Alberta’s budget is all about creating jobs.
That is what Joe Ceci, Alberta’s minister of finance and Calgary-Fort MLA, told an audience of about 40 people at the Barrhead and District Chamber of Commerce meeting on April 21.
“We named our budget the Alberta Jobs Plan (released on April 14) because that’s exactly what it is,” he said. “It is a plan to support Albertans through this downturn. A plan to create a better business environment and plan to get Albertans working again.”
He said Alberta is currently in the middle of a once-in-a-generation fiscal and economic challenge.
For the first time since the 1980s, Alberta is expected to have two straight years of economic decline.
“To put this in perspective, there has not been such a steep decline in oil prices in recent history. In the last 18 months the price of oil has declined 70 per cent,” Ceci said.
In 2014, the province collected close to $9 billion in revenue from non-renewable resources. Two years later the government is projecting that number at $1.4 billion.
“Albertans recognize that the provincial government does not control the price of oil,” he said. “But what we do control is how we spend it, and that’s where the Alberta Jobs Plan comes in. It is a plan to control spending, support families and put Albertans back to work in a diversified, stronger economy.”
Ceci said the government could have decided to drastically reduce spending, resulting in a greatly reduced public service, cancelled programs and less money for infrastructure, adding similar to what the Progressive Conservative government did under Ralph Klein in the ‘90s.
“Instead we are going to take a different approach. We are investing close to $35 billion in infrastructure to stimulate our economy and putting people back to work,” he said.
In addition, he said, the government has also introduced an investor and capital incentive tax credits program, the purpose of which is to help small-and-medium sized businesses create new opportunities through innovation.
“We are doing all of this while at the same time ensuring our children’s classrooms get smaller and wait times at our hospitals are not increased, protecting our most vulnerable through this tough economic time,” Ceci said.
At the same time, he said, his government has found ways to control overspending by cutting more than $300 million, in nonessential programs last year. In the current fiscal year, Ceci said they’ll continue to find efficiencies and cut another $250 million.
“That is no small task. Since the start of the 2000’s the provincial budget has increased by an average of 4.2 per cent annually. Our budget increases by only two per cent a year over the course of the next three years,” he said, adding that is below population growth and inflation.
Ceci also acknowledged the support the province has received from the federal government, adding it was a good start, but did not go far enough, using the Employment Insurance (EI) as an example.
“Leaving the Edmonton region out of the EI enhancements was a mistake. Year after year hard working Albertans have paid into Employment Insurance, but did not draw on it because of our low unemployment rates,” he said. “The premier has made it very clear that Alberta can’t continue to help out Canada if Canada doesn’t help out Alberta with something like this.”
Other ways the government hopes to encourage job growth is by freezing post-secondary tuitions for two years. The government has also committed $15 million to a fund that encourages apprenticeships and work experience for students to complete their training. Another $10 million is going into a program to help women, Aboriginals and newcomers, get into the job market with secure well paying jobs.
The government is also putting $34.8 billion towards infrastructure over the next five years to build and modernize schools and hospitals. Another $900 million has been put aside for affordable housing projects and $365 million to create 2,000 new long-term care beds. For municipalities, $9 billion has been allocated for infrastructure projects through the MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) grants.
Ceci said the government is working on diversifying Alberta’s economy by supporting innovation and value-added projects.
“Our Climate Leadership Plan is the biggest step any Canadian government has made to act on climate change. A step that is giving us a wordwide reputation of being a responsible oil and energy producer,” he said, adding all of the carbon levy will be rebated to residents, or invested into the economy.
At the same time, Ceci added, the province is working towards securing a ‘yes’ to pipeline projects to both coasts.
“Alberta gets shortchanged because we can only sell to the United States. All Albertans and Canadians should get full value for our resources and pipelines to tidewater is the way to ensure this,” he said. “Alberta has done a lot of the heavy lifting in the nation’s economy and we can’t continue to do that unless the rest of Canada supports us.”
The last pillar of the budget deals with helping small businesses. The province reduced the small business tax rate from three to two per cent.
“In the past governments have decided to cut programs and services in tough economic times. Previous inaction on diversifying our economy has left Alberta’s financial resources vulnerable to swings in commodity prices. We will build upon Alberta’s strengths and support our highly educated, highly skilled and entrepreneurial population to grow and diversify our economy.”
