In Alberta, our economy is strong, our communities are vibrant and our province is blessed with abundant resources and world-renowned natural beauty. The challenge now is to build on the momentum and make our province's future even brighter.

The Government of Alberta has set priorities in key areas:

These priorities support the directions of Alberta’s 20-year strategic plan

• building and educating tomorrow’s workforce
• improving our health system
• building Aboriginal self-sufficiency
• building our infrastructure for the future
• using and respecting the land
• reducing crime and supporting safe communities and
• achieving environmentally-sustainable energy development.

Building and educating tomorrow’s workforce

• Alberta’s long-term labour force strategy will ensure a skilled workforce now and into the future
• Alberta will invest nearly $5.5 billion in basic education, adding more funding to reduce class size, improve classroom technology and better support children with special needs, as forecast in the First Quarter update
• Working with students to find the best ways to increase high school completion
• Increase spending on post-secondary education by nearly 29 percent and add 20,000 new spaces at Alberta’s universities, colleges and technical institutes between 2006 and 2009
• Alberta had 52,000 apprentices in July 2006; a 122% increase since 1995
• Developing a new tuition policy to help keep post-secondary education affordable for students

Improving our health system

• Promoting good health, improving home care, reducing wait times and leading the country in cancer prevention as part of Alberta’s health renewal plan
• Enhanced screening, research and health promotion in the fight against cancer
• Reducing wait times for hip and knee surgery, breast and prostate cancer care, coronary artery bypass surgery, MRIs and CT scans

Building Aboriginal self-sufficiency

• Working with the First Nations and the federal government to resolve self-government rights and promote economic development on reserves
• Working to boost the participation of under-represented groups, including Aboriginal people, in the province's labour force

Building our infrastructure for the future

On a per capita basis, Alberta spends more than three times the average of other provinces on infrastructure About $15 billion for infrastructure and capital projects between 2006 and 2009 (increased from the Budget announcement) Build or modernize 60 schools, undertake 47 new post-secondary capital projects and begin work on 21 major health projects in 2006 Pave about 1,000 kilometers of highway

Using and respecting the land

• Development of a land use framework to guide future decisions on how Alberta’s land is preserved or used for agriculture, urban growth, industrial development and recreation
• Boosting efforts related to climate change and supporting research on transforming Alberta’s coal reserves into an affordable, reliable and clean source of energy

Reducing crime and supporting safe communities

• Adding more RCMP officers in rural communities and more Crown prosecutors, judges and court room staff
• Working with communities to prevent crime, including providing over $9 million in grants to help communities take action on family violence and bullying

Achieving environmentally-sustainable energy development

Create and implement an energy strategy to achieve environmentally-sustainable energy development Innovative use of technology for more integrated and cleaner energy production

Other key actions include:

• Adding $1 billion to the Heritage Fund and over a billion to other savings and research funds
• Keeping Alberta’s taxes the lowest in Canada
• Helping people in need through increased funding for programs like AISH and women’s shelters
• Investing in smaller communities by creating a new $100 million fund for rural development
• Exploring innovation in primary and value-added agriculture, including bio-fuels

These current priorities for our province's future highlight some of the work the Alberta government is doing. For a full picture of what is being done, please see the Government of Alberta and ministry business plans.