The Alberta government wrapped up a short but eventful spring session last Thursday, passing new legislation to reform democracy, raising corporate taxes, ending the 10 per cent flat tax rate and with new Premier Rachel Notley issuing a historic apology to First Nations on the history of residential schools.
“The House has risen and the first chapter in Alberta’s new story has been written,” said Premier Rachel Notley on June 25, as she reflected on the strides made over the previous two weeks, which saw the government pass an interim supply bill that reversed former cuts to education and health care.
The session also gave the riding’s freshly elected Wildrose MLA David Hanson a taste of working with a majority government.
“It’s pretty tough,” says Hanson. “They claim to have a free vote but it is pretty obvious they don’t. If they were listening to their constituents, they wouldn’t have increased corporate taxes by two per cent – (it’s) pretty bad timing.”
During the session, Bill 1, An Act to Renew Democracy, was passed unanimously, ending corporate and union donations to political parties; however, among a couple of the clauses that the Wildrose sought to amend were clauses allowing these entities to guarantee loans for political parties and to donate their employees’ paid time.
“That amounts to a donation, as far as we’re concerned,” said Hanson, adding that while his party did not disagree with the spirit of the bill to prevent big money from influencing politics, the bill could have gone further in this respect. “We wanted to complete the job, not do half a job.”
Bill 2, An Act to Restore Fairness to Public Revenues, will raise corporate taxes to 12 per cent from 10 per cent, and will also introduce a progressive income tax system for earners over $125,000.
“In line with the very clear position taken by Albertans in the last election, profitable corporations will be contributing their fair share to deal with the fiscal situation we find ourselves in,” said Notley, adding, “Alberta’s experiment with regressive flat taxes was ended and progressive income taxes were restored.”
Personal income tax changes are expected to bring in an extra $800 million to $1 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year, while corporate tax increases will add an extra $350 million to $550 million more in the year.
However, Hanson felt with a royalty review underway this year, a proposed doubling of the carbon levy within two years and the increase to the corporate tax rate, this has created uncertainty for oil and gas industry.
Wildrose finance critic Derek Fildebrandt had put forth an amendment to Bill 2, to reduce the small business tax from the current three per cent to two per cent, which was supported by all the opposition parties, as a means to blunt the impact of the downturn in the economy and the planned increases to minimum wages.
“It would have been nice to throw something positive out there for them,” said Hanson of small businesses.
However, the amendment was rejected by a vote of 46 to 22.
On June 18, the NDP government tabled Bill 3, an interim supply bill to fund day-to-day operations of the government until a full budget is put forward in the fall session.
The bill would reverse the former Progressive Conservative government’s planned cuts to a number of services - $500 million to health care, $103 million to education, $39 to human services and an extra $40 million to post-secondary education, along with introducing a two-year tuition freeze.
The government called the former proposed cuts to health care “reckless” and said the reversal of cuts would bring stability to health care delivery, instead of forcing the cutting of more than 1,500 nurse and health care positions.
School boards and post-secondary institutions welcomed the education funding put forward in Bill 3, after they had been bracing for cuts introduced by the former PC government.
In anticipation of these cuts, Portage College had let go of several faculty and staff members in January to balance its 2015-16 budget.
Now, however, Portage College president and CEO Trent Keough said the college will have about $950,000 more to work with than it expected at the start of the year and can plan to hire more faculty and staff, as well as plan for some infrastructure work to expand its programming.
“I made a commitment to my staff that if we were made whole and we were given back the 1.4 per cent, that we would strategically hire back the 1.4 per cent’s worth… and we’re going to stick to that commitment,” said Keough, adding, however, that the new hires may or may not be for the same positions that were eliminated in January.
Following the introduction of Bill 3, St. Paul Education Regional Division’s board held a budget meeting and approved its 2015-16 budget.
Board chair Heather Starosielski said the budget put forth by the PCs would have necessitated some tough discussions and “drastic cuts,” and thanked the government for stepping up.
“This funding that has been introduced by the new government essentially allows us to have a stable year ahead and allows us to put money where it’s most needed, in the classrooms.”
The press release states overall revenue is expected to increase by $625,000, “a distinct turnaround” from pre-election estimates, and that the $58 million budget should be balanced, based on a projected enrolment of 4,193 students. However, trustees noted that economic factors may affect enrolment numbers, which in turn could affect SPERD’s grants.
Other highlights from SPERD’s budget included class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios remaining better than provincial averages, $1 million allocated to student support and counseling services, capital projects in Two Hills and Ashmont schools going forward, and no increase to transportation fees.
The government also will do away with the health care levy proposed by the PCs, but extra taxes on gas, tobacco and alcohol that were put forth by the previous government will stick around.
While Hanson supported the funding of health care and education, he said there were few details in Bill 3 as to where the extra money is coming from and into what specific areas it would go. “It’s a little frustrating.”
He believes the NDP government will have no problem borrowing money to cover its spending, which goes against his grain.
“I’m a fiscal conservative – I’m totally against raising taxes or borrowing money,” he said.
Notley said more details would be announced when the fall budget is introduced, but stressed the fact she was proud of the accomplishments of the new government in its spring session. “We have followed through on key promises we made to Albertans and we have charted a course for a strong stable majority government to continue this good work.”
