As the province warns of sharpening knives and a tough budget set to come out March 26, local Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw was gearing up to fight at the start of the legislative session that has just gotten underway.
His entire focus, he said, was for the reduced group of Wildrose MLAs to concentrate on holding the government to account.
The PC government has floated the idea of increases to health care premiums, a potential gas tax, so-called sin taxes on items like lottery tickets and liquor, and an increase to the flat tax rate, all of which Saskiw said he would be fighting.
“We’re the only party that’s not talking about raising taxes,” he said, adding the Wildrose believes the fiscal woes of the province that has seen oil prices drop in half can be addressed by cutting “wasteful spending” on items such as corporate subsidies and what he called the “massive middle management” structure in Alberta Health Services.
After projecting a surplus, then a deficit, Alberta is once again expected to end the year in the black, with Finance Minster Robin Campbell forecasting a $465-million surplus for the 2014-15 fiscal year.
“What the third-quarter results really show is how quickly and dramatically things can change,” said Campbell, at a recent press conference.
“I would suggest to you that if the oil prices were to drop considerably over the next month, we could see that very small surplus disappear quite rapidly.”
The government has been acting like Chicken Little, as if the sky is falling, charged Saskiw, and hasn’t even managed to properly forecast its finances.
“It just shows how far off base the government is when they can’t get their own estimates in place.”
Crude oil prices in the first half of 2014 were as high as $108/barrel, sliding down later in the year and hovering at about $51/barrel last week, which was expected to cause a $7 billion shortfall and which has precipitated a round of promised cuts in the upcoming budget.
Prentice has said the March 26 budget will be radical and far-reaching, and that a vote would be necessary to give the government a mandate to implement it.
“He’s claiming we’re in this dire circumstances yet he wants to spend $20 million on an illegal and unnecessary election under election law,” said Saskiw.
The premier last week said Albertans shared responsibility for the fiscal problems the province faced, which raised a firestorm of controversy and angered Albertans.
“In terms of who is responsible we all need only look in the mirror," Prentice said in a CBC radio call-in show last Wednesday. “Collectively, we got into this as Albertans and collectively we're going to get out of it.”
Saskiw said that Prentice should look in the mirror himself, and that the government should accept the responsibility for creating its own fiscal woes.
“It’s absolutely arrogant and astounding that he’s blaming Albertans for the mess that the PCs got us into.”
Area resident Colette Gascon-Zahar was one of the people expressing outrage about the comments, saying that Albertans were not the ones using private planes, relaxing on beaches in Florida or the ones that built a fancy suite for the personal use of former Premier Alison Redford, her child and nanny.
“Please do not blame me and my fellow Albertan friends for the mess the PC's have put us in!” she wrote in a message to Premier Jim Prentice. “That would be like me blaming you and your party for all my credit cards being maxed out and asking you to help me pay them off! Would you do that? Probably not . . . you'd tell me to get my house in order and get financial help. I am recommending you do the same.”
Following the backlash from opposition parties and critics, Prentice clarified his stance in an interview with the Calgary Herald, saying, “I’ve never said Albertans are the problem. I’ve never, ever said that or anything like that. What I’ve said is that Albertans have to be part of the solution.”
“I believe Albertans are up to the task — they’re up to burden-sharing, as I’ve called it, or accepting of individual responsibility as we get through this together.”
