Alberta Budget must relieve pressure on families, protect public health care
OPINION
OPINION
Rachel Notley - Leader Alberta NDP
As Albertans, we all keep a close eye on global energy prices. For many cycles of boom and bust, our fortunes have been tied to the prices of West Texas Intermediate and Western Canadian Select.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
Alberta NDP Official Opposition Leader Rachel Notley speaks to the media prior to the first in a series of budget town halls, in Edmonton Tuesday Sept. 10, 2019.
As I write this, oil is trading at prices we haven’t seen for eight or more years, and those prices are supercharged by a favourable exchange rate for Canadian dollars. It’s a welcome reversal from the depressed prices we’ve seen to varying degrees since 2014.
But something is different this time. The energy industry has significantly restructured in response to those many years of low prices. Instead of building and hiring, most firms are passing this money directly along to shareholders, including many outside of Alberta.
Meeting with Alberta families and small business owners, it’s clear they aren’t feeling the prosperity of previous booms. In fact, many Albertans tell me they are falling further behind each month. Inflation is driving up the cost of everything from ground beef to gasoline. The policies of the UCP are driving up many other monthly costs. Albertans are paying more income tax, property tax, school fees, tuition, more interest on student debt, more camping fees, and vastly more for car insurance and utilities, all thanks to the UCP.
Meanwhile, today’s cash boom is doing wonders for the provincial treasury. Albertans should expect to see a significant surplus in the budget this month. We can also expect the UCP to claim credit for this. Let’s be clear: a traffic cone could balance the budget riding the current global energy price rally.
But with this cash boom for the government in mind, here are some of the things I will be looking for in the provincial budget.
First, the UCP must reattach personal income tax brackets to inflation. Jason Kenney used to rage against the federal Liberals for their policy of “bracket creep” — he’s called it an enormous, insidious, vicious, pernicious way to hike income taxes by stealth. It’s also the very first thing Kenney and the UCP did to Albertans, starting with their first budget. This sneaky tax hike will separate Alberta families from another $850 million in new taxes by election day of 2023. Bracket creep should be abolished in this budget.
Secondly, there are a range of benefits for Albertans that the UCP has disconnected from inflation, which means their real buying power shrinks every month. We all see what’s happening at the grocery store. With inflation at 30-year highs, the same basket of food is getting more expensive every month. The Child and Family Benefit, the Seniors Benefit, Income Support, and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) are all being devalued by inflation, thanks to the UCP.
Albertans who receive AISH are surviving below the poverty line, and the UCP’s policy will take about $1,000 worth of yearly buying power away from them by 2023. Our government indexed AISH to inflation, and the UCP supported this move, only to reverse it immediately after the election — yet another reason why Albertans can’t trust the UCP. I will be looking for these cruel UCP policies to be reversed in Budget 2022.
I am very concerned to hear Kenney and the UCP signal that they intend to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to push Alberta health care towards an American model of private, for-profit delivery. We have all heard the UCP try to shift the blame for their COVID failures onto health-care workers. But Albertans know the truth — we weren’t let down by the health-care system; we were let down by the UCP. This government attacked doctors and nurses before and during the pandemic, and is still rolling out a plan to lay off 11,000 frontline professionals.
In wave after wave, the UCP failed to act when the danger was obvious and pandered to extremists instead of protecting families. The UCP’s negligence led to hundreds of preventable deaths and tens of thousands of Albertans’ surgeries getting cancelled. The bottom line is this: Albertans can’t trust the UCP with their health care.
Lastly, we need to have a serious strategic discussion about how to ensure energy revenues are reinvested in jobs and projects here in Alberta that drive long-term prosperity and diversification. We must not repeat the mistakes of several Conservative governments and pretend that non-renewable resource revenue will be around forever.
We’ve started this conversation with Alberta families and businesses at AlbertasFuture.ca . I invite all Albertans to check out the proposals we have made, and to add their voices to this critical discussion.
Rachel Notley is leader of the Alberta NDP and leader of the official Opposition.
As I write this, oil is trading at prices we haven’t seen for eight or more years, and those prices are supercharged by a favourable exchange rate for Canadian dollars. It’s a welcome reversal from the depressed prices we’ve seen to varying degrees since 2014.
But something is different this time. The energy industry has significantly restructured in response to those many years of low prices. Instead of building and hiring, most firms are passing this money directly along to shareholders, including many outside of Alberta.
Meeting with Alberta families and small business owners, it’s clear they aren’t feeling the prosperity of previous booms. In fact, many Albertans tell me they are falling further behind each month. Inflation is driving up the cost of everything from ground beef to gasoline. The policies of the UCP are driving up many other monthly costs. Albertans are paying more income tax, property tax, school fees, tuition, more interest on student debt, more camping fees, and vastly more for car insurance and utilities, all thanks to the UCP.
Meanwhile, today’s cash boom is doing wonders for the provincial treasury. Albertans should expect to see a significant surplus in the budget this month. We can also expect the UCP to claim credit for this. Let’s be clear: a traffic cone could balance the budget riding the current global energy price rally.
But with this cash boom for the government in mind, here are some of the things I will be looking for in the provincial budget.
First, the UCP must reattach personal income tax brackets to inflation. Jason Kenney used to rage against the federal Liberals for their policy of “bracket creep” — he’s called it an enormous, insidious, vicious, pernicious way to hike income taxes by stealth. It’s also the very first thing Kenney and the UCP did to Albertans, starting with their first budget. This sneaky tax hike will separate Alberta families from another $850 million in new taxes by election day of 2023. Bracket creep should be abolished in this budget.
Secondly, there are a range of benefits for Albertans that the UCP has disconnected from inflation, which means their real buying power shrinks every month. We all see what’s happening at the grocery store. With inflation at 30-year highs, the same basket of food is getting more expensive every month. The Child and Family Benefit, the Seniors Benefit, Income Support, and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) are all being devalued by inflation, thanks to the UCP.
Albertans who receive AISH are surviving below the poverty line, and the UCP’s policy will take about $1,000 worth of yearly buying power away from them by 2023. Our government indexed AISH to inflation, and the UCP supported this move, only to reverse it immediately after the election — yet another reason why Albertans can’t trust the UCP. I will be looking for these cruel UCP policies to be reversed in Budget 2022.
I am very concerned to hear Kenney and the UCP signal that they intend to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to push Alberta health care towards an American model of private, for-profit delivery. We have all heard the UCP try to shift the blame for their COVID failures onto health-care workers. But Albertans know the truth — we weren’t let down by the health-care system; we were let down by the UCP. This government attacked doctors and nurses before and during the pandemic, and is still rolling out a plan to lay off 11,000 frontline professionals.
In wave after wave, the UCP failed to act when the danger was obvious and pandered to extremists instead of protecting families. The UCP’s negligence led to hundreds of preventable deaths and tens of thousands of Albertans’ surgeries getting cancelled. The bottom line is this: Albertans can’t trust the UCP with their health care.
Lastly, we need to have a serious strategic discussion about how to ensure energy revenues are reinvested in jobs and projects here in Alberta that drive long-term prosperity and diversification. We must not repeat the mistakes of several Conservative governments and pretend that non-renewable resource revenue will be around forever.
We’ve started this conversation with Alberta families and businesses at AlbertasFuture.ca . I invite all Albertans to check out the proposals we have made, and to add their voices to this critical discussion.
Rachel Notley is leader of the Alberta NDP and leader of the official Opposition.
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