horner
President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Nate Horner issued the following statement on Alberta’s fuel tax relief program:
“On Jan. 1, 2023, Alberta’s government paused the collection of the provincial fuel tax on gasoline and diesel for six months to help keep life affordable. We later extended the pause to the end of 2023 and committed to providing relief after that when oil prices are high.
“The provincial oil price-based fuel tax relief program will be reinstated on Jan. 1, which means Albertans will continue to save money at the pumps. The program sets fuel tax rates quarterly based on the average price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with a rule limiting rate increases to a maximum of nine cents per litre each quarter.
“As a result, Albertans will continue to save four cents per litre on gas and diesel in the first three months of 2024, with the fuel tax applied at a reduced rate of nine cents per litre. After that, Albertans will save some or all of the provincial fuel tax when WTI prices average $80 per barrel or higher in each quarterly review period.
“Alberta’s fuel tax is a predictable source of provincial revenue, helping to offset the volatility of other revenue sources. As a stable component of Alberta’s revenue mix, the fuel tax helps fund programs and services Albertans rely on while maintaining our significant tax advantage. The fuel tax relief program ensures we’re able to maintain strength in Alberta’s finances while continuing to support Albertans and Alberta businesses.
“We will provide another update before the next quarter ends on March 31, 2024.”
Alberta
Fortis et Liber: Alberta’s Future in the Canadian Federation
From the C2C Journal
By Barry Cooper, professor of political science, University of Calgary
Canada’s western lands, wrote one prominent academic, became provinces “in the Roman sense” – acquired possessions that, once vanquished, were there to be exploited. Laurentian Canada regarded the hinterlands as existing primarily to serve the interests of the heartland. And the current holders of office in Ottawa often behave as if the Constitution’s federal-provincial distribution of powers is at best advisory, if it needs to be acknowledged at all. Reviewing this history, Barry Cooper places Alberta’s widely criticized Sovereignty Act in the context of the Prairie provinces’ long struggle for due constitutional recognition and the political equality of their citizens. Canada is a federation, notes Cooper. Provinces do have rights. Constitutions do mean something. And when they are no longer working, they can be changed.
Alberta
Pharmacist-led clinics improve access to health care: Lessons from Alberta
News release from the Montreal Economic Institute
In Canada, 35 per cent of avoidable emergency room visits could be handled by pharmacists.
Emulating Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinic model could enhance access to primary care and help avoid unnecessary emergency room visits, according to a new study from the Montreal Economic Institute.
“Pharmacists know medication better than anyone else in our health systems,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, senior public policy analyst and Alberta project lead at the MEI. “By unlocking their full potential in prescribing and substituting medications, Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinics have helped avoid tens of thousands of unnecessary emergency room visits.”
Pharmacists in Alberta have the largest prescribing authority in the country, including the ability to prescribe schedule one drugs with special training.
Unlike in Ontario and Manitoba, Alberta pharmacists are authorized to substitute prescribed medications, which can help address issues such as adverse reactions caused by interaction with other treatments.
The study explains that this can help reduce pressure on hospitals, as prescription-related issues account for more than 10 per cent of emergency room visits.
Alberta’s first pharmacist-led clinic, in Lethbridge, sees between 14,600 and 21,900 patients per year since opening in 2022.
It is expected that there will be 103 such clinics active in the province by the end of 2024.
The researcher also links the success of the pharmacist-led clinic model in Alberta to pharmacists’ expanded scope of practice in the province.
Among other things, Alberta pharmacists are able to order and interpret lab tests, unlike their counterparts in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
A 2019 peer-reviewed study found that pharmacists could handle 35 per cent of avoidable emergency room visits in Canada.
“By enabling pharmacists to play a larger role in its health system, Alberta is redirecting minor cases from emergency rooms to more appropriate facilities,” said Wittevrongel. “Just imagine how much faster things could be if pharmacists could take care of 35 per cent of the unnecessary load placed on Canada’s emergency rooms.”
The MEI study is available here.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policy-makers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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