New Democrats release fiscal plan.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley unveiled her party’s detailed fiscal plan Sunday, pledging to stop Conservative cuts to health care and education while raising taxes on corporations and wealthy Albertans.
The party pledged to balance the budget by 2017 — just as the Conservatives and Wildrose have pledged to do — and to implement a sweeping jobcreation program.
Under the NDP plan, corporate taxes will increase by two per cent, to 12 per cent — slightly higher than B.C. and Ontario, and on par with Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Notley said her party has “heard and respected” the opinions of Albertans: A recent government survey showed 69 per cent believe corporate taxes should go up to help fill the $7 billion hole in the budget left by plunging oil prices.
She rejected suggestions that the two per cent hike will hurt Alberta’s economy.
“Jim Prentice is planning to take a billion dollars out of our health care — that’s going to hurt our economy. He’s planning to starve our schools system — that’s going to hurt our economy. His plan actually includes thousands of job losses built right into it,” Notley said.
“Our plan is the only plan of the three major parties that actually talks about job creation, because we care about that.”
The party’s job creation plan includes a new $89-million Job Creation Tax Credit that provides businesses with a 10-per-cent rebate on wages paid to new hires, to a maximum of $5,000 per new employee.
The NDP would also establish a commission to look for ways to change Alberta’s royalty structure to encourage oil companies to upgrade and refine more bitumen at home, thereby creating more jobs. A 2012 poll showed 81 per cent of Albertans support more upgrading here.
Under the NDP plan, Alberta’s deficit in 2015-16 would be $5.4 billion, roughly $400 million more than under the PC budget tabled last month. The province will bring in an additional $1.4 billion in revenue, and spend $1.8 billion more on services compared to the Tory plan.
Notley rejected suggestions that hers is a tax-and-spend fiscal plan.
“Under our plan, 90 per cent of Albertans will pay less than they would under Jim Prentice’s plan,” she said. “(We are) going to those Albertans who have benefited from our prosperity the most, and asking them to contribute a little bit more of their fair share.”
The tax rate for Albertans earning less than $125,000 a year will stay at the current 10 per cent. Albertans who earn $125,000 to $150,000 annually will pay 12 per cent, and those who earn between $150,000 and $200,000 will pay 13 per cent. Albertans earning $200,000 to $300,000 will pay 14 per cent and those who earn over $300,000 will pay 15 per cent.
The increased income taxes will affect roughly 10 per cent of Albertans, and bring in an additional $1.1 billion in 2015-16.
The NDP will also cancel the Tories’ new health-care levy, which affects all Albertans earning more than $50,000 per year and ranges from $200 to $800 per year.
Notley said the $1.8 billion in additional spending is “simply saying no to the Prentice cuts.
“Much of our spending is simply about reversing the backward, job-killing, community-killing cuts that the Prentice government is promoting,” she said.