Travis Toews, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance. (Government of Alberta)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Bill 10

Province unveils Financial Statutes Amendment Act to build fiscal stability

Mar 9, 2023 | 4:41 PM

The Alberta government is proposing legislative changes aimed at building fiscal stability in the province.

The Financial Statutes Amendment Act, 2023 would implement many of the technical measures introduced in Budget 2023, say provincial officials.

The government says the proposed legislative amendments would implement measures to help build fiscal stability, attract investment, support children and families, cut red tape, improve provincial funding mechanisms, and make life more affordable for students

“Together, all of the measures introduced in this bill would provide fiscal stability, and would ensure business investment continues to be preferential to Alberta. Bill 10 would help secure Alberta’s future by addressing some of the most urgent needs we’ve heard from families, students and municipalities throughout the province,” says Travis Toews, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance.

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Highlights of Bill 10 include:

• Legislating a new fiscal framework to mandate balanced budgets, limit expense increases and set policies for the allocation of surplus cash.
• Enabling the government to keep all of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund’s investment income within the fund.
• Enabling changes to Alberta’s charitable tax credit rate to come into effect for 2023.
• Implementing a two per cent cap on tuition increases.
• Creating a new agri-processing tax credit program.
• Covering dental, drug, vision and other supplemental health benefits for children adopted in Alberta from government care or a licensed adoption agency.
• Boosting the adoption expenses tax credit for Alberta families and helping subsidize adoption costs for some families adopting through licensed adoption agencies.
• Tying future municipal funding levels more closely to provincial revenues.
• Supporting the national implementation of a new delivery model for financial information in the securities regulatory system.
• Creating new revenue opportunities, streamlining policies, and reducing red tape for credit unions.
• Increasing flexibility within Alberta’s horse racing industry.

The government says full details of the legislative amendments contained in the bill are available online.

“The fiscal framework is important to ensure both flexibility and sustainability over the long term,” says Adam Legge, President, Business Council of Alberta. “The proposed guardrails are flexible enough to ensure Albertans can expect reliable and quality public services even during difficult economic times, while also being stringent enough to help the province maintain the ‘smart spending band’ and set Alberta up for fiscal sustainability over the long term. This kind of fiscal discipline will pay dividends if we can stick to it.”

“Charity is a foundational pillar of our province,” adds Dan Williams, MLA for Peace River. “Right now, the charitable sector is supporting those in need across Alberta, and by increasing this tax credit we can help generous Albertans support these charities going forward.”

NDP Finance Critic Shannon Phillips issued the following statement in response to the UCP’s fiscal framework legislation:

“The Alberta Fund is nothing but Danielle Smith’s election campaign slush fund to buy votes.

“The fine print on the fund allows the UCP to spend the projected surplus for their re-election before the bills come due at the end of the fiscal year. This is bad fiscal management and is exactly how you squander a resource boom.

“This doesn’t come as a surprise given the UCP’s fiscal trainwreck in government. They gambled away $1.3 billion on Trumps’ re-election, couldn’t account for $4 billion in COVID spending, and had $1.6 billion in accounting errors in their first year in office.

“The UCP’s fiscal mess doesn’t end there. They plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a provincial police force, gamble away Albertans’ retirement security, and give away $20 billion to their friends to clean up messes they are already obligated to.

“The UCP has already cost Albertans billions of dollars in additional costs in the middle of an affordability crisis and will add more costs if they’re re-elected.

“An Alberta NDP government will be focused on the priorities of Albertans —- not playing games with their money. We will invest in health care and ensure Albertans can get a doctor when they need one, we will make life more affordable, and we will invest in building a resilient jobs economy.”