So much for being in this together
Albertans are enduring a tale of two downturns during COVID-19. There’s the very real downturn full of private-sector pain. Then there’s the experience of government employees who have largely been shielded from the downturn. Over the last year, 76,600 private-sector jobs vanished in Alberta, while 5,600 government jobs were added. Since the beginning of 2015,…
Albertans don’t want a provincial sales tax. That much is clear. What’s not clear is why Premier Jason Kenney won’t absolutely take a PST off the table. More than 60 per cent of Albertans do not want a PST, according to a new poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute. Only three per cent of…
They need to continue to tighten their belts like everyone else
Families and businesses have found ways to save money during the pandemic and downturn. Alberta’s universities and colleges can save some money too. With Alberta steamrolling through the $100-billion debt mark this year and the United Conservatives spending more than the New Democrats, there wasn’t much good for taxpayers in the Alberta government’s 2021 budget.…
The UCP government is spending more than the NDP
Alberta’s Budget 2021 blew the roof off spending restraint, leaving taxpayers with a simple question: businesses and families have found ways to save money during the pandemic and downturn, so why is the Alberta government the only place that can’t find savings? To be fair to Finance Minister Travis Toews, he is finding some savings…
Business Council of Alberta that thinks the government should consider a provincial sales tax and carbon tax
More than 90 big-wig business executives think you don’t pay enough taxes. It’s all laid out in a report released by the Business Council of Alberta that thinks the government should consider a provincial sales tax and carbon tax. The BCA’s website refers to itself as “a group of over 90 chief executives from across…
There’s only one way for Albertans to get a fair deal in Canada: fight for it
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made one thing clear: he’s not going to hand Alberta a fair deal on a silver platter. There’s only one way for Albertans to get a fair deal: fight for it. The next step in our fight for fairness is this year’s equalization referendum. The equalization referendum on Oct. 18…
An Alberta Taxpayer Protection Act, recall legislation, and a fair deal for the province within Canada a good place to start
With the Alberta government steamrolling towards a $100-billion debt tab, things aren’t exactly rainbows and lollipops for taxpayers these days. Fortunately, there are three ways MLAs can help taxpayers get ahead in the upcoming legislative session: increase government accountability, find savings at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid and reignite Alberta’s fight for fairness. It’s…
Albertans need tax hikes like they need a hole in the head
Budget 2021 is right around the corner and there’s two commitments taxpayers expect from Finance Minister Travis Toews: no tax hikes and a plan to balance the budget. Albertans need tax hikes like we need a hole in the head. Alberta lost 73,000 jobs over the last year. Businesses can’t afford higher taxes either. About…
One solution to help struggling businesses and families would be to cut property taxes
By Colin Craig Secondstreet.org and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation In addition to COVID-19, Canada has two major problems we must grapple with: high unemployment and high government spending. While many families are currently struggling with job losses or lost income, there are signs Canada’s economy could face even more challenges. A recent Canadian Federation…
Biden killing Keystone XL wouldn’t have felt like such a blow if Trudeau hadn't killed Northern Gateway and Energy East first
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline is another punch to the gut for Alberta’s economy, but it’s also a good wake up call and provides us with some crucial lessons. The first lesson is straight forward: we need politicians to let businesses build pipelines in Canada. Yanking…
A growing class divide between those who receive a government paycheque and those who pay it
Last year was a surprisingly good year financially for Alberta bureaucrats, unless you were one of the unlucky rubes who doesn’t work for the government. Even though the private sector was shedding jobs by the thousands, many Alberta bureaucrats received pay raises during lockdowns, courtesy of Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer. If that doesn’t seem fair…
The last thing Albertans need right now is a provincial government reaching further into our pockets with higher income taxes. But higher income taxes are exactly what Albertans are getting in 2021, courtesy of Premier Jason Kenney’s sneaky backdoor tax grab known as bracket creep. Bracket creep happens when governments stop indexing tax brackets with…
Albertans have every right to hate the hypocrisy coming from United Conservatives who locked the province down and decided to vacation abroad. The government just plunged Alberta into its second lockdown. Families spent the holidays apart. Businesses shut down and some may never again open their doors. Many workers are taking pay cuts to help…
Trudeau told us he wouldn’t be increasing taxes. He lied
By Aaron Wudrick Federal Director and Franco Terrazzano Alberta Director Canadian Taxpayers Federation Happy New Year taxpayers! Well, maybe not so happy after all. Courtesy of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, you can now expect higher home heating bills and gas prices. The Trudeau government recently rolled out new plans to massively increase the carbon tax…
Our politicians are asking Albertans to make massive sacrifices, but most don’t seem willing to make the same sacrifice. Premier Jason Kenney recently announced that Alberta will be heading into its second lockdown and specifically spoke to those it would hit hardest. “I know how devastating today’s announcement and these measures are for tens of…
It’s time for Alberta’s politicians to start living within taxpayers’ means.
Albertans have many legitimate beefs with their governments. They have municipal employees having pension parties on their dime. They have a federal government that is getting ready to hammer us with its second carbon tax. And they “have the most inefficient provincial government in Canada by a country mile,” to quote Premier Jason Kenney. But…
Finance Minister Travis Toews may hit Albertans with a PST once the pandemic settles
Albertans didn’t elect the United Conservatives so they could have their turn reaching deeper into our pockets and UCP MLAs need to remind Finance Minister Travis Toews of that fact because he keeps flirting with the idea of a provincial sales tax. “The timing is the question here,” said Toews on Nov. 13, referencing a…
Every government-employee paycheque ultimately comes from taxpayers. That seems like an obvious point. But union bosses seem to need a reminder. Surrounded by striking government employees in Alberta Union of Provincial Employees garb, union boss Guy Smith claimed that “only in Alberta do they not give you the resources you need to do the work…
For politicians, spending expands to meet any additional revenue, so a sales tax would only increase spending, not reduce the deficit
Alberta’s finances are a mess. By the end of the year, Alberta will have the largest deficit in the province’s history coupled with a $100-billion debt tab. Almost like clockwork, some academics are recommending a provincial sales tax to pull the government out of its sea of red ink. But the pseudo sales tax solution…
Trudeau needs to go back to drawing board and come up with an environmental plan that doesn’t hammer taxpayers
By Aaron Wudrick and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation Whenever Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to solve a problem, his solution can’t be to hit families and businesses struggling to get by with even more costs. Yet, that’s exactly the approach Trudeau is taking with his second carbon tax. As Postmedia columnist John Ivison reported,…
Alberta’s cities need to first tackle the cost elephant in the room: labour
We hear councillors offer nice platitudes about understanding the hardships Albertans are going through, but actions speak louder than words. And the recent push for new tax powers shows that big city councillors and mayors are divorced from the reality facing Alberta. In June, Red Deer council voted unanimously to back an Edmonton resolution calling…
At the end of August Finance Minister Travis Toews released his budget update, which was 20 pages doused from top to bottom in red ink. Albertans couldn’t afford our high-cost provincial government before the pandemic. And Toews’ budget update shows we definitely can’t afford our high-cost provincial government now. At $24 billion, this year’s deficit…
Here’s one thing Premier Jason Kenney and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can agree on: hiking taxes would be a bad idea. “I cannot imagine a dumber thing to do in the midst of a time of economic fragility, an oil price collapse and a global recession than to add a multi-billion dollar tax on the…
Long gone are the days when Alberta taxpayers could afford to pay a big premium for our top bureaucrats. With labour costs making up more than half of the government’s operating budget, it will be a key area for Premier Jason Kenney to address to balance the books. The first place to begin reining in…
If the feds send the larger equalization rebate to Alberta, then it should be made out to the taxpayers who have been paying the bills
Here’s a fundamental point about equalization: the provincial government doesn’t pay for equalization, taxpayers do. Premier Jason Kenney is calling on the feds to increase the equalization rebate to the Alberta government to offset some of the impacts of the downturn. But any equalization rebate should go back to the Albertans who have been paying…
It’s time for the UCP to drop its newfound interest in picking winners and losers
It’s a sad day for taxpayers when their government that has “committed to being responsible stewards of taxpayers’ hard-earned money” starts bragging about its corporate welfare spending. Premier Jason Kenney should immediately scrap the new business subsidy programs his government just announced and go back to focusing on cutting taxes for everyone rather than picking…
The single biggest day-to-day expense for the Alberta government is labour costs
The single biggest day-to-day expense for the Alberta government is labour costs. And with taxpayers footing the bill, we deserve to know just how much we are paying for all government employees with six-figure salaries. While Alberta’s sunshine list discloses the salaries and benefits of bureaucrats making more than $111,000 per year and employees of…
Alberta’s economy won’t start to fire on all cylinders unless municipal councillors are willing to start playing ball and cut taxes. A key pillar of the province’s economic recovery plan is the reduction of the business tax to eight per cent. Premier Jason Kenney has also made it clear that raising taxes right now would…
Tying income tax relief with savings from bringing government compensation in line with costs in other provinces will help put Alberta back on its feet
For Alberta to get back on its feet, it’ll take thousands of little things like families going out for pizza and restaurants rehiring servers to bring out those pizzas. The best thing Alberta Premier Jason Kenney can do to help those families do those little things is to lighten their tax burdens. And the premier…
Struggling families and businesses can’t afford to pay big property tax bills to fund bloated municipal governments. Alberta municipalities need to reduce that burden by addressing the cost elephant in the room: labour. For many Albertans working outside of government, the last five years have been nothing short of a nightmare full of job losses,…