(Government of Alberta)

By Chris Brown / CHAT News Today

Provincial Politics

Eligible Albertans can apply for $100 monthly payments starting January 18

Jan 9, 2023 | 11:13 AM

The provincial government says Albertans will get financial relief this month.

In late November the government announced a $2.8 billion inflation relief package as the rising cost of living stretched budgets to their limits.

Part of the announcement was that seniors with a household income under $180,000 and families with children under whose household incomes are under $180,000 would eligible for $100 monthly payments for six months.

Affordability and Utilities Minister Matt Jones said today that eligible Albertans will be able to apply for their payments after creating a verified account on the government’s website.

“On or after Jan. 18, they can return to alberta.ca/affordable to apply for their affordability payments. Online is the quickest and easiest way to sign up but we will also have other options available for those who need them,” Jones said.

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“Starting Jan. 18, the same day as the portal opens, Albertans will be able to apply in person with any registry agent in the province or through Alberta supports, which has 50 offices across Alberta and and offers services in over 100 languages. Call-in and online support tools will also be available for those who need extra help.”

According to the government’s news release, payments will start to roll out Jan. 31.

The same $600 over six months is also available to those on support programs like AISH, the Persons with Developmental Disabilities and income support

People who fall into those categories do not need to apply and will get their payments automatically starting Jan. 31.

Irfan Sabir, Alberta NDP MLA for Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, made the following statement in response to the update on affordability payments:

“I sincerely hope that the UCP’s portal functions properly and Albertans are able to use it easily but nothing in the UCP’s record suggests that will be the case.

“In fact, the UCP’s history of developing these online tools has been one failure after another. As recently as Saturday, Danielle Smith said she expected this would likely crash on day one.

“Meanwhile, there’s an existing system that we all use to pay our taxes which the UCP could have made use of. Instead, Albertans are paying for the UCP to build a duplicate system that may or may not work. And for many Albertans there are no benefits available through this new portal.

“I was also very disappointed to hear that Minister Jones has no idea what he’s doing to reduce the costs of auto insurance when they have my bill to freeze rates easily at hand and we could have frozen rates in December.

“On all these matters, the UCP is not serious about addressing the affordability crisis they helped create.”

“We already know this flawed affordability program is a band-aid solution. To add insult to injury, it’s being rolled out in a confusing and incompetent way,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Albertans don’t need another new UCP app like the old vaccine record QR code. Many Albertans, including seniors and others don’t have access to the internet or smart phones, and if they do, they want to be able to trust existing processes that are proven to work.”

“It seems the UCP would once again prefer to reinvent the wheel, while other provinces are moving ahead with tried and true systems,” added Lafortune. “I am deeply concerned this experiment will end up looking like Alberta’s failed COVID-19 tracking app or worse.”