Conservative MPs suggest Alberta needs a tax break from Ottawa

CALGARY Alberta needs help from the federal government even if economic growth is expected to return in 2017, say the province’s Conservative MPs.

At events in Calgary and Edmonton Monday, the Conservative Opposition released the final report of its Alberta Jobs Task Force, an effort spurred by the province’s last two years of recession.

Its top recommendation is eliminating the Liberal government’s planned carbon tax, reviewing corporate tax rates and lowering the small business rate to nine per cent and reversing the mandatory increase to CPP contributions.

While Ottawa’s carbon pricing plan doesn’t come into effect until 2018, the provincial NDP government’s carbon levy came into effect on Jan. 1 of this year.

“Adding taxation burden at a time of economic fragility is something that is a recipe for economic disaster,” Calgary-Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel told reporters.

“A carbon tax right now, all it does is add a burden on everyday families, on businesses and it does become a determinant on

Adding taxation burden at a time of economic fragility is something that is a recipe for economic disaster.

investment.”

The MPs said the call to scrap the forthcoming federal carbon tax was a consensus choice found during consultations with more than 100,000 Albertans on the province’s economic crisis.

Alberta’s economy has been slammed for the last two years by low oil prices, a situation the Conservatives allege has been made worse by the federal Liberal and provincial NDP policies.

A report from the Conference Board of Canada last week projected though that Alberta will lead the country in economic growth in 2017, with a 2.8 per cent boost to GDP.

“Those numbers are great, those stats are great, but that is certainly not what we’re feeling on the ground,” said Foothills MP John Barlow.

“You can have these studies and these projections. What we’re hearing on the ground is more than 100,000 Albertans out of work for more than 18 months. They don’t see that changing.”

Alberta’s unemployment rate in January sat at 8.8 per cent, compared to 4.6 per cent at the start of 2015. The national unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent.

Other recommendations in the report called for Ottawa to support all National Energy Board decisions, including the approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline that was killed by the federal cabinet as it gave the go-ahead to two other pipeline projects.

It also called for further reforms to Employment Insurance, additional support for food banks and job training programs, and the reduction of the regulatory burden on businesses.