Alberta Premier Jason Kenney visited Red Deer Polytechnic’s Gary W. Harris Centre to make an announcement involving the healthcare capacity in the City of Red Deer. 

“I am pleased to report that tomorrow’s budget will include the single largest tax payer investment in the history of Alberta and the single largest hospital expansion in the history of Alberta’s healthcare system. With a 1.8-billion-dollar commitment to the renewal of the Red Deer Regional Hospital,” said Kenney. 

The Alberta Government will begin with a commitment of 193 million dollars in spending over the next three fiscal years. Kenney says the upgrades will include several long-awaited features. 

“This will include 200 new in-patient beds, increasing hospital capacity from 370 bed to 570 bed or by 54 per cent. The expansion will also provide for new operating rooms increasing surgical capacity and yes, a new cardiac catherization lab will be included in this project,” added Kenney. 

Surgical capacity will increase from 11 rooms to 14 rooms. 

“This announcement is more than about just Red Deer or about the region. It’s about expanded capacity throughout the province of Alberta as enhanced capacity here in Red Deer will take pressure off of Calgary and off of Edmonton,” said Finance Minister, Travis Toews. 

Finance Minister Toews says the Provincial Budget that will be unveiled tomorrow will hit a record high for the health operating budget with Red Deer’s Hospital renewal at its heart. 

“Budget 22 includes a major emphasis to deliver on healthcare in rural Alberta and that means supporting existing initiatives and adding new ones to add doctors nurses to rural Alberta and across our entire province,” said Health Minister, Jason Copping. 

Approximately 50 per cent of patients in the Red Deer Hospital are referred from neighbouring communities. 

City of Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston says the word that describes the investment and expansion is ‘monumental’. 

“As Alberta’s third largest region, the Red Deer Hospital Centre is the primary service provider for our citizens, the central Alberta regional population, and every Albertan travelling along the central QEII corridor servicing a population of a half a million people,” said Johnston. 

The Mayor also thanked the work of healthcare workers throughout the pandemic, and the mayors of surrounding communities for their advocacy in their help in getting the project off of the ground. 

At this time, there is not a clear timeline for the project but the Government of Alberta expects that the work will begin within the next three years. The entire project is expected to be finished by 2030.