Leaving Canada would cost Alberta the federal health funding it now receives.
Claimed by: Raised by critics of separation
Needs context: Accurate as written, but a key piece of context changes how it reads. How we rate.
Summary
The fact is accurate, but it is only part of the picture. The Canada Health Transfer goes only to provinces and territories, paid on an equal per-capita cash basis, so a sovereign Alberta would stop receiving it. On its own that is a real loss of more than 900 dollars per person per year, set to keep growing. The context is that an independent Alberta would also stop paying federal taxes, so whether leaving is a net gain or loss depends on the whole fiscal balance rather than the health transfer alone. Alberta, with a younger population and higher incomes, has also tended to benefit relatively more from the equal per-capita formula adopted in 2014-15.
Evidence
The Canada Health Transfer is the largest federal transfer to provinces and territories and is paid on an equal per-capita cash basis.
For 2025-26 the Canada Health Transfer rose to 54.7 billion dollars, distributed to provinces and territories on an equal per-capita cash basis.