Friday Focus: Time to Face Real Challenges

This week Premier Smith warned that if current oil prices don’t increase, Alberta will run a budget deficit. No surprise–Alberta’s economy has swung up and down with oil prices for at least 50 years. 

Already, the tax cuts promised by the UCP in the last election have vaporized. 

Already, Alberta spends less per student on education than any other province. 

Already, health professionals warn the healthcare system is in crisis.

The budget surplus projected by the UCP was always razor-thin. So thin they left school construction out of the budget to avoid a deficit. The oversight forced the government just a few weeks ago to promise to build more schools. The promised funds aren’t earmarked yet. Clearly, the government is open to funding private school buildings, without any funding to reduce class sizes or hire teachers in public schools.

Alberta could ease the havoc and deprivation caused by the ups and downs of our economy by shifting our taxes. An income tax cut coupled with a modest consumption tax would stabilize Alberta’s tax revenue, giving us reliable funding to make solid, dependable plans for the future. Instead of addressing Alberta’s real challenges, Premier Smith is tilting at windmills, imposing her base’s wishes on Albertans, passing laws that experts say will harm trans youth, amending laws to protect rights already protected, and launching a hopeless new challenge to federal law already ruled constitutional by Canada’s Supreme Court.

The UCP is taking Alberta in the wrong direction. Alberta needs a government that isn’t preoccupied with nonsense. Alberta needs a government that will tackle our challenges, not make hollow promises that evaporate when oil prices tank. 

To keep up the fight, Alberta Liberals need your support to help move Alberta toward a better future.