It's time to take Alberta's Oil Savings Seriously

The oil industry is critically important to Alberta -- Albertans are fortunate for the prosperity that oil has generated over the years.

Since 1971 PC governments in Alberta have collected almost $200 billion in royalties on oil and natural gas, and when adjusted for inflation, that represents $300 billion.

Alberta’s Heritage Trust Fund was created in 1976 by the PC’s first premier Peter Lougheed; however, following Lougheed’s retirement in 1985, the PC governments have not invested in the Heritage Trust Fund. Not one dime has been added to the Fund since 1987.

Peter Lougheed taught Alberta to, “think like an owner… This is a sale of a depleting resource that’s owned by the people. Once a barrel of oil goes down the pipeline it’s gone forever. It’s like a farmer selling off his topsoil… what is fair return?”

The PCs has seen signs of crashing oil prices for years and did very little to get our province off of our heavy reliance on a cyclical economy of boom and bust. Why do the PCs still base almost 30% of the province’s operating budget on oil and gas royalties? What if they took more initiatives to diversify our economy and started saving those royalties? Would we still have billion dollar deficits?

“The PCs have made Alberta too dependent on oil, but it’s not your fault. It’s the PCs,” said Alberta Party leader Greg Clark.

“The PCs have forgotten the wisdom of their first premier Peter Lougheed. It is time Alberta stopped neglecting the Heritage Trust Fund,” said Red Deer South candidate Serge Gingras.

The Alberta Party would employ the leadership needed to diversify our economy while still promoting the responsible development of our resources. We would balance Alberta’s budget over six years and would protect the services we need by reducing our dependence on oil and gas royalties and rebuilding the Heritage Fund.

The Alberta Party would work with the City of Red Deer

Municipalities provide the majority of services we use on a daily basis, including water, transit, recreation, fire protection, sewer, policing, roads and parks. Even though municipalities own 60% of all public infrastructure and deliver critical services, they only receive 8 cents of every dollar paid in taxes to all levels of government.

“For too long, municipalities have not been treated as an equal partner with the provincial government. The Alberta Party would enter into a new partnership with the City of Red Deer,” said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

“Under the PCs, municipal governments are reliant on grants from the other orders of government and are only allowed to raise money through the property tax and user fees. The City of Red Deer needs stable and predictable funding,” said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

Our municipalities face some key challenges and the Alberta Party would address them head on.

“The Alberta Party believes we can make Alberta stronger by making our municipalities stronger,” said Alberta Party leader Greg Clark.

The Alberta Party will enter into a new partnership with municipalities. Here are 7 actions the Alberta Party would take to help make the City of Red Deer better a place:

1. Stop Ignoring the Housing Crisis:
fund the construction of quality social housing, including seniors housing

• assist renters and homeowners by following Ontario’s lead and legalize secondary suites throughout the province and reform the building code to make it easier to build safe secondary suites

2. Reduce congestions by investing in Transit

• make investments in bus based transit systems.

• follow the federal government’s lead and create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting transit in our cities.

3. Fund Family and Community Services (FCSS)

• FCSS is a program fund by the Province and municipalities to provide social service programs that are tailored to the local community. Unlike the PCs, the Alberta Party would properly fund it.

4. Provide stable and predictable funding

• The Alberta Party would provide municipalities with stable and predictable funding by allocating a percentage of income tax revenues to fund municipal infrastructure. We would also work with municipalities to determine other stable and predictable revenue streams, such as a hotel room tax.

5. Allow regionalization to fix the revenue imbalance

• The Alberta Party would allow for the creation of more regional municipalities, such as Fort McMurray, so that towns and cities which provide services to the residents of the region can share in the property tax and linear assessment revenue generated in the region.

6. Create City Charters for Calgary and Edmonton

• New legislation would provide Calgary and Edmonton with much more flexibility in structuring their local governments in a manner that makes sense for a big city It would also provide the city with greater authority on matters where the city has significant expertise, such as planning, environmental remediation and housing.

7. Modernize the Municipal Government Act

• Municipalities need to be treated as an equal partner in government in our province. The Alberta Party believes that the Municipal Government Act needs to be reformed to recognize that municipalities are duly elected governments and are accountable to their citizens.

Every Albertan should watch this video before they vote

Take 5 minutes and get informed about the big issues in Alberta's coming election.

The Alberta Party has a better way. Read the Alberta Party Platform.

Alberta Party will restore trust in government

Albertans are disheartened and discouraged by the lack of integrity and honesty from the PCs.

When Jim Prentice became Premier, he made a lot of promises to clean up government, but the PCs continue to abuse the weak ethics laws they wrote.

Here are a couple examples:

• Education Minister Gordon Dirks conduct in during last falls by-election was labelled "Blatant Political Opportunism" by Alberta's Ethics Commissioner.
• The PCs have a secret deal with Kan-Alta Golf Management Ltd. worth 9.3 million to repair a Kananaskis golf course.
• Last week, the PCs were forced to revoke newly introduced rules that were designed to intimidate public servants from participating in politics.

The Alberta Party has a better way.

The Alberta Party will fight to restore trust in our government by advocating for the toughest ethics laws in Canada.

The Alberta Party will:

1. Prohibit public spending announcements during an election. 

2. Prohibit cabinet ministers from using their office for political gain. 

3. Conduct government business in the legislature - not behind closed doors.  

4. Toughen Alberta's campaign finance laws. 

5. Strengthen our democracy by redefining the role of MLAs to better serve constituents and reforming how the Legislature operates.

Red Deer needs Red Deer College

Red Deer College

There are many reasons why investing in post-secondary education is important. Here are just four:

1. We want our children to graduate from our K-12 public education and continue learning as adults. Having post-secondary education available can reduce overall poverty rates in the province while increasing quality of life and standards of living. 

2. Economic diversification is dependent on healthy colleges and universities. 

3. During tough economic times, many people choose to enter or re-enter post-secondary education to grow their skills. 

4. Alberta needs more post-secondary access, not less. Red Deer College is growing to meet our students’ needs, and with proper funding and support, Red Deer College could become a degree-granting institution. 

Alberta already has the lowest post-secondary participation rate in Canada, and now we know that the number of Albertans being turned away from college and university has doubled in the past four years. 15, 000 qualified students are being turned away from Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.

“Having access to high quality and affordable post-secondary education is critical to our economy. Sadly, the devastating cuts that the PCs have made to our trade schools, technical institutes, colleges and universities has made accessing the system more difficult than ever and significantly diminished the quality of education students receive,” said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.

Governments who cut education to save money are like farmers who sell their topsoil to pay the bills. This is why the Alberta Party is calling on the province to cancel planned cuts to post-secondary and instead invest to meet the growing demand. 

“Red Deer College is a wonderful place that is conveniently accessible to Red Deer North. However, if Jim Prentice and the PCs are allowed to continue their cuts to post-secondary education, Red Deer College will become a place for only rich people’s children,” said Alberta Party Red Deer North candidate Krystal Kromm.

“My 30 years of teaching at Red Deer College has made it clear to me how important Red Deer College is to Red Deer and central Alberta. The Alberta Party would restore post-secondary education funding, improve the student loan system and increase grants and bursaries,” said Alberta Party Red Deer South candidate Serge Gingras.

“A vote for the Alberta Party will be a vote for investing in this province’s colleges and universities.”

Reduce the number of MLAs by 30%

The Alberta Legislature is the most ineffective legislature in Canada

Most of the government of Alberta’s business is done behind closed doors in cabinet or in the PC caucus room, far from public scrutiny. The Alberta Legislature also works far less than other Canadian legislatures - only PEI and Nunavut sat for fewer days last year. For example, Alberta MLAs only sat for 42 days last year, compared to 77 for Ontario Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). 

What’s even more astonishing, is that Alberta has significantly more MLAs per capita than many other provinces. So we have a lot more people doing a lot less work.

Learning from Alberta’s big cities and other provinces 

Alberta could learn a lot from other jurisdictions, including the governments of its two largest cities, which have fewer elected representatives governing more people. The table below compares the number of legislators or council members in various jurisdictions. 

Why do city councillors in Calgary and Edmonton represent far more people than the MLAs in those cities?

Councillors in Calgary and Edmonton represent far more people than MLAs in each city. If we applied the same ratio of representatives to our big city councils, Calgary would have 25 councillors, instead of 14, and Edmonton would have 18 councillors, instead of 12.    

Currently, Alberta has 87 MLAs and a population of 4.1 million, which equates to 47,000 people per MLA. Compare this to Ontario, which has 107 MPPs and a population of 12.8 million, which equates to 119,000 people per MPP.  Even British Columbia which, despite having a larger population of 4.7 million individuals, has two fewer MLAs than Alberta.

Fewer MLAs, better government

If Alberta were to reduce the number of MLAs by 30 percent to 61 MLAs, each MLA would represent approximately 67,000 constituents, which would still be well below the number of people represented by elected officials in Ontario, or the city councils in Calgary and Edmonton. 

We believe that having fewer MLAs will lead to better government for the following reasons:

1. Save money.  

Reducing the number of MLAs will save taxpayers nearly $32 million over four years. We would reallocate this money to more urgent priorities, such as healthcare and education. 

2. Make the decision-making process in the Alberta legislature more efficient. 

It is well understood that smaller groups can make decisions faster. With 87 MLAs, its very difficult to allocate sufficient time for each MLA to express their constituents views in the legislature. By reducing the number of MLAs we can expect the quality of the debate to improve.

3. Increase the profile and effectiveness of individual MLAs. 

Currently, there are so many MLAs, it is difficult for constituents to know who their representative is and to keep track of what their representative is doing on their behalf.

4. Increase resources for rural MLAs to provide better service.

A reduction in the number of MLAs means that rural constituencies will will get larger. MLAs with large geographic areas could be provided with additional resources to better serve constituents. For example, these MLAs may be allowed to have multiple offices and extra staff to serve citizens. MLAs could also be equipped with more technology to better connect with citizens.  

We note that rural Federal MPs currently represent far larger geographic areas than Alberta provincial constituencies. Even after the reduction in the number of MLAs, provincial constituencies will be far smaller than Federal electoral districts. 

How would this plan be implemented?

The Alberta Party would appoint an independent boundary commission to establish new constituency boundaries. These new boundaries would take effect for the next general election. The independent commission would also establish a reasonable limit for population variances between constituencies, so that all Albertans are represented fairly.

The Alberta Party has a better way.

Read the backgrounder on this plan >

Read our full platform >

Alberta Party's environmental leadership

Many Albertans are rightfully concerned about our environment. The energy industry in our province is currently emissions-intensive from the electricity we produce, to the fuel we burn, to the hydrocarbons we export.

In Alberta, we have dedicated a considerable amount of time, effort and resources on becoming the world’s second largest exporter and fourth largest producer of natural gas while simultaneously helping Canada become the seventh largest producer of oil.

“While I am fiercely proud of our energy industry and I believe we should continue the responsible development of our natural resources, Alberta has huge, untapped potential as the world transitions to a knowledge-based economy,” said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.

The Alberta Party understands what Saudi Arabia’s second Oil Minister (1962-1986) Sheikh Zaki Yamani meant when he said, “The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

“We know the world is changing, and how we interact with our environment must change so that our children inherit a better planet than what our parents gave us,” said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

“We know that human induced climate change is real. The Alberta Party has strong environmental policies that will help turn this challenge into an opportunity to transition to greener energy technologies that will position our economy for a stronger future,” said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

The Alberta Party envisions Albertans that are empowered to make sustainable choices to reduce the amount of waste they produce and to conserve more energy and water. One of the top 4 priorities in the environmental policy is our climate. Albertans want leaders in energy production and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions management.

The Alberta Party would gradually increase carbon prices to further encourage low-carbon innovation and greener energy while also ensuring an economically robust energy industry.

Appropriate carbon pricing will more accurately reflect the environmental cost of releasing GHG into the environment.

The Alberta Party supports shifts in our electrical generation to renewable sources such as solar and wind. We would encourage an increase in natural gas, distributed generation to feed back into the grid, and cogeneration facilities where more thermal energy would be put to use.

We need to continue to be responsible with our renewable and nonrenewable energy resources and continue to fund green initiatives to better diversify our economy and protect our environment, which will make Alberta into another world leader.

The Alberta Party will diversify our economy

The PCs have failed to diversify Alberta's economy

During the last forty-four years the PCs have been saying that we need to diversify Alberta’s economy. Forty-four years later the PCs are saying exactly the same thing with no real results.

In fact, former PC finance minister Ted Morton recently revealed how Alberta taxpayers are on the hook for $26 Billion for processing payment to build the Northwest Upgrader, a bitumen refinery near Edmonton.

“What began as a low-risk, low-cost project to encourage domestic bitumen upgrading has morphed into a multibillion-dollar boondoggle with high risks for Alberta taxpayers,” said in a paper released by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

The Alberta Party has a better way.

The Alberta Party believes in market-driven economic diversification where entrepreneurs and the free market, not the PCs, decide the future direction of Alberta’s economy. 

 
We will:

• Promote entrepreneurship by gradually phasing out Alberta’s small business tax.

• Invest an additional $100 million in the Alberta Enterprise Fund, an arms-length agency that provides venture capital funds to support Alberta startups.

• Invest in infrastructure that supports our creative industries and protect arts and cultural funding.

• Diversify markets for our agricultural products by working with the federal government to promote them internationally.

• Increase support for the development of new value added agricultural products for local and domestic markets. 

We believe that the government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers. The Northwest Upgrader is just the latest failed PC attempt to diversify the economy. Instead, we believe that the government should establish an environment that supports entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Alberta Party has a better way.

Read our full platform here.

Red Deer's Education Crisis

Red Deer’s School Crisis:

• Here is Red Deer Public School District's letter in regards to the PC's education cuts. 

• Here is Red Deer Catholic School District's letter in regards to the PC's education cuts.

• Red Deer Public has 2.7 million less dollars than in 2014-15.

• Red Deer doesn’t have enough schools -- class sizes are at all time highs and provincial funding is not keeping up with population growth.

• In 2014-15, Red Deer Public school board used funds from its reserves to address the shortfall from government funding in order to sustain services to learners. In 2015-16, school boards won’t have the same flexibility in drawing from reserves and will have to justify the use of reserves to government and only for what government approves. 

• Red Deer schools will have higher class sizes, less support to learners and teachers, higher school fees and more obsolete technology.

• Too many classrooms in Red Deer have 30 or 40 students.

• One year ago, Red Deer schools had 5 RCMP resource officers. Today, they have been cut to one.

• Red Deer Public has 1000 staff for 10,000 students. Red Deer Public has a $100 million budget.

• Red Deer Catholic has 700 staff for 9,000 students. Red Deer Catholic has a $90 million budget.

• Both Red Deer Public and Catholic have similar budget breakdowns: 77% to instruction, 13% to facilities and maintenance, 8% to Transportation, 3% to Administration.

Provincial Education Crisis:

• 19 Growing Alberta School Boards released a joint press release expressing shared concern over how the 2015-1016 budget will have significant effect on student success and the overall education system in Alberta. http://trustees.rockyview.ab.ca/assets/joint-budget-statement

• The new PC budget provides no funding for the 12,000-19,000 new students that are expected to enroll in public education. In fact, it does not provide funding for any of the growth expected over the next three years. This means that school boards will have to stretch every dollar even more every year and serve more students with less money.

• Alberta families paid 142.6 million in school fees in 2012/2013 compared to 46.1 million in 2008-2009. Families will pay more fees for activities, services and supplies as a result of school boards being forced to increase fees to sustain minimum support and services to students and teachers.

• Government is dictating to school boards on how to allocate the budget, taking away any autonomy regarding what is best for students in their own schools and forcing them to make difficult decisions that will affect students and teachers.

• Schools will lose teaching assistants, counsellors, social workers and other support while teachers will have to accommodate larger numbers of students with even more complex needs in their classrooms. 

• Alberta Schools suffer because they do not have sustainable, predictable and sufficient funding.

• Teachers have already agreed to a 3 year pay freeze, now the PCs have announced that teachers pay will be indefinitely frozen until government can balance the budget.

The Alberta Party will:

• fight to build schools, protect our teachers, provide adequate support to learners and reduce class sizes

• reverse the PCs’ cuts to education and guarantee per-student funding to match population growth and inflation.

• invest in new schools to keep pace with Alberta’s population growth.

• phase out school fees

• reduce taxpayer subsidies to private schools that do not serve the public interest.

Serge and Krystal understand:

• Governments who cut education to save money are like farmers who sell their topsoil to pay their bills.

• Education is not an expense -- it’s an investment.

• There is no more fat to cut from the education budgets in Red Deer. The PCs are cutting into bone.

Learn about the Alberta Party’s Better Way:

www.albertaparty.ca

www.krystalkromm.com

www.sergegingras.ca

Join us April 20 for an Education Forum in Red Deer

The Red Deer Public, Red Deer Catholic and Chinook's Edge Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) Locals are hosting an all-candidates social for Red Deer North, Red Deer South and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituencies.

Where: Red Deer Lodge

When: Monday, April 20, 2015. 6pm to 9pm.

Albertans know the importance of education, but we also know that Alberta schools next year will have higher class sizes, less support to learners and teachers, higher school fees and more obsolete technology.

Here are some of Serge, Krystal and the Alberta Party's blog posts on education:

The Alberta Party will not punish teachers and nurses

Alberta cannot afford PC's cuts to schools

Alberta needs a strong public sector

Build schools, protect our teachers and reduce class sizes

Vote May 5

May 5 is Election Day in Alberta.

Get in the know.

Get out to vote.

Krystal Kromm - Red Deer North

Serge Gingras - Red Deer South

Alberta Party

Alberta Party Breaks Fundraising Records

The Alberta Party has broken its fundraising record by raising $162,783 as of April 14, 2015. By contrast, the Alberta Party raised a total of $113, 522 in all of 2014.

These record breaking contributions are a clear sign that Albertans want to see Alberta Party MLAs representing them in the Legislature.

The Alberta Party’s Q1 financial report, scheduled to be released by Elections Alberta today, will show that the Alberta Party raised a total of $137,178 ($104,218 by the party and $32,960 by constituency associations) as at March 31, 2015.

You can donate to Krystal Kromm’s Red Deer North campaign here.

You can donate to Serge Gingras’s Red Deer South campaign here.

You can donate to Greg Clark’s Calgary-Elbow campaign here.

Donations to an individual candidate are limited to $2000 per election (up to $10,000 across all registered candidates for a party). Donations to provincial political parties and candidates in Alberta receive generous tax credits. Your tax credit will be 75% of annual donations for the first $200, plus 50% of annual donations between $200 and $1,100, plus 33 1/3% of annual donations between $1,100 and $2,300, to a maximum credit of $1,000/year. For example, a donation of $200 would qualify for a tax credit of $150.

The Alberta Party will not punish teachers and nurses

Yesterday, Jim Prentice announced in Red Deer that if elected the PCs would freeze public sector pay until the budget is balanced.

The Prentice Plan is clear. Hard-working, ordinary Albertans will be made to pay for decades of PC mismanagement.

The PCs have been in government for 44 years. During that time, the price of oil and natural gas has bounced around like a ping pong ball. During their time in power, the PCs have ignored the volatile nature of natural resource revenues and have made our government more dependent than ever on energy revenue.

“Teachers and nurses were too busy teaching children and caring for our loved ones to mismanage Alberta’s fortunes. The PCs messed this up all by themselves,” said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

“Each and every person working on the front lines of Alberta’s public services has made a fair deal with the government. None more so than teachers, who agreed to a 0% salary increase three years in a row,” said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.

“The Alberta Party would not balance the books on the backs of Alberta’s public sector. The Alberta Party would protect frontline services in health and education by balancing the budget over six years. We aren’t going to get out of this mess by punishing our teachers and nurses,” said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

Read about the Alberta Party’s Economic Recovery Plan.

Alberta cannot afford PC's cuts to schools

Funding for students in Alberta schools have been cut over the last 5 years. In 2011-2012, school boards had $9,411 per student but funding in 2015-2016 is projected to drop to $9,166.

The PC cuts deepen when inflation is factored in. The gap widens from $8,997 in 2011-2012 down to $8,225 in 2015-2016 -- that’s almost $800 less per student.

“PC cuts to education over the years has forced school boards to nickel and dime families with fees. The Alberta Party would reverse the PC cuts to our schools and eliminate school fees,” said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

Student enrolment is projected to increase 19,000 kids this fall. That is 90,000 more kids in classrooms since 2008-2009.

“The PCs are not funding our schools to match the rate of inflation and population growth. Governments that cut education to save money are like farmers who sell their topsoil to pay the bills,” said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

“Our kids’ education shouldn’t depend on the price of oil. The PCs got us into this situation and now they want students to pay for their mistakes,” said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.

The Alberta Party will fight to build schools, protect our teachers and reduce class sizes. Learn about the Alberta Party’s Better Way here.

Check out this powerful video from Support our Students Alberta.

What Education in Alberta looks like today from SOS Alberta on Vimeo.

Alberta needs a strong public sector

Do you care about our public services like health, education, fire and police protection?

Take 5 and a half minutes and watch this video.

Creating and protecting public services require a strong government that represents the people and our values of fairness, empathy, responsibility and equality.

The private marketplace filled with ethical entrepreneurs is an important part of a strong economy. Public education, universal health care, fire and police services are not markets -- they occupy a public, not private, space that is driven not by private profits but by public service.

Some corporations and their political friends want to turn our public goods that are for everyone into private interests that profit an elite and wealthy few.

Here is how they are doing it:

1. Deliberately underfund public services.

2. Taxes for the wealthiest people and corporations are cut in a way that government claims that we spend too much and as a result, we “all” must address the deficit together with higher fees and new health care premiums.

3. Lack of funding erodes the quality, availability and accessibility of services.

4. People get more frustrated and lose confidence in the services.

5. Corporations and their political friends say that privatization is the answer.

In many cases, privatization of public goods has a proven track record of lower quality, less service, higher costs and greater risks to public safety. Too often, privatization means that Albertans pay more and get less.

Privatizing our health, education and services for seniors often changes the bottom line. When a service remains public, people remain the bottom line. When we privatize and corporations take over the delivery of services, there is a shift and the bottom line becomes more focused on profits and less on the needs of people.

Some private-public partnerships may work but they can not only be held accountable to shareholders whose interest is on profits. A transparent government should be truly accountable to all Albertans and provide the best care for our health, education and seniors, without the threat of privatizing our public services.

The Alberta Party understands that Alberta's health and wealth requires a diversified economy, a commitment to the environment, a strong public sector, a balanced budget and a strong social conscience.

Learn about the Alberta Party's Better Way here.

The real job creators are a strong middle class

Jim Prentice and the PCs will increase taxes on ordinary, hard-working Albertans, but will not make corporations pay their fair share.

"The PCs want Albertans to believe that if corporations had to pay their fair share, they would fire hard-working, ordinary Albertans," said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

A strong and healthy economy is not built on tax breaks for an elite and wealthy few. The real job creators are a vast and vibrant middle class whose spending induces businesses to create jobs. 

"Alberta's small business tax is only the fourth lowest in Canada. The Alberta Party would gradually eliminate small business tax," said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

Why do the PCs ignore Peter
 Lougheed's wisdom?

Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed said in 2011, "the decline in natural-gas revenues has been dramatic and the degree to which we are dependent on oil revenues, it is time for us to consider an increase in corporate and personal tax."

The PCs didn’t raise corporate taxes, even though they spent $40,000 on a government survey that showed public support for it.

"The Alberta Party would increase revenues from corporate tax by increasing the tax rate by 1% which will still leave Alberta with the lowest corporate tax rate in Canada," said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.

Learn about the Alberta Party’s Better Way here.

The Alberta Party has a Better Way -- Here it is

This was post was published on the Alberta Party website.

Since the price of oil started its downward spiral last fall, the PCs have been calling the drop in energy revenue “the most serious fiscal circumstance we’ve seen in a generation”. When the Premier was asked who was responsible for this ‘fiscal crisis’ he said that “we all need only look in the mirror”. In other words, it’s all your fault.

It’s not your fault. It’s the PCs.

The PCs have been in government for 44 years. During that time, the price of oil and natural gas has bounced around like a ping pong ball.  During their time in power, the PCs have ignored the volatile nature of natural resource revenues and have made our government more dependent than ever on energy revenue.

Even Alberta Finance acknowledges that natural resource revenue is extremely volatile and produced the following chart to illustrate this point:

Currently, nearly 30% of the government of Alberta’s revenue comes from natural resource royalties, which makes Alberta particularly susceptible to energy fluctuations. See the following chart:

The problem with the flat tax

Back in 2001, the PCs got rid of the progressive tax system used everywhere else in Canada and made us even more dependent on natural resources revenues.

The introduction of the flat tax benefited high income earners who were suddenly paying dramatically lower taxes than they would have paid in any other province. It was the middle income earners who wound up paying more than their fair share. Individuals earning less than $90,000 generally pay more tax in Alberta than they do in British Columbia and Ontario, while those earning over $120,000 pay significantly less. Simply put, the Alberta Advantage missed ordinary income earners.

Alberta was able to afford to have a flat tax because of increasing crude oil prices. But now the price has collapsed, instead of taking responsibility, the PCs have chosen to blame you.

The PC solution: Pay more, get less.

The PCs proposed budget would see average income Albertans paying more taxes (including the new healthcare levy) and more user fees, while front line services get cut. Healthcare, for example, will have an effective cut of nearly $1 billion and education will have an effective cut of $200 million. Make no mistake, this means longer wait times, larger class sizes and the new schools promised by the PCs will have nobody to teach in them.

The Alberta Party has a better way.

The Alberta Party has a better way. We operate from the principle that your kid’s kindergarten class size shouldn’t depend on the price of oil.  Having 30% of our revenues dependent on natural resource prices is far too risky and that portion must be reduced significantly over time.

The Alberta Party will:

Protect frontline services in health and education by balancing the budget over six years.

Alberta should balance the budget over a six year period as opposed to the PC’s three. Alberta has more fiscal capacity than any other government in Canada and can afford to take the time to get this right. That way there would be enough time to find ways to reduce costs while preserving the frontline services your family needs.

Replace the PCs’ proposed new income tax, which continues Alberta’s unfair income tax system, with an effective progressive tax system that’s fair to average families.

We need to bring back fair taxation to Alberta - the PC’s proposed changes, including the new healthcare levy and increased user fees, still leave middle income earners paying a disproportionate share of income tax revenues. That starts with re-introducing a progressive tax system over time.

The Alberta Party would cut taxes for Albertans earning less than $50,000 per year. We would cancel the PCs planned healthcare premium that punishes middle-income earners, and replace the flat tax with a truly progressive income tax:

• 9% below $50,000
• 10% $50,000 to $100,000
• 12% $100,000 to $250,000
• 13% $250,000 and over

We expect this would generate approximately $1.5 billion per year in stable revenues.

Encourage entrepreneurship by gradually eliminating small business taxes.

Many people incorrectly assume Alberta has the lowest small business tax rates in Canada. In fact, we’re in fourth place. The Alberta Party would create the necessary conditions for small businesses to lead market-driven economic diversification in Alberta. We would start by eliminating taxes on the first $50,000 in net earnings and scale up from there over a 10 year period.

Increase revenues from corporate tax by increasing the tax rate by 1%, which will still leave Alberta with the lowest corporate tax rate in Canada.

The PCs didn’t raise corporate taxes, even though the government’s own survey showed public support for it. We would increase the corporate tax rate by 1% which would tie us with British Columbia for the lowest corporate taxes in Canada. This would generate approximately $500 million in stable revenues every year.

Empower front-line staff to find cost savings and reduce administration costs by at least $250 million per year through zero based reviews of all departments.

We need to examine each department from the ground up to determine what they should be doing and how they can do it more cost effectively. More significantly, zero-based reviews help identify what services the government should no longer be providing.

Create a Legislature Budget Officer mandated to review budgets before they are passed to increase transparency and accountability over budgeting.

Independent oversight of the budget process is critical and a Legislature Budget Officer would ensure that Albertans are getting accurate information about how the government is spending our money. We also believe that designated taxes should actually go to the services they are allocated for. For example, the PC’s new healthcare levy doesn’t go directly to healthcare and the education portion of the property tax doesn’t go straight to education. It’s time to stop misleading Albertans.

Rebuild the Heritage Fund.

The Alberta Party would mandate 50% of resource revenues are saved to the Heritage Savings and Trust Fund and that 100% of future surpluses be used to pay down debt until the debt is retired, at which point all future surpluses be put into the Heritage Fund.

These are the crucial first steps in reducing our government’s dependence on oil revenue. We, as a community, will need to start having an honest discussion about the services we want and how to best pay for them.

Red Deer is ready for the Alberta Party

Red Deer, AB - Jim Prentice announced that Alberta will have an election on May 5. This election announcement comes one year before the PCs were supposed to call an election, according to their own fixed election law, and will cost Albertans an estimated $28 million.

“Jim Prentice raised taxes on hard-working Albertans but cut our children’s education and our family’s health care. These tax hikes and cuts in health and education will hurt Red Deer. The Alberta Party has a better way,” said Alberta Party Red Deer North candidate Krystal Kromm.

“For too long, the PC’s have done everything to maintain their own power. Alberta is ready for a government that represents the people. The Alberta Party is the new energy that Red Deer is desperate for,” said Alberta Party Red Deer South candidate Serge Gingras.

Both Serge Gingras and Krystal Kromm’s campaigns are up and running strong with a campaign office located in the heart of Red Deer’s downtown at 4824 Gaetz Avenue.

“Red Deer is ready for new energy. Red Deer is ready for the Alberta Party.”

The Alberta Party is proud to be hosting a Pints and Politics event Wednesday, April 8 at 7pm in Red Deer at Fionn MacCool’s where everyone is invited to talk with both Red Deer candidates Serge Gingras and Krystal Kromm and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark.