Finance Minister Travis Toews speaking in Lethbridge about the provincial budget. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Health, education, ag, SCS, protests, and more

Finance Minister talks how provincial budget will impact Lethbridge

Nov 1, 2019 | 5:23 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews was in Lethbridge Friday to talk about the United Conservative Party’s first budget and what this means for Albertans, southern Albertans, and those living in Lethbridge.

For the 2019-2020 fiscal year, he reports that the province will face a deficit of $8.7-billion, but by 2022-2023 at the end of their first term, they look to have a surplus of $600-million.

Toews said in his speech to a packed audience at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge that the government “can’t continue to rob the next generation with an irresponsible deficit”.

“We believe that this budget will really provide a foundation for economic growth and opportunity in the days ahead and, ultimately, even for future generations.”

A large part of the UCP’s plan to balance the budget revolves around cutting corporate taxes, reducing the size of the public sector workforce by 7.7%, giving 20% less money to municipalities, lifting the freeze on post-secondary tuition, and spurring economic growth in industries like oil and gas.

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Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf asked the government earlier this week what their stance is on supervised consumption sites, particularly for the one in Lethbridge. He told LNN that the province is working to finish its review of SCS services.

We asked Toews, “do you, your party, or the government have an official stance on Supervised Consumption Sites, whether it’s something you do support or think it’s maybe something we could use without?”

“We recognize that supervised consumption sites or harm mitigation measures do make an impact, but our focus is going to be on treatment, our focus is going to be about ending that cycle of addiction so these people can move out and experience healthy lives where they can, again, look after themselves and pursue their dreams and opportunities.”

The province put out a media release Friday morning detailing the 25 schools that will either be built or “modernized”, none of which are south of Calgary.

Toews was asked about why communities like Lethbridge will not be getting any funding for school capital projects, or why the budget made no mention of capital projects in general for Lethbridge.

“In terms of Lethbridge and this region specifically, it was good to hear of the capital priorities that are needed in this region, again, relative to those priorities. Obviously, there will be opportunities in future budgets for transportation, for education, to re-evaluate need, and I certainly have great confidence in both of those ministers to make very sound decisions based on that criterion.”

“In terms of education, that would be related to enrollment pressures, that would be related to regions that are simply underserved in terms of their infrastructure and school capacity, so that will be the ongoing criterion as we move forward as we deliver another budget in February. I have great confidence that our education minister is going to, as she works with all of those in the education realm across the province, be able to prioritize well and ensure that we’re building schools, adding capacity where enrollment growth is in fact occurring.”

While the budget goes out of its way to support the oil and gas sectors, one person who spoke at a Q&A with the minister said southern Alberta has little reliance on fossil fuels to spur its economy and instead leans more heavily on sectors like agriculture.

Budget 2019 will cut funding to the agriculture and forestry ministry by $88-million in 2019-2020.

Toews explains that a large portion of that reduction comes from advanced technology and other efficiencies being found that no longer requires the need for as many workers. He also talked about why less government money will be going into research.

“The goal is that research will be moved out of government hands, over time, and lead by industry and producers to ensure that the research that will really move the meter, the research that is the priority of producers and of industry participants is in fact being conducted. It’s that type of research that will truly improve our competitiveness.”

While Toews admits that the provincial budget did require making some challenging choices, he believes it was the only way to ensure that Alberta gets back on track fiscally and eliminates the deficit.

Not everyone, however, was pleased.

The Raging Grannies of Lethbridge protested outside the hotel prior to Toews’ speech and sung about their gripes. You can watch the video below:

Granny Barb says she and many others who endured the “Klein cuts” in the 1990s felt they were “brutal” and harmed education and healthcare.

She is worried that we might be in for a similar situation under Premier Jason Kenney with this budget.

“It’s been an attack on the unions, it’s an attack on vulnerable Albertans, it’s an attack on our health and education system, and all of it was done so that he could give the big corporate friends their $4.7-billion dollar tax break. This, we feel, is patently unfair.”

LNN will have more on the Q&A with Toews next week.