TAX CUTS MAY BE ADDED TO ALBERTANS’ WINDFALL
MINORITY PREFERS REBATES
EDMONTON • Albertans may be in for further tax cuts this year as well as receiving $400 prosperity bonus cheques early next year.
Premier Ralph Klein said a tax review will likely go to Cabinet and caucus for consideration by the end of the year.
“I’d like to see lower taxes. I mean, everyone would,” Mr. Klein said.
Oil riches and — according to the Klein government — “strong fiscal management” could result in the tax cuts.
Yesterday, the Alberta government gave details on its plan to make all Albertans — even all babies born in 2005 — $400 richer. The cheques will go out in January, 2006, to people who filed a Canadian tax return in 2004 and were residents of Alberta as of Sept. 1, 2005. Children will be given the money through their primary caregivers.
The rebate program will cost the province $1.3-$1.4-billion of an estimated $4-billion “unbudgeted” provincial surplus.
The cheques are being sent out despite a new poll which showed that only 14% of Albertans believed that the money should be given to individuals.
The Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think-tank, released a survey yesterday that showed 37% of respondents said the best use for Alberta’s surplus would be to improve government programs and services.
A late September poll showed that in Calgary, a 54% majority opposed the bonus cheques, saying the funds should be kept and used for provincial priorities.
In Edmonton, the survey by Ipsos Reid Canada found 48% wanted the money, 48% said the government should keep it and 4% had no opinion or refused to state one. Outside the province’s two biggest cities, 53% supported the rebate.
Meanwhile, Mr. Klein’s office is spending $65,000 on newspaper advertising to persuade Albertans they can accept his government’s $400 prosperity bonus cheques with a clean conscience.
The ads, presented as an open letter from Mr. Klein, say “this rebate is not being provided at the expense of investing in Alberta’s future” because the “onetime” bonus cheques will tap only a minority of the royalty bonanza on depleting natural resources.