$15 ticket search tax a dumb idea yesterday, today and tomorrow
Edmonton – Alberta Liberal Service Alberta Critic Darshan Kang says the government should just axe the $15 traffic-ticket surcharge – a tax by any other name – instead of delaying its implementation until September.
“When this silly idea was first introduced, Alberta Liberals denounced it as a stealth tax on municipal governments,” Kang says. “Instead of facing its budget problems and wasteful spending head-on, they downloaded the costs of their mismanagement to the cities once again. Now they’re backtracking because they see that city governments and police have very good reasons for opposing this harebrained tax.”
Kang says the government has a bad habit of forcing bad decisions on municipalities without even consulting them first.
“If you’re going to impose a tax on cities – and because municipalities can’t raise ticket fees for offences within provincial jurisdiction, this does indeed amount to a tax with huge impacts on city budgets – then you should at least consult with the affected parties first to see what the impacts will be,” Kang says.
Kang points out that when the budget was released in the spring, the Official Opposition offered a long list of wasteful spending that the government could have cut instead of raising taxes or slashing people programs.
“Service Alberta says that it costs $77 million a year to administer traffic tickets,” Kang says. “Fair enough. Instead of offloading that cost onto the backs of cities, they could have taken any one of our suggestions – cutting back on the size of cabinet, for example, or cutting government communications and travel expenses.”
Kang has one piece of advice for Service Alberta Minister Heather Klimchuk.
“Don’t delay this tax. Drop it.”
The Alberta Liberal Caucus…There’s a better way.
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For more information contact:
Edmonton: John Santos, Media Liaison
(780) 904-5430
Calgary: Denis Lapointe, Director, Southern Alberta Liberal Caucus Office
(403) 860-4330