PROSPERITY AND ENERGY

Fuelling Alberta’s Future

Around the world, societies that flourish and prosper have two things in common: competitive taxes and great education systems. The Alberta Liberals will invest 30 per cent of royalties to keep our taxes competitive forever, and we will use part of that endowment to build up some of the finest educational institutions anywhere.

With an Alberta Liberal government, we won’t be left scratching our heads in a few years, wondering whatever happened to Alberta’s prosperity.

Alberta Liberal Action Plan for Prosperity and Energy

• Invest 30 per cent of royalties to build permanent prosperity for Alberta’s future by:
  
  • building the Heritage Fund into a massive, permanent income fund for Alberta, allowing permanently low taxes;
  • eliminating the infrastructure debt by 2014;
  • establishing an uncapped endowment fund for post-secondary education; and
  • creating a $500 million endowment fund for the arts, social sciences and humanities.
• Ensure ethical standards for Heritage Fund investments.
• Unleash “the Western Tiger” by encouraging the building of bitumen upgraders in Alberta and elsewhere in Western Canada, to keep economic benefits on our side of the Canadian border.
• Re-regulate electricity, with a priority on residential, agricultural, and smaller commercial users, to restore access to efficient, reliable electricity, and to save Albertans a lot of money.
• Designate areas experiencing rapid growth as ‘Growth Plan Areas.’ Growth Plans will govern future development decisions in each area.
• Establish the Aboriginal Development Fund to provide no-interest loans for the development of Aboriginal-owned businesses.
• Implement a fiscal and royalty regime designed to:
  
  • provide a competitive and appropriate return to Albertans, the owners of the resources;
  • ensure a thriving Alberta-based energy industry, with a competitive return for the businesses who take the risks;
  • support the long-term sustainability of resource extraction;
  • urgently address environmental issues; and
  • deliver maximum value-added wealth generation in Alberta and Canada, within environmental, economic, and social constraints.
• Total revenue collected in royalties will rise 20 per cent from what would be collected under today’s rules, with a re-balancing toward higher royalties from oilsands and more-manageable royalties from conventional gas.
• Enact the accountability recommendations of the Royalty Review Panel and the Auditor-General to ensure the Department of Energy meets standards.

Click here to download a copy of the Alberta Liberal Action Plan for Prosperity and Energy in .pdf format.