Premier plans to balance fiscal responsibility and social issues
Expanding oil markets, helping vulnerable citizens high on list
Premier Alison Redford goes into 2013 with a serious political puzzle to solve.
After a year that included a nail-biting spring campaign and a bruising fall session of the legislature, 2013 held the promise of a return to balanced budgets for Alberta without tapping into savings.
It also looked to be Redford’s chance to focus more intently on the social issues that drew a coalition of voters to the Progressive Conservatives in the spring election — issues she feels passionately about.
But now, with Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner ringing the alarms about the province’s budget and Redford acknowledging the province will have to make tough choices in the months ahead, there are many question marks about what that could mean for the premier’s social agenda.
In her year-end interview with the Journal in mid-December, Redford said she was looking ahead to building the province’s social policies and helping its most vulnerable citizens. For example, there is more work that must be done to reduce Alberta’s domestic violence rate, which Redford said is unacceptably high.
“We have a strong economy. We’re going to make the right fiscal decisions. We’re going to make sure the energy sector can thrive,” Redford said. “But what I heard in the last 18 months from people is that’s always been the case.”
What has been neglected, she said, is conversations about the province’s vulnerable people.
“We’ve never talked about the fact that there are kids in care who need stronger supports, and that we need to make sure we’re putting in place policies with respect to child poverty reduction and supporting single mothers who are trying to learn trades, so that they’re not getting paid less than men in this incredibly hot economy,” Redford said. “Those are the issues that impact social policy and that’s what we’ve already started to do.”
During her interview, Redford acknowledged that Alberta faces financial challenges. The world has changed, she said, though she believes Albertans understand that the global economic crisis has lingered longer than anyone expected.
“And when the world changes, a responsible government talks about how to make sure that we’re still able to meet the goals that Albertans set for us,” Redford said.
She promised people will see a plan that deals with their priorities.
“We are the economic engine of the country, and economic circumstances are dictating that we make some choices,” Redford said. “We’re prepared to make those choices. I think Albertans understand this is what the discussion is going to be about for the next six months.”
In an interview with the Calgary Herald on Dec. 19 after Horner warned reporters about his deepening budget concerns, Redford acknowledged there are hard decisions ahead.
“We’re going to have to do some tough stuff, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions, but we will keep building infrastructure,” she told columnist Don Braid.
Alberta officials say one of the key problems right now is not just the lower-than-predicted price per barrel of oil, but that Alberta’s western Canadian Select Grade oil is selling at record lows below West Texas Intermediate grade, the American benchmark.
That price difference, caused by a U.S. oil glut, has a significant impact on Alberta’s budget, since the province counts on resource royalties for more than one-quarter of its revenue. Today, oilsands royalties are the largest piece of the equation.
Redford also spoke about the need to work with other provinces and the federal government to increase the number of pipelines to get Alberta’s oilsands products to a variety of markets.
“It’s one of the reasons that we have to do the work we’re doing in different jurisdictions to continue to try to open our markets: To be able to sit down with the premier of Quebec and talk about the possibility of pipeline development in Quebec, to be able to share our technical information with respect to economic development and environmental sustainability in a way that we can start to move some of those projects forward, and to keep doing the work with Keystone to make sure that we’re continuing to keep a sense of national consensus with respect to the importance of economic development in the oilsands to the rest of the country,” she said.
Redford said her goal is to meet with other premiers by next summer to discuss energy conservation, infrastructure developments, opening markets and opportunities to create east-west grids for hydroelectricity. It is important to show the rest of the world that Canada is a responsible energy producer and energy exporter, she said.
“Where I want to be on the file in the middle of 2013 is to be able to have a report back to premiers with respect to fairly tangible projects that have been done, or commenced,” Redford said. “I think that’s where we need to be.”