The Alberta Legislature

By Charles Lefebvre

Budget date set

Province to table budget on October 24

Sep 23, 2019 | 10:52 AM

CALGARY, AB — The United Conservative Party will be tabling its first budget next month, several days after the federal election.

Premier Jason Kenney, speaking in Calgary Monday morning following a trade tour in the United States and Canada last week, says his government will be bringing in its budget on October 24, three days after Canadians go to the polls to elect the next federal government.

“That will be our opportunity to present our pathway to balance, to bring balance to Alberta’s finances, as we committed to do,” he said.

During his announcement, Kenney said there would be no reductions in the budget to health care or education in the coming budget. He says the government will be making “targeted investments” in areas of critical importance, citing a recent announcement of 4,000 care beds for addiction treatment and recovery.

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“We will be challenging the broader public sector in Alberta to try to operate at least as efficiently as British Columbia or Ontario,” Kenney said. “We will be challenging our municipalities and school boards and hospital administrators to reduce administrative costs and to get more bang for the taxpayers’ buck.”

The recently-tabled MacKinnon Report, which examined Alberta’s financial situation, will be used to advise the government as they create the budget. The report says Alberta needs to control its spending in order to help manage its finances, and adds if Alberta had a spending pattern similar to British Columbia and Ontario, the province would be running a surplus, and not a deficit.

Kenney says Albertans should not expect cuts similar to those under Premier Ralph Klein when he took office for the first time in 1993.

“While strong leadership is required, and tough decisions do have to be made and we have to stick with them, this is not a replay of 1993, where there were 18 per cent cuts,” said Kenney. “As the MacKinnon Panel said, if we make some difficult decisions now, we can avoid some much, much more challenging decisions down the road. You’ll see in this budget a credible path to balance that does not require spending reductions in the scale of the Klein government.”

Kenney also spoke about his recent trade mission to the United States and eastern Canada to attract investment into Alberta. He says a number of investors he spoke with in New York are concerned about the possible re-election of Justin Trudeau, and says the re-election of Trudeau would likely result in a freeze on investment in the Canadian energy industry.

“They say they’re tired of a federal government that is attacking the sector that we’re asking them to invest in,” he said. “And they need to see our ability to ship energy, not just to the United States, but to global markets to increase the price here, to increase the value proposition of investing.”