This past week, the Provincial Government rolled out the 2016 budget, which left many in a state of shock and discouragement as it forecasts almost $58 billion in debt within three years. Finance Minister Joe Ceci confirmed that this year’s deficit alone will be $10.4 billion and said Alberta will not have balanced books before 2024.
Some of the budget highlights included:
• Alberta Child Benefit: $147 million in 2016-17 and $196 million per year beginning in 2017-18 to provide up to $2,750 yearly for Alberta’s most vulnerable families.
• Enhanced Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit: a $25 million boost will allow more families to receive the credit, and many families will receive a larger credit.
• $480 million in 2016-17 for programs to help eligible Albertans cover basic costs of living and find or maintain jobs
• $206 million for related adult and child health benefit programs.
$25 million in funding will be allocated to support apprenticeship and training. This includes:
• $15 million to support apprenticeship-focused training opportunities
• $10 million to provide workforce training opportunities
These are said to “help families during these tough economic times”.
As for the promised infrastructure projects throughout the province, this budget will support:
In total the Capital Plan supports $34.8 billion in infrastructure projects over the next five years, including:
• $9 billion in municipal infrastructure support over five years, including $6.1 billion under the Municipal Sustainability Initiative
• $6.2 billion for capital maintenance and renewal
• $4.6 billion for roads and bridges
• $3.5 billion for health facilities and equipment, including $1.2 billion for the new Calgary Cancer Centre and $500 million for future priority investments in health projects across the province
• $3.5 billion for schools, including $2.9 billion to complete the 200 new and modernization projects previously announced and $500 million for future projects
Once again, the word ‘diversification’ was thrown around and the plan to do that involves a carbon tax that Ceci says over the next 5 years will collect $9.6 billion, which will be reinvested into Alberta’s economy. $6.2 billion will be spent on diversification of our energy economy and creating jobs, including:
• $3.4 billion for large scale renewable energy, bioenergy and technology
• $2.2 billion for green infrastructure like transit
• $645 million for Energy Efficiency Alberta, a new provincial agency that will support increasing energy efficiency for homes and businesses
Shortly after the budget release, the Wildrose released the following statement:
“The NDP government’s budget is making things worse by slamming families with $58 billion of debt that will mean $2,000 per family for interest payments, and a punishing new carbon tax that unfairly targets working families for another $1,000 per year, the Wildrose Official Opposition said today.
“The NDP plan will hit families hard this year with a worsening economy, a punishing new carbon tax and dangerous new levels of borrowing,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said. “There is no effort to reduce spending, while an irresponsible carbon tax and unprecedented levels of government debt will hit Albertans’ pocket books hard. Albertans were hoping for an end to risky NDP experiments, a real plan on jobs and a vision to get our budget back to balance, but instead this NDP government is only making things worse.”
The Wildrose broke down their highlights of this budget as such:
Impact on families:
- A new $9.6 billion carbon tax, with more than three quarters going to new government spending;
- A carbon tax that hits the typical family with a $1,000 hike in annual taxes and costs;
- A single Albertan making over $50,000 will get $0 in any carbon tax rebate;
- Rebate program fails to acknowledge rising electricity costs or rising costs to consumer goods;
- $2 billion in annual interest payments by 2019 – a cost of $2,000 to the average household;
- No realistic transition plan for communities being hit hard by carbon tax and coal shutdown;
- New fee increases for museums; and,
- Higher unemployment and declining wages.
- The budget breaks the NDP’s legal borrowing limit, passed just five months ago, with no new cap on borrowing in this budget;
- $6.5 billion in new government spending over three years – a 13 per cent increase;
- $14 billion consolidated deficit in terms of net financial assets;
- $58 billion in total government debt by 2019;
- A bureaucrat hiring spree with 247 new hires;
- Hiding the true spending increase by dropping the forecast for wildfires and natural disasters by $400 million.
Dangerous Spending:
Wildrose Shadow Finance Minister Derek Fildebrandt said today’s NDP budget, with dangerous new levels of debt, is a reckless fiscal plan that leaves Alberta’s fiscal future hanging on the edge of a cliff. “The NDP are increasing the size of government with over $6.5 billion in irresponsible new spending, imposing in the largest tax increase in Alberta’s history and putting Alberta on the edge of a debt cliff,” Fildebrandt said. “The NDP has no real job plans except to hire more bureaucrats, and are slamming families with a massive new carbon tax to funnel the money into new risky new spending schemes. The NDP have smashed through their own 15 per cent debt-ceiling in just a few short months and are steering our finances towards a cliff.”
Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Sharon Aheer called this budget “reckless and irresponsible” and claimed that it is attacking middle class families in Alberta.
Premier Rachel Notley quickly came under fire by Albertans as she made statements in a post budget announcement press conference saying she is “cautiously optimistic” on infrastructure spending announcements.
“Our government has made a very determined decision that what we’re going to do during what is an unprecedented price shock and economic shock…the worst thing we’ve seen in two or three generations – that we’re going to invest in Albertans. We’re not going to pile on to the job losses and to the restraint and the cuts that we’re seeing in the private sector,” the premier explained in an interview with The West Block with Tom Clark. “We did have larger deficits in the 80’s”, said Notley.
One could ask the question ‘has this NDP Government not learned anything from the past mistakes in Alberta?’ Putting this province in this severe amount of debt doesn’t sit right being justified by saying that we’ve experienced this before…. what then will be the outcome this time around?
