Alberta’s government is talking about raising taxes after the next election, Wildrose candidate Link Byfield told Barrhead and District Chamber of Commerce.
“It has refused to rule this out, even when pressed,” he said at the chamber’s meeting Feb. 16.
Byfield, a special guest speaker and candidate for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, said there was no good reason for government spending to be growing for the eighth straight year.
“Our Alberta government does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem,” he said. “With all our incredible advantages, we should be adding to savings, not drawing them down.”
“Why are we not? I’ll tell you. Because for many, many years our present government has taken the attitude that it will get reelected no matter how much it wastes or how badly it performs,” he said. “And we as voters and business organizations have let it. We’ve allowed shoddy performance to continue year after year.”
Byfield, who used to run the Alberta Report magazine with his father, said in the 25 years since former premier Peter Lougheed left office, the province has taken in one-quarter trillion dollars in resource income – $263 billion in today’s dollars – and it had spent virtually all of it. Less than one per cent had been added to the Heritage Fund, which in real dollars was worth about half what it was when Lougheed left, he added.
“What kind of performance is that? Actually I can think of a lot of words to describe it, and you probably can too. Competence isn’t one of them,” he said.
“When the government brought down its latest plan to squander our money, we in the Wildrose, as we always do, brought in our own alternative budget. We don’t just oppose, we propose. And if elected to govern, we will implement this alternative budget,” he added.
Byfield said a Wildrose government would freeze public sector wages for one year, starting with politicians. The number of front-line medical staff, teachers and police would also be increased.
Wildrose would also hold Alberta’s rate of spending increase to 2.5 percent, and put some money in the Heritage Fund, which was set up to substitute heritage dollars for royalty dollars as oil and gas ran out.
Byfield said Alberta would soon be in the most important election in living memory.
“After 40 years of the same people in the same party doing the same things, we need a new party and a new government,” he said. “So in this coming election, please consider seriously the constructive alternatives we are proposing for health care, property rights, electricity rates and democratic reform.”
It’s time to open a new chapter in the history of the province, he said.
Byfield, accompanied by his campaign manager Jim Turnbull, was questioned about the Wildrose’s approach to health care.
He said his party in government would set out to remove the layers of bureaucracy that have resulted in inefficiency and long waiting lists. Resources had to be targeted to where they were most needed.
“I would like to see a lot more competition between hospitals,” he said.
