This week, Kenney’s UCP government presented its Alberta Budget 2022, a budget with little good news for working Albertans. Read our fact check blog, press release, as well as other reactions around Alberta.
News
Kenney's UCP Budget 2022 fact check
Despite the grand celebration Kenney’s UCP government put forth, which was perhaps best described by CUPE Alberta as a “master class of deception and gaslighting,” there is little good news in the budget for working Albertans and a lot of unknowns as to where funding is actually going especially given the UCP’s plans for privatization of health care and education.
Albertans have shouldered three years of increasing taxes, higher costs, underfunding of public services and outright cuts. The budget shows workers will continue to do the heavy lifting of the so-called recovery. After three years of cuts and underfunding, the UCP government posted a small surplus ($511 million) with revenues boosted by high oil and gas prices mostly due, in part, to Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Since the Kenney UCP government have proven they are anything but trustworthy, the AFL has gone through the budget to determine the facts. Read more.
UCP’s Budget 2022 shows failure to create good jobs for Alberta workers
“After three years in office, it’s clear the UCP government is not concerned about what Alberta workers need to thrive,” says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. “The UCP’s ‘Alberta at Work’ plan doesn’t include workers or their families.”
“The corporate tax cut was supposed to create 55,000 new jobs – the UCP campaigned on that promise in the 2019 election. Today’s budget shows that this promise was a lie,” says McGowan. “Tax cuts to the wealthy did not create jobs and only resulted in a larger hole in our province’s finances, a hole Alberta workers and their families will continue to fill with higher personal income taxes, higher tuition, higher fees, and investments in public services that have not kept pace with inflation and population growth.”
“While a one-off bump from oil and gas revenues is welcomed, Albertans are not seeing the benefits. Shareholders and larger corporations are flush with cash, but jobs for Albertans haven’t flowed. Albertans own these resources, but they are not seeing full value,” says McGowan. Read more.
From natural gas rebates to smokeless tobacco, here's how the Alberta budget might impact you
It was one of the many questions looming prior to the release of Thursday's budget — given Alberta's startling reversal in financial fortunes (largely owing to spiking oil prices) — how will this affect the pocketbook of the average Albertan?
We now have some answers. Read more.
Sohi says Alberta budget a 'slap in the face' for Edmonton
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi decried what he called Edmonton’s “second-class treatment” in the provincial government’s 2022 budget.
Shortly after the budget was tabled Thursday afternoon, Sohi called it “a slap in the face” after what he described as significant efforts to reset government relations since his election last fall. He suggested the capital city, represented in all but one riding by NDP MLAs, is getting short shrift from the United Conservative government.
“The message that we got from the provincial government today is that Edmonton doesn’t matter, that our needs aren’t being heard, that collaboration doesn’t matter,” Sohi said. “We asked for four basic needs that would help us to make life better for all Edmontonians, but we received next to nothing in return.” Read more.
Budget 2022: Gondek 'less than impressed' with provincial budget
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she’s “less than impressed” by municipal investment in the budget, with modest provincial funding for downtown revitalization representing one major disappointment.
The budget allocates $5 million to revitalizing Calgary’s downtown, $1 million of which is directed to the Calgary Downtown Business Association. City council approved $255 million of city spending toward that project in 2021, and Gondek had asked the provincial government to contribute funds.
“I suppose our request for matched funding means two per cent,” Gondek told reporters at city hall Thursday, following the release of the budget. Read more.
Watch: How health care and education fared in the budget
While health care has been a major focus during this COVID-19 pandemic, this budget actually reduces the COVID contingency spend. And despite Premier Kenney saying there would be historic investments in Budget 2022, the operating budget is increasing at a rate below population and inflation growth -- basically amounting to a freeze. Additionally, with the UCP's push to privatize health care and education, there are a lot of unknowns as to where funding is actually going. Watch news story.
Action
Public health care dollars are for people, not profits
Canada’s premiers are calling on the federal government to increase health care funding for provinces and Justin Trudeau says he’s listening.
But Jason Kenney can’t be trusted with a blank cheque. The UCP and their donors are pushing American-style private health care. Jason Kenney has already started giving more of our health care to profit-seeking companies and is using the pandemic as cover to cut Alberta’s investments in public health care.
Albertans urgently need more investment in our public health care, but the federal government can’t give the money to Kenney unconditionally — we need to make sure our public dollars aren’t handed over to corporate shareholders.
Tell Justin Trudeau not to give Jason Kenney a blank cheque to privatize our health care. Take action.
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