Premier fearmongering with road-toll accusation, UCP says
EDMONTON Premier Rachel Notley accused Opposition leader Jason Kenney of planning to install toll roads if he wins the upcoming election, but the UCP fired back, calling the comments a “desperate attack.”
“The fact of the matter is that (Kenney) told the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce that in some situations it might be appropriate to look at user fees for infrastructure as it relates to roads,” she told reporters Thursday. “That very clearly signals tolls.” Notley raised the issue during a speech at the Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association’s annual conference, where she also touched on pipelines, the fluctuating oil differential and economic diversification.
“I will say ‘No’ every time to tolls,” she said in her speech.
The UCP has never suggested applying tolls to existing public infrastructure, said spokeswoman Christine Myatt.
She called the premier’s comments a “desperate attack” that amounted to fearmongering.
“What Jason spoke about is similar to the policy framework that’s used in most other jurisdictions to meet infrastructure needs, only the NDP is taking an ideological government-only approach to infrastructure,” she said in a statement.
She said if the UCP forms government, tolls for projects, such as a road built to benefit industry, would be on the table.
“Thanks to the fiscal disaster left by an NDP government that has put the province on track for $100 billion in debt, we need to find new and creative approaches for needed industrial infrastructure,” she added.
In her speech, Notley also lauded the province’s energy diversification plan, which included a royalty credit program that spurred projects such as the $3.5-billion Inter Pipeline petrochemical complex in Fort Saskatchewan.
She said the province is in active conversations with 14 companies, nine of which are in the Industrial Heartland region.
Notley told the audience that Albertans will have a “clear choice” at the ballot box to vote for or against economic diversification.
She said Kenney would bring diversification to a “screeching halt.”
Notley has promised an election between March 1 and May 31, keeping the date within the threemonth window outlined in legislation. But she hasn’t said whether the NDP will present a budget before Albertans head to the polls.
Politicians will return to the legislature March 18 for a throne speech. Notley could call an election immediately after the throne speech, cutting the spring session short.