Sex-change surgeries funded again by Alberta

Alberta will reinstate funding for gender reassignment surgeries June 15, more than two years after delisting the operation as a cost saving measure.

Health Minister Fred Horne says the policy change will mean up to 25 people per year can have the surgery for a total annual cost of about $1 million.

Horne said the government is changing the policy because it is the right thing to do.

The government cut funding for the operations in April 2009 when about 600 people were on a waiting list.

Kris Wells, a professor at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies at the University of Alberta, calls the new policy an historic victory.

He credits Premier Alison Redford for the government's change of heart, but notes the province faces numerous human rights complaints over the 2009 cuts.