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Alberta Liberals Leader David Khan
policy platform

Liberals would largely eliminate income taxes, bring in HST to generate revenue

Apr 8, 2019 | 4:26 PM

Alberta Liberal Leader David Khan has released his party’s full policy platform for the provincial election.

“We have a plan to improve the lives of all Albertans. Our Alberta Liberal 2019 Policy Platform has strong and sensible solutions,” khan stated. “Together, we will move Alberta forward and move Albertans towards a better life.

The Liberals plan to bring in additional revenue by largely eliminating income taxes and moving to a harmonized sales tax of eight per cent. Doing this, Khan says, would lower Albertan’s tax bills by an average of $800 a year and see 70 per cent of Albertans pay zero income tax.

Also, the Liberals plan to invest $600 million in mental health services, $150 million in home care and assisted living and $100 million in preventative care.

Small quantity drug possession would be decriminalized and the opioid crisis would be declared a public health emergency.

The party plans to address poverty reduction by doubling funding for new affordable housing with an additional $50 million to upgrade existing facilities.

Khan says his party will launch a pilot project to study the implementation of basic income, provide funding to hire 2,000 new teachers and change Alberta’s voting system.

The Liberals plan to focus on getting pipelines like Trans Mountain and Energy East built in order to generate funding for the commitments they have announced.