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Guest Column: NDP fiscal plan is sinking Alberta

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While the NDP’s whopping $96-billion debt figure leads headlines, this week’s budget confirmed what the vast majority of Albertans already suspected: the NDP’s carbon tax is nothing more than a government cash-grab.

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In his fiscal train wreck of a budget, Finance Minister Joe Ceci confirmed that a re-elected NDP government would implement Justin Trudeau’s desired 67% hike to the carbon tax, increasing it from $30 to $50 per tonne. This, despite the fact the NDP never even mentioned a carbon tax in the 2015 election.

The NDP government has also been forced to admit that this higher carbon tax will not be offset by rebates to Albertans, and that all of the additional revenue will be spent on whatever the government wants, not green programs as the government has advertised.

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Why does the NDP need to increase this punitive tax on consumers?

Because since they came to office, spending has increased by 16%. By 2023, spending will have grown by 35%, faster than inflation or population growth.

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Only the NDP could consider this ‘restraint.’

The results of this fiscal mismanagement are clear. When the NDP came to office, the total liabilities of the Government of Alberta were $13 billion.

But last week’s budget puts us on track for a total debt of at least $96 billion in 2023, an astounding 638% increase.

This year, Alberta will spend nearly $2 billion in debt interest payments, more than the budget of 19 of the 23 provincial government departments. By 2023, debt payments will nearly double to $3.7 billion.

The NDP claims that their high spending is “compassionate” and avoids “deep cuts.” The reality is that their over spending means a growing share of our tax dollars will enrich bankers and bond holders rather than funding public services, a lesson that Canadian governments from left to right had learned through bitter experience in the 1990s.

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The NDP cannot be blamed for the precipitous drop in global commodity prices.

But even as prices have rebounded and similar economies elsewhere have recovered, Alberta’s fiscal situation has deteriorated.

In fact, the NDP’s policies have made a bad situation worse.

The NDP hiked taxes on individuals and businesses, arguing it would bring in more money for government programs. But year after year, revenues have declined as higher taxes and costly regulations have driven away investment and suppressed economic growth.

Some argue that the solution to this fiscal challenge is to raise taxes even further.

But why would we dig deeper into taxpayers’ pockets when Alberta has the most inefficient provincial government in Canada, with by far the highest per capita program spending?

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The numbers are clear: returning the Alberta economy to modest 3% growth, together with a freeze on additional spending, would bring our province’s finances into balance in the next term of government.

Raising taxes would hurt, not help the effort to grow our economy.

Prairie New Democrats like Tommy Douglas and Roy Romanow were fiscally responsible because they understood the perils of being trapped into the downward cycle of higher public debt.

They understood that to govern is to make choices, not to pass the bill for today’s spending to future generations.

Sadly, the Alberta NDP seems not to have learned these lessons, and are imperilling our province’s economic future as a result.

In the next election, the United Conservative Party will present a fully costed plan to reignite our economy, restore investor confidence, and bring our finances back to balance.

Until that election, we will constructively oppose a fiscal plan that is dragging Alberta into a sea of red ink.

— Jason Kenney is United Conservative Leader.

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