Premier Ed Stelmach has issued mandate letters to each Cabinet team member outlining tasks to be accomplished. Here's how these mandates fit with the government's five priorities.

Priority: Ensure Alberta's energy resources are developed in an environmentally sustainable way.

Mandates

• Develop a comprehensive energy strategy;
• Create a strategic plan for developing the oil sands region;
• Implement carbon capture and storage research and demonstration projects;
• Support research on new oil sands extraction processes that use less energy, less water, reduce tailings ponds and improve land reclamation;
• Inform Albertans on our environmental stewardship to ensure a clear provincial, national and international understanding of Alberta's leadership, commitment and action on the environment; and
• Implement the climate change strategy, including conservation, energy efficiency and adaptation initiatives.

Priority: Increase access to quality health care and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care service delivery.

Mandates

• Ensure Alberta has the health care professionals we need to meet future demand:
  i. Increase the number of physician graduates from 227 to 295 by 2012;
  ii. Increase the number of Registered Nurse graduates from 1,375 to 2,000 by 2012; and
  iii. Increase the number of Licensed Practical Nurse graduates from 559 to 1000 by 2012;
  
• Strengthen the governance and accountability framework with all health providers;
• Improve the health care delivery model to ensure the roles, responsibilities and structures in the system support the most efficient delivery of services; and
• Improve quality, supply and client choice in the continuing care system.

Priority: Promote strong and vibrant communities and reduce crime so Albertans feel safe.

Mandates

• Add 300 additional police officers over the next three years;
• Establish a Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Investigative Unit to target organized crime;
• Coordinate policing services to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery;
• Enhance the capacity of the prosecution service to effectively prosecute serious and violent crime, in part, by adding prosecution and support staff;
• Increase the number of treatment beds for drug addictions and mental health services;
• Promote and support culture in Alberta by working with partners to implement The Spirit of Alberta: Alberta's Cultural Policy and establishing a Premier's Council on Arts and Culture;
• Expand support for Aboriginals and immigrants, and improve access to existing programs for Albertans, affected by family violence,
• Conclude the new long-term governance and funding arrangement with and for the Métis Settlements that is focused on effective governance, enhanced accountability and sustainability;
• Develop 11,000 affordable housing units by 2012;
• Develop the 10-Year Plan to address homelessness; and
• Increase broad-based supports and early intervention initiatives for at-risk children to improve their learning outcomes.

Priority: Enhance value-added activity, increase innovation, and build a skilled workforce to improve the long-run sustainability of Alberta's economy.

Mandates — Value-Added and Innovation

• Implement strategies to increase upgrading and refining capacity in Alberta, including the implementation of Bitumen Royalty In-Kind;
• Encourage technology commercialization and increase the Canadian venture capital invested in Alberta, in part by establishing the Alberta Enterprise Fund;
• Develop and implement a framework that defines roles and mandates for publicly funded organizations that support world class research and innovation in Alberta;
• Introduce a 10% tax credit to stimulate private sector Scientific Research and Experimental Development in Alberta;
• Develop and implement policies, initiatives and tools to help Alberta businesses to improve their productivity and global competitiveness;
• Strengthen and diversify the agriculture sector by increasing the market value of differentiated and value-added agricultural products and expanding into new markets and products; and
• Strengthen the competitiveness of the forestry sector by working with industry to identify options to improve the long-term viability of the sector.

Mandates — Post Secondary System

• Increase post-secondary spaces available to high demand areas like health and trades over the next two years; and
• Reduce the interest rate on student loans from prime plus 2.5 percentage points to prime.

Mandates — Workforce

• Increase the total off-reserve labour force of Alberta's First Nations, Métis and Inuit to 74,000 by 2010;
• Increase the number of international immigrants and temporary foreign workers to 50,000 by the end of 2009;
• Double the number of workers entering the Provincial Nominee Program to 3000;
• Coordinate international missions to market Alberta as an immigration destination;
• Help newcomers to Alberta to integrate and settle into the community by increasing the support services provided to them; and
• Increase student participation and completion rates in health, math, science and Career and Technology Studies courses to grow the technology and science sectors.

Priority: Provide the roads, schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing economy and population.

Mandates

• Implement the 20-year Capital Plan;
• Increase the efficiency of health and education infrastructure design and construction;
• Double the provincial investment in highway repaving and bridge repair over the next three years;
• Implement the Capital Region Integrated Growth Management Plan;
• Establish a single enterprise approach to information technology development and operations for the Government of Alberta; and
• Ensure Alberta's parks and recreation areas remain protected yet accessible to Alberta's growing population by developing a plan for Alberta's parks and recreation areas.