So now we all know Alberta’s PC government is going to do things differently in the future – and all it cost us to find out the new direction was $100,000 for a televised address.
For a premier who has repeated numerous times that he doesn’t have a mandate at this point in time, we wonder why the TV talk was necessary, pre-budget.
On the other hand, it was refreshing to see that Prentice now agrees with what the Outlook and others have posed for a looooooooong time – that this province has to step away from the oil and gas industry as the only worthwhile revenue generator within our provincial boundaries.
After decades of Alberta budgets moving through a pendulum swing of surpluses and deficits based on the price of oil, it’s now struck the PC leadership that it’s time to get off the energy revenue roller coaster.
No kidding.
With some semblance of order in a provincial budget, maybe Albertans won’t have to wonder why there’s no money for a cancer centre in Calgary, why taxes continue pouring into education ministry coffers while local school boards continue to struggle with finances, why our middle class always seems to bear the brunt of cuts or increases – as evidenced by the government’s sudden interest in having taxpayers start paying for health care once again.
Hmm … again with Prentice agreeing with the Outlook that axing health care premiums in 2009 and losing a billion health care dollars annually ever since was a bad idea.
On the other hand, after a couple of hundred years of PC government (it seems), Prentice’s version will adopt a 10-year plan to get finances in order.
Imagine that, thinking beyond the next four-year term; how apolitical.
Unfortunately, the $100,000 dropped on a TV address full of warnings to Albertans no doubt also foreshadowed an election call for immediately after the budget is announced today (March 26). There’s no good reason for an election, of course, as we’re already scheduled to have one in 2016.
Anyone who has been nervous about Prentice/PC trial balloons about cutting public sector pay, maybe instituting a provincial sales tax, etc. being floated, will no doubt have their nerves tested soon enough.
Of course, new health care premiums will start small (like income tax in the First World War era) then grow, unlike corporate taxation, which remains untouched. Let’s hope they don’t become a big enough cash cow that future provincial governments feel they can lean heavily on them to balance budgets.
We guess that on the bright side, it could be said that, to a degree, the PC government has seen the light and recognized its own shortcomings when it comes to budgets. What’s the saying, the first step in correcting a problem is admitting you have a problem?
We guess also on the bright side is that it appears that a provincial sales tax, a budget item most Alberta feel separates them from the rest of the country, won’t happen.
Watch for sin taxes to rise (booze, cigarettes), though, along with the re-introduction of health care premiums and, no doubt, some kind of wage or hiring cuts for public service sector workers who have been identified as earning too much – albeit after negotiations with the same government.
Not much rhetoric about there being any kind of Alberta Advantage these days …
