Mandate Letter Analysis Overview
Between September 22nd and October 16th, Premier Smith released 25 new mandate letters to Alberta’s ministries. As mid-term directives, these letters provide a strong indication of the government’s reset in priorities and strategic direction going into the second half of its mandate.
We’ve reviewed and compared all the mandate letters issued in 2023 and 2025, identifying the significant changes, emerging themes, and the implications and opportunities for Alberta’s nonprofit sector. Our analysis is supplemental to the mandate letter itself - we encourage you to read the letter of the ministry/ministries you work most closely with for clear outlines of current priorities that may impact your work.
In-depth, ministry-by-ministry reviews can be found here.
This overview highlights the major cross-cutting themes and priority shifts that nonprofits should be aware of.
Table of Contents
2025 Mandate Letters: What You Need to Know
Reduced Focus on Equity, Inclusion, and Affordability Supports
Strengthening Alberta’s Jurisdiction
Restructuring the Ministry of Health
Mid-Term Shift
Why Mandate Letters are Important
Mandate letters are often used as political tools; they are also an important mechanism to establish the priorities and direction for each Ministry and therefore an excellent way to identify how your organization’s priorities may align. Mandate letters are how the Premier publicly communicates her instructions to the Ministers and one of the best ways to hold government to account on what it says it will accomplish. Here’s how mandate letters are used by governments:
To set Ministry Priorities
They identify specific commitments, policies, or programs the minister is responsible for leading or supporting.
To Flag Government Priorities
Looking across all mandate letters of a government, there are often clearly identifiable themes.
As a Guide for the Public Service
Ministries use them to set budgets, design programs, and measure performance against government priorities.
For Public Accountability
They provide a reporting framework for accomplishments by each Ministry.
2025 Mandate Letters: What You Need to Know
To help make sense of these mid-term mandate letters, we’ve broken down our analysis into three main categories :
New developments that have big implications for nonprofits;
Continuing themes across 2023 and 2025; and
Areas that were present in 2023 and have gained increased emphasis in 2025.
New Developments with Big Implications
Provincial Government-Wide Grant Review
One of the most consequential policy directives appears in the 2025 mandate letter for Treasury Board and Finance:
“...a government-wide review on all grants to ensure their necessity, efficiency, and alignment to current government priorities...”
The scope, process, and timeline for this review remains unclear. However, the focus on efficiency and “alignment to priorities” signals potential changes to criteria, oversight, and the approvals process.
The letters also highlight ministry achievements and continued progress on 2023 initiatives, while suggesting new opportunities for investment. Ministries emphasized ongoing work in youth employment, workforce training, safety and security, agriculture, energy and resources, and artificial intelligence – all areas where nonprofits may be able to align funding requests.
What this means for you
Remember that there is no timeline attached to this directive and focus on getting information, knowing what grants you have that may be impacted, and how those grants fit with government priorities.
Connect with your ministry contacts now. Ask what they know about the review, request to be kept informed, and offer to support in any way you can.
If your nonprofit is making a 2026 budget submission, include the importance and impact of any provincial grant streams you are part of.
Reduced Focus on Equity, Inclusion, and Affordability Supports
Several 2025 mandate letters contain noticeable fewer references to equity, inclusion, and affordability programs. In Indigenous Relations specifically, language about rights and inclusion is replaced with a stronger focus on economic partnerships tied to energy and infrastructure. Notable absent is any mention of Jordan’s Principle, a 2023 priority guiding equitable access to services for Indigenous children.
Additionally, earlier priorities around municipal transit affordability, food bank funding, and benefits indexing do not appear in the new letters. The 2024 controversy over cuts to transit pass funding, and the subsequent reversal, suggests this remains an unstable policy area.
There are also significant legislative directives that impact health services, youth, and marginalized communities, including:
Fairness and Safety in Sport Act (assigned sex-at-birth sports policies)
Free speech protections for regulated professionals and institutions
Bills 26 and 27 (affecting gender-affirming care and student identity disclosure)
Compassionate Intervention Act (mandatory addiction treatment)
What this means for you
Prepare for reduced emphasis on diversity/inclusion mandates compared to 2023, which may mean developing targeted government relations strategies, changing core communications, and/or developing advocacy strategies to support the communities you serve. Even though equity language has been trimmed from mandate letters, nonprofits can argue that equity work isn’t “extra”, it’s a driver of stronger labour markets, safer communities, and innovation. Nonprofits can surface community voices that government might otherwise miss.
Strengthening Alberta’s Jurisdiction
A prominent theme across the 2025 letters is a sharper focus on strengthening Alberta’s jurisdiction and asserting provincial authority. There is frequent use of direction to ‘exercise all legal means’ to defend provincial control over key areas including immigration, firearms, energy, agriculture, and federal-provincial agreements.
This aligns with the broader political context of strained federal-provincial relations and Alberta’s sovereignty dialogue. Despite this tension, opportunities for intergovernmental collaboration persist, particularly in housing, childcare, mental health and addictions.
Key legislative and Policy Tools Emphasized:
Provincial Priorities Act: provincial entities (defined in the legislation) must obtain approval before entering into agreements with the federal government.
Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act: enables Alberta to challenge federal laws and policies deemed harmful.
Firearms rights and self-defence protections: amendments expected to reinforce lawful possession.
Identification security measures: directive to updates driver’s licenses and plates with Alberta/Canadian identifiers.
What this means for you
Track legislative changes closely. If these intersect with your mission or external Conduct an opportunity-risk assessment across your external relationships, especially those involving federal or municipal partners.
Alberta Day is on September 1st – start considering now how your nonprofit plays a role in the recognition and celebration of that day in 2026.
Restructuring the Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health was reorganized into a new four-agency health structure, with Ministers sworn in on May 16 and mandate letters issued on October 8.
Primary and Preventative Health Services – community, family, and early intervention
Hospital and Surgical Health Services – acute care, emergency, and surgical systems
Assisted Living and Social Services – housing, disability, and continuing care
Mental Health and Addiction – recovery services and prevention
The restructuring narrows each ministry’s scope of service, but may also create opportunities for growth, as individual ministries can now advance distinct strategies – such as housing or digital information systems.
The Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services has been designated as the lead for ensuring system integration across all four health agencies. While cross-ministry collaboration will be essential, the new inter-portfolio structure may pose a risk to operational efficiency and accountability. For example, the Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health services has been tasked with transitioning non-acute patients out of hospitals in coordination with Assisted Living and Social Services – a directive that could create service gaps for patients requiring ongoing supports.
What this means for you
Map where your work fits within Alberta’s new four-agency health structure and build relationships with the ministries most connected to your programs.
Demonstrate how your services support smoother care transitions – helping people move from hospitals to housing, treatment, and community supports without gaps.
Anticipate higher community demand as patients are discharged sooner. Work proactively with government to ensure sufficient assisted living spaces, workforce capacity and supports for complex or rural cases.
Mid-Term Shift
The 2025 letters follow a consistent format that highlights ministry accomplishments and progress so far. Collectively, they signal a clear shift from planning to action; a government focused on demonstrating tangible results and delivering on its commitments to Albertans.
What this means for you
With this clear shift to a provincial government in mid-term and looking to demonstrate outcomes, when crafting your communications, government relations and/or advocacy plans, make explicit how your nonprofit has contributed to any of the progress as identified in the mandate letters and how your nonprofit can contribute to demonstrable results in the outlined priorities.
Continuing Themes
Cross-Ministry Collaboration
Cross-ministry collaboration remains a consistent theme from 2023-2025. The scale of policy work underway requires cooperation across ministries, and nonprofits stand to benefit by positioning themselves as partners capable of delivering integrated solutions.
What this means for you
Scan mandates across ministries to identify overlapping priorities.
Build relationships with multiple ministries where your work has natural intersections.
Consider applying for funding in more than one ministry where your program meets cross-cutting goals.
Red Tape Reduction
The 2025 mandate letters advance Alberta’s red-tape reduction agenda by shifting many 2023 directives from ‘explore’ or ‘review’ to ‘develop, implement, or finalize’. This marks a move from planning to execution, focused on cutting administrative barriers, streamlining approvals, and improving service delivery. Many new strategies and frameworks aim to modernize systems and increase efficiency across multiple areas, including:
Intellectual property and innovation
Procurement and contract oversight
Transportation and trade corridors
Income-support alignment
Personal identification information
Health services transparency
Technology and AI/ data centre strategy
What this means for you
Emphasize how your organization helps government reach target populations or improve service quality.
Highlight how your work contributes to red-tape reduction and systems efficiency.
Stakeholder Engagement
Like cross-ministry collaboration, stakeholder engagement remains a key element in developing strategies and frameworks outlined in the 2025 mandate letters. Nonprofits may have opportunities to share expertise and community knowledge during consultation, information-gathering, or policy design phases.
What this means for you
Identify opportunities to contribute your expertise during strategy development.
Increased Emphasis
Economic Development
While specific job strategies for attracting youth are absent from the 2023 mandate letters, there has been an increased emphasis on strengthening Alberta’s economy. The Alberta Job Strategy is a major tool that the province can use to address labour market challenges – whether employment barriers are related to skill development or identifying job opportunities.
What this means for you
Read through the Alberta Jobs Strategy, find where your nonprofit’s mission aligns, and adjust your communications to include that message. Nonprofits are an important and significant contributor to Alberta’s labour market.
Explain how your work helps people sooner, saves money later, and keeps government systems from being overwhelmed – using language like return on investment (ROI) and return on community (ROC).
Energy and Resource Development
Energy development is a dominant theme in the 2025 mandate letters – spanning Indigenous Relations, Energy & Minerals, Environment, and Intergovernmental Relations. Priorities include:
Advancing Alberta’s global presence in energy markets
Challenging federal regulations
Fast-tracking pipelines and energy infrastructure
Expanding critical minerals and reclamation innovation
Attracting AI/data centres
This shift has also resulted in the deprioritization of some social and community-focused directives that were present in 2023 (and outlined in the equity, inclusion and affordability section).
What this means for you
Organizations involved in export development, Indigenous economic partnerships, clean tech, or workforce mobility should emphasize alignment with expanded energy priorities.
Be prepared to respond through advocacy or messaging where community concerns arise.
How Nonprofits Can Leverage Mandate Letters
We have highlighted a few suggestions for what these mandate letters might mean for your nonprofit, but it certainly isn’t an exhaustive list – there may be other opportunities that you identify. Nonprofits that align programs, advocacy, and funding proposals with mandate letter commitments increase their chances of being heard, funded, and invited into partnerships. Nonprofits can use mandate letters to:
Identify Opportunities for Alignment
Nonprofits can use mandate letters to find where there is alignment in priorities. (As a risk mitigation strategy, it is also important to look for overt misalignment.)
Use language in mandate letters to demonstrate that your nonprofit is helping the government deliver on its own commitments and to position your nonprofit as a partner in development/implementation.
Engage the Right Minister
Mandate letters can help clarify which ministry is the lead when initiatives span multiple Ministries so nonprofits know who to approach first and which ministers to involve as secondary collaborators.
Shape Advocacy Strategies
Offer solutions/education for government priorities.
Identify gaps in the mandate letters, demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, and offer a solution.
Reference mandate letter commitments directly in briefings and other communications.
Increase Funding Success
When applying for government grants, nonprofits can explicitly tie outcomes to mandate letter language.
Mandate letters often foreshadow future funding opportunities or program expansions.
Final Thoughts
The changes in the 205 mandate letters, whether new policy initiatives or reprioritization of earlier directives, signal a government that is increasingly focused on strengthening its position within Canada and the province. For nonprofits, this creates both opportunities and risks: opportunities where missions align with emerging priorities, and risks where legislative or structural changes may affect service delivery and community concerns. By maintaining strong relationships with ministry partners and staying alert to evolving policy directions, organizations can better anticipate impacts and identify where their expertise is needed most.
Alberta’s nonprofits remain essential contributors to the province’s economic strength and social fabric, helping build vibrant, connected communities where their expertise is needed most. Continued engagement with government will be critical to ensuring this impact is recognized, supported, and integrated into the province’s path forward.