The Government of Alberta has launched its long-term plan for economic recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the historic fall in oil prices. Alberta’s Recovery Plan is the province's strategy to invest in infrastructure, diversify the economy and create jobs. The government says Alberta’s Recovery Plan is a work in progress and details of each policy initiative will be released in the coming days and weeks.
Under the Recovery Plan, Alberta will be making its largest ever investment in the province’s infrastructure. In 2020, $10 billion will be spent on projects throughout the province, creating 50,000 jobs. Other highlights of the plan include:
The Alberta Government says it is developing a plan to use the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to help rebuild the province and diversify its economy, with a particular view to growing key economic sectors like tourism, agriculture and energy.
Alberta’s Recovery Plan will focus on sector strategies for diversifying the economy in energy, agriculture, technology, tourism and other high-opportunity areas. The details of these sector strategies will be announced this summer and fall.
In the energy sector, actions announced in the Recovery Plan include:
The Recovery Plan's focus in agriculture includes attracting investment, expanding export opportunities and expanding irrigation infrastructure to increase primary production.
In the technology sector, actions include:
In the fall of 2020, the Alberta Government will announce a 10-year tourism strategy to support recovery and ongoing sustainable investment in tourism. The government will also advance strategic infrastructure investments, including participation in the CIB’s potential $1-billion project that would develop high-speed rail between Calgary and Banff.
Alberta's Recovery Plan reduced the province's general corporate income tax rate from 10 percent to 8 percent, effective July 1, 2020. Alberta's previously announced Job Creation Tax Cut had already reduced Alberta's corporate rate from 12 percent, and under the plan the government is accelerating the scheduled reductions by a year and half to lower the rate to 8 percent.
The Recovery Plan also announced the creation of Invest Alberta. This dedicated investment promotion agency will lead the province's investment attraction strategy in a new direction with better capital markets communications, proactive investment promotion targeting key companies and sectors, and concierge service for prospective investors seeking to navigate through regulatory and other hurdles.
Alberta's Minister of Labour and Immigration will use the province’s authority under the Temporary Foreign Worker Annex of the Agreement for Canada-Alberta Cooperation on Immigration to add dozens of additional occupational categories to the “refusal to process list,” effectively removing the vast majority of occupations from the TFW Program. A small number of specialized occupations experiencing acute and proven labour shortages will be exempted.
Alberta's Recovery Plan also includes actions to export Alberta's technologies all over the world, to remove barriers to job creation and invest in skills and training.
Bennett Jones will continue to monitor new developments in Alberta's Recovery Plan as more details are announced. Please visit our COVID-19 Resource Centre for other COVID-19-related materials.