Alberta's plan for economic recovery

A Message from Premier Ed Stelmach

The effects of the global financial crisis are being felt around the world.

Alberta is better positioned than other jurisdictions in North America going into this downturn. Our focus is on making good, rational decisions that ensure Alberta is best positioned coming out of recession.

We have a three-year plan to keep Albertans working, and to keep money flowing through our economy. First, we’re going to watch our spending. Second, we’re going to draw on our emergency savings to protect the programs and services that Albertans rely on. Third, we’ll continue to invest in our people and our infrastructure to support our quality of life, and the creation of new jobs and a competitive economy. And fourth we’re going to promote Alberta in the global marketplace to preserve our export markets and our future prosperity.

Elements of this plan have already been implemented including a three-year capital plan to invest in necessary public infrastructure. Because we know how important it is to stay confident and keep building our province to position Alberta for continued economic leadership in the future.

We need to be flexible enough to meet challenging times. Our economic plan will give us the flexibility to see Alberta through the next several years. More details on priorities for the upcoming year will be released in the provincial budget on April 7.

Three-point incentive program for energy sector

The Government of Alberta has announced a new three-point incentive program designed to help keep Albertans working in the province’s energy sector during the current global economic slowdown.

This program will encourage new investment and help keep Albertans at work. It will benefit families and local businesses, while generating provincial revenues the government can invest in programs that are important to Albertans.

Read the three points of the plan

New research program takes classroom anywhere, anytime

Research focusing on ways to use small, portable devices such as cell phones and PDAs to deliver courses and instructional material to Albertans could revolutionize education worldwide.

The research conducted by Dr. Kinshuk, the newly appointed iCORE/Xerox/Markin Industry Research Chair at Athabasca University, will take mobile technology like commonly available cell phones and use it to free students to work at their own pace and from the location of their choice.

Dr. Kinshuk’s work supports two key government priorities – enhancing research capacity in growth sectors and increasing student access to Campus Alberta.

Read about an example of this technology

Extending the use of Olympic legacy facilities

The governments of Alberta and British Columbia have agreed to work together to promote continuing use of Winter Olympic legacy venues in both provinces.

With this agreement, the provinces formalize their goal of ensuring that these venues continue to support high performance athletes in training and competitions, as well as recreational users of all levels.

Learn more about how this will be done

New licence plate design put on hold

The introduction of a new licence plate design for the province has been postponed, and instead a lower cost approach will be taken by adding a fourth number to the existing plate once the available plate configurations run out later this year.

The current plate design has been in place since 1983 and the number of available configurations on the passenger class plate will run out this summer. At that time, any new plates that are issued will include a fourth number, creating seven-digit plates with an ABC-1234 configuration.

Visit the website for more information