Red Deer Polytechnic is planning a major healthcare training expansion that will add 1,000 new student seats to help ease staffing shortages across central Alberta. The school announced the Healthtech Centre for Applied Learning & Innovation on June 9, a $120-million, 118,000-square-foot facility that is expected to open by fall 2029.
The project comes as the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre expansion, set for 2030, will need roughly 3,600 extra healthcare workers. Right now, the polytechnic gets nearly 3,000 applications each year for only 1,567 spots in its 15 health programs, from a Bachelor of Science in Nursing to a Medical Laboratory Assistant certificate.
“This transformative project will expand RDP’s capacity to train healthcare professionals by adding 1,000 new program seats to strengthen the regional workforce pipeline and address growing demand across Alberta’s health system,” the institution said. Construction is slated to begin in early 2027 south of Bethany CollegeSide, where staff parking lots now sit.
The centre will also be home to the Rural and Remote Health and Wellness Centre of Excellence, a partnership with Covenant Health that launched in November 2025. That initiative focuses on training and fresh solutions for remote communities, which often struggle with limited care access and long travel times.
The project builds on earlier steps, including a record $20-million gift from the Donald Family in February 2024 that created the Donald Family Institute for Healthtech Innovation. ACI Architects Inc., a western Canadian firm, has been selected to design the new space, which will include simulation labs, virtual technology, and flexible learning areas. Alberta’s 2026 budget also sets aside $148 million over three years to add seats in high-demand fields like healthcare.
