Premier Jason Kenney (left) and Shannon Phillips (right). (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

video of legislature exchange

Phillips and Kenney have heated back-and-forth on cost of living in Alberta

Dec 2, 2021 | 1:24 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A heated exchange in the Alberta legislature between the Premier and the NDP’s Finance Critic.

Also the MLA for Lethbridge-West, Shannon Phillips stated that Albertans are struggling to keep up with the ever-rising cost of living in the province.

She asked Finance Minister Travis Toews if he would commit, in his next budget, to stop raising personal income taxes.

Instead, Premier Jason Kenney stood up, joking that, “all of a sudden, Colonel Sanders over there is concerned about the welfare of chickens.”

He said the NDP’s carbon tax was the single-largest tax increase in the province’s history and he found it funny that Phillips was concerned about affordability now.

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The Alberta NDP was in power in 2015, they implemented a series of measures aimed at protecting the environment, which included for the first time in Alberta, a carbon tax that would rise to $30 per tonne by 2018.

Kenney then touted the UCP government’s initiatives to improve the economy.

This week, the province provided its second-quarter fiscal update, which shows the budget deficit being $5.8-billion, about a third of what it was previously projected to be by this time.

In Phillips’ response to the fiscal update, she called it nothing more than luck as at least part of the provincial gains were due to global oil prices rebounding, which is out of the control of any one provincial government.

READ MORE: High-flying oil and gas prices paint a rosier shade of red ink on Alberta budget

READ MORE: NDP finance critic calls province’s jump in oil revenue nothing more than “luck”

One of the initiatives undertaken by the UCP that Kenney spoke about in the legislature was the repeal of the Alberta carbon tax. Phillips, however, pointed out that this did not ultimately accomplish much.

After the provincial carbon tax was done away with, the federal government said it would impose its own carbon tax on Alberta if it did not have one of its own.

Ottawa ruled that carbon taxes are constitutional and Albertans now pay a carbon tax to the federal government, currently priced at $40 per tonne.

READ MORE: Kenney “obviously disappointed” in Supreme Court’s carbon tax decision

Phillips then retorted that “the minister can’t control the cost of beef or tomatoes, but he can the cost of tuition, school fees, car insurance, and the price people pay for electricity as the temperature drops. Everything this government touches results in higher fees, higher taxes, reduced benefits for people with kids, folks on AISH, or those receiving the seniors’ benefit.”

The Finance Critic demanded that the UCP show that they understand what average Albertans are facing.

Kenney replied that it was the original NDP carbon tax that raised the cost of groceries, driving to work, heating homes, and the basic cost of living. He added that the Alberta NDP lined up with the federal government when it imposed its own carbon tax on the province.

You can watch the full exchange between Jason Kenney and Shannon Phillips in the embedded tweet below.