Reaction pours in to Budget 2020

“There is no greater job for our government than getting Alberta back to work. Budget 2020 and A Blueprint for Jobs leverage the natural strengths of our province and support new opportunities for diversification, economic growth and job creation. We are putting a growth and prosperity lens on everything we do to ensure the choices we make as a government support economic growth and jobs for Albertans.”

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NDP Official Opposition Leader Rachel Notley

“Albertans will pay far more and get far less,” said Rachel Notley, Leader of the NDP Official Opposition. “This budget offers no hope to the 50,000 Albertans who have lost their job since this government began on its misguided path, and in fact aims to push more public sector workers into unemployment. It contains no plan to diversify our economy.”

“I am particularly concerned by Jason Kenney attacking seniors’ health through a $72-million cut to the seniors drug benefit program, and his plan to impose income-tested deductibles on them later this year.”

“At the end of the day, this budget fails on every count,” Notley said. “It doesn’t make life better for Albertans, it doesn’t create jobs, it doesn’t resemble fiscal responsibility. And with all that, it rests on a make-believe framework of economic projections that most people know are not true.”

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Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA)

The AUMA says Budget 2020 continues trends from Budget 2019, leaving municipalities to adjust to the downloaded financial burden from the provincial government and impacts to our residents due to the increased education tax requisition.

Through finding efficiencies and balancing budgets, municipalities have minimized impacts and avoided passing along major cutbacks to essential local services. These efforts occurred despite a lack of meaningful consultation by the provincial government about local economic outcomes to cutbacks unveiled in Budget 2019. Fortunately, AUMA’s early analysis indicates that Budget 2020 does not add to that burden.

“AUMA wishes to engage with the provincial government based on our common goal of getting Alberta back to work,” states AUMA President Barry Morishita. “We have heard the commitment from the government that they’re focused on strategic, coordinated investments to stimulate our economy. We hope this results in engaging in collaborative partnerships with municipalities to ensure that responsible investment occurs in our communities, where we can maximize the return on our investments, create jobs and stimulate our economy.”

Another area of great concern to municipalities is the provincial government’s increase to the education tax requisition.

“Despite the provincial government freezing spending in the education sector, it appears they are collecting an additional 4.1 per cent, which is equivalent to about $102 million from taxpayers, Morishita explains. “Let’s call this what it is: a tax increase that’s making life more unaffordable for Albertans, and one that has been downloaded to municipalities to collect as part of municipal property taxes. It’s unacceptable to municipalities, and to our residents. We will take this up with the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance.”

AUMA is pleased to hear of the plan for fixed budget dates, since it will make annual fiscal planning easier for municipalities.

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Alberta Liberal leader David Khan

“At a time when Alberta needs thoughtful leadership, the UCP Government is offering wild projections and short-term thinking,” Khan stated.

“The UCP Government is strapping Albertans in on the resource roller coaster once again. Their budget projections are banking on outdated and overly-optimistic oil and gas revenue projections from last year. Additionally, they are still relying on their corporate tax cuts to create an economic boom that just isn’t coming.

“If Alberta wants to confidently move towards a stable fiscal future, we need to implement the Alberta Liberal’s revenue-neutral sales. Without raising the tax burden on Albertans we can spur growth through tax efficiency and give some much-needed stability to our provincial finances. The UCP needs to stop rolling the dice and do their economic homework.

“This budget is going to hurt Albertans. The new funding formula for classrooms means funding will not keep up with enrollment growth. Changes to physician compensation and the firing of nurses will reduce the quality of care and drive more Albertans into our costly emergency services. This is pennywise and pound-foolish governance.

“While I give some credit to this government for at least trying to address the growing issue of orphaned wells, their solution is backward. The Orphan Well Association does not need loans from the Government. We need to make polluters pay. That is why the Alberta Liberals proposed the creation of a cleanup bond. The UCP needs to stand up for taxpayers and responsible resource companies that are paying their fair share.

“This UCP budget is a house of cards. It is only a matter of time before it topples over and Albertans are left cleaning up the mess.”

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Public Interest Alberta

“The cuts in this budget will negatively impact all Alberta families,” said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “The budget is an attack on Albertans who access health care and seniors’ care, K-12 education, post-secondary education, child care, and supports for our most vulnerable. Across the board, Albertans can expect higher out of pocket costs and lower quality services as this budget does not address inflation or population growth.”

“At a time when our public schools are being cut, it is incredible that Alberta is still spending nearly $300 million per year subsidizing private schools,” said French. “Many other provinces do not provide that funding, and at a time when Alberta’s public school classrooms are being cut, this handout to private schools is particularly egregious. The government should immediately reallocate that funding to public schools.”

“The government is not being honest with Albertans that the biggest difference between the way our province budgets compared to others is that our tax system severely under-performs when it comes to raising revenue,” said French. “If we adopted any other tax system in the country, the minimum amount of additional annual revenue we would raise is $14.4 billion. That would be more than enough to reverse the cuts and allow us to actually make the services we rely on stronger, rather than weaker.”

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Canadian Federation of Independent Business

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) welcomes today’s provincial budget that further builds on the government’s plan to get Alberta’s finances back on track.

“Today’s budget is very much a continuation of the province’s 2019-20 budget that took the first steps to get Alberta’s finances back on track”, said Annie Dormuth, Alberta Provincial Affairs Director. “The government’s focus on job creation and improving the economy is welcomed news to small businesses facing many cost increases and economic uncertainty.”

However, at a time when business owners can least afford it, we are concerned that educational property tax rates are going to continue to increase by 3.1 per cent for 2020-21.

“Thankfully, this government’s first two budgets pass the CFIB’s fiscal fitness test for sustainable spending,” concluded Dormuth.

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Canadian Taxpayers Federation

“Budget 2020 is two steps forward and one huge step back for taxpayers because there’s some much needed spending restraint and the deficit is moving in the right direction, but Premier Jason Kenney is digging deeper into our pockets with higher income taxes and property taxes,” said Franco Terrazzano, Alberta Director for the CTF. “After more than a decade of runaway government spending, Kenney deserves credit for taking air out of the government’s ballooning labour costs, which increased by billions of dollars even when Alberta went through a downturn.”

“There’s still dark debt clouds hanging over the heads of future taxpayers and Alberta needs to go further and faster to get the deficit under control,” said Terrazzano. “Albertans can’t afford to fork over billions of dollars to the bond fund managers on Bay Street just to pay interest on the government’s debt.”

“Premier Kenney promised taxpayers that he would balance the budget without raising taxes, but last year he bent that promise with the bracket creep income tax hike and this year he’s breaking that promise by hiking provincial property taxes,” said Terrazzano. “Overspending by past governments on both sides got us into this mess, but breaking promises and raising taxes won’t help when the province really needs to get spending under control.”

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Jason Schilling, Alberta Teachers Association President

“Ultimately, more students with the same funding means larger class sizes and less supports for learning. Increasingly, teachers are struggling to meet student needs with inadequate support for their work. Teachers cannot fill the gaps any longer.

“This budget further reduces government funding to school boards and downloads more costs onto parents. With the last budget, we had to FOIP to truly understand the totality of the cuts. I’m worried that the most troublesome details of this budget are again being obscured.

“In education, Alberta gets world-leading outcomes at one of the lowest per-pupil costs in Canada. Our excellent system deserves to be better supported.”

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Alberta Chambers of Commerce

“Predictability and stability are incredibly important to the business community, and today’s budget was very positive in that regard,” says ACC President and CEO Ken Kobly. “This budget continues on the path government set out on in October, with an eye to restraining operating costs while supporting private-sector job growth.

“Given current global economic conditions, it’s important to recognize the very real potential for our provincial revenues to be impacted,” says Kobly. “If and when this happens, government will have to be flexible and respond to ensure Alberta workers and Alberta businesses are not negatively affected.”

by rdnewsNOW staff

Reaction pours in to Budget 2020

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