NDP says return to flat tax would benefit the rich
UCP draft policy would cost province $700 million a year, Ceci argues
CALGARY The NDP went on the attack Thursday over the United Conservative Party’s potential endorsement of a return to a flat tax on income in Alberta.
The fledgling party’s draft policy framework, intended to spark debate among members ahead of the party’s founding convention in May, includes a call for a flat 10 per cent tax on income, which was brought in by Ralph Klein’s former Progressive Conservative government before being officially scrapped by the NDP in 2015.
Under the tax brackets brought in by the NDP government, those making less than $126,000 already pay a 10 per cent rate, meaning a move back to the flat tax would translate into a cut only for highincome earners if no other measures were adopted.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci said returning to a flat tax would cost the provincial treasury nearly $700 million annually while primarily benefiting “the one per cent.”
“That’s not a good thing for Alberta,” Ceci said Thursday. “It’s a slam on regular families and it’s a cut to program and services.”
Ceci also took aim at other proposed policies in the framework, such as bolstered funding for private schools and increased privately funded, privately delivered health care to address wait times.
He said the proposals show that a government under UCP Leader Jason Kenney would be “extreme” and out of touch with the needs of ordinary Albertans.
Kenney wasn’t made available for an interview on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, Kenney stressed that members of the UCP — a new party formed to bring together Progressive Conservative and Wildrose members — would have the final say on party policy.
The May convention will be the culmination of a process that will include regional meetings on policy development. Constituency associations or 10 UCP members working together can submit amendments and new policy proposals.
“This is by no means our party’s finalized policy. Some of the proposals might eventually be adopted, while others could be amended or rejected outright,” wrote Kenney, who accused the NDP of “fear mongering.”
“They’ll talk about what a ‘dark and terrible’ place Alberta supposedly was before the NDP came to power ... fearmongering is really all they have left.”
Kenney’s Unite Alberta Twitter account posted defences of the flat tax, which was a signature policy of the Klein government from the time it was brought in, in 2001. The final Tory government under Jim Prentice had itself intended to move away from the flat tax but was defeated by the NDP in the 2015 provincial election before its budget passed.
UCP MLA Ric McIver, a former PC cabinet minister, said he personally backs a return to the flat tax.
“I thought it was a good policy when we had it before,” said the Calgary-Hays MLA.
But he expects there will be UCP members with strong feelings on both sides of the debate.
“I don’t know how to call this one,” said McIver.