Local officials expect the NDP to stay the course with budget
The government’s budget to be tabled Thursday is likely to be about sticking to the course with little change to the deficit, suggest local political leaders.
“I think people are expecting and hoping for some stability, predictability and reliability. Stay the course I think best captures it,” said Medicine Hat NDP MLA Bob Wanner.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci has indicated Alberta is probably looking at a deficit of around $10 billion.
“I think we are going to live with it ... for the foreseeable future,” said Jim Groom, political science instructor Medicine Hat College. “I don’t see them making any great strides to make a change with the deficit ... almost the opposite.”
The interest this year will be $1 billion and $2 billion in just two years, says Drew Barnes, Wildrose MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat “We are going to hear that the combined deficit will be $18 billion. It will be the biggest per-capita deficit in Canadian history,” said Barnes.
Interest on debt is something that we all need to be concerned about but “business decisions are usually best made when you have predictability and reliability and you know borrowing costs and adjust accordingly,” said Wanner.
“They’ve got the song sheet in front of them that they’re going to have a deficit,” said Groom. “Just a little bit like the Liberals said in the federal election.”
In 2015, the Liberal Party ran on an election platform of promised deficits of up to $10 billion a year for three years.
Last week, Premier Brad Wall hinted that the upcoming Saskatchewan budget will be looking at a $1.2 billion deficit. Wall talked of cutting public sector salaries by 3.5 per cent including MLA compensation. Saskatchewan MLAs receive about $96,000 a year.
In Alberta, the basic remuneration for an MLA is $127,296. Additional amounts are paid for portfolios such as ministers and the Speaker, who gets about $63.648 extra. There are also benefits and allowances. In the past, MLAs have received $221,000, and a former minister $308,000.
Don’t expect government to address the deficit on the back of its supporters, who are not those of the Wildrose party who want a balanced budget, said Groom. The government’s recent announcement on cutting remuneration for management of boards and agencies may not have added up to a huge amount but the symbolism was important.
Groom suggests the government is already planning for the next election and the recent reduction in school fees was part of that.
There has been general agreement in the legislature that reducing school fees is a good direction that the government has taken, said Wanner.
Contrary to expectations, the price of oil is $45 a barrel rather than the projected $61 a barrel, and that continues to make for challenging times in Alberta, said Groom.
“Those oil industry jobs were good paying jobs and to replace them with service industry type of positions is just not as viable,” said Groom.
The government is likely to use the budget as an opportunity to brag about approval for pipelines — long-term projects that will provide jobs, said Groom.
“Until somebody is getting a paycheque and working on the line and the oil flows it is pretty hard to keep saying to people look what we did,” said Groom.