Alberta Liberals offer budget honesty while PCs hide behind a coward’s budget
Edmonton – Official Opposition Leader Raj Sherman says Alberta Liberals are being honest about their fiscal plans for Alberta, while today’s budget reveals Premier Redford is trying to please everyone with a pre-election spending spree and unrealistically high revenue predictions.
“With oil at a hundred bucks a barrel, everyone is wondering why this government has us over the barrel financially,” Sherman says. “She doesn’t see the structural deficit that’s hurting Alberta: personal and corporate taxes don’t even cover health care, let alone pay the rest of the bills. We’ve got to look at the revenue side of the equation, but instead the premier is selling off the family farm – our nonrenewable oil and gas revenues – to go on a pre-election spending spree. That’s not responsible.”
Despite a nearly $1 billion deficit, the budget does not include a progressive tax, nor a rise in corporate tax, both of which are needed to address Alberta’s structural deficit. Instead, the budget projects a hard-to-believe twenty percent increase in revenues – growth that hasn’t been seen since the boom of the early 90s.
“With all the economic turmoil in the world, the premier’s revenue projections are completely unrealistic,” Sherman says.
Sherman is also concerned by the budget’s lack of vision for the future.
“The premier has a spending plan, but no savings plan,” Sherman says. “We believe volatile oil and gas revenue should be invested in endowments for the future. Today’s bills should be paid with today’s taxes – we shouldn’t be stealing from future generations.”
Sherman suspects that Redford knows taxes need to be raised, but that she’s afraid to commit to raising revenue this close to an election. Sherman says that unlike Premier Redford, Alberta Liberals are open and honest about what they would do if elected as Alberta’s next government.
“We’ve spelled out our intentions quite clearly: an end to school fees, lower power bills, affordable quality care for seniors, wait time guarantees for emergency treatment and elective surgery, and yes, a progressive income tax and a small hike in corporate tax,” Sherman says. “We’ve put all our cards on the table, while Premier Redford’s PCs keep their cards hidden up their sleeves.”
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For further information, contact:
Earl J. Woods, Senior Communications Advisor
(780) 904-5430
Denis Lapointe, Director, Southern Alberta Liberal Caucus Office
(403) 860-4330