Alberta Budget shows who benefits - and who won't - from UCP decisions

Enjoy the tax cut; you'll need it to pay for everything your taxes used to.

“More money in your pocket” to pay for increased expenses

It’s that time of year again, when the Alberta government shrugs their shoulders and pretends that it’s totally fine we don’t have enough money for public services while eyeing a future oil boom that is already spent on digging us out of our “tax advantage”.

Danielle Smith tasked a reluctant Finance Minister with delivering the good news; a collective $1.2 billion in tax cuts pushing this year’s deficit of $4 billion to $5.2 billion.

And no, the UCP never got around to passing that “balanced budget bill” they were talking about in Budget 2023.

Some of the problem still lies in the fact that Alberta refuses to collect enough revenue to cover its expenses, but sometimes, it’s more about who they’re refusing hold accountable for paying their “fair share”.

The Alberta government will be looking for an additional $239 from property taxes of residents in Calgary and $93 from residents in Edmonton for education this year, and that will increase over the next two years to bring education rates from 29 per cent to 33 per cent of property taxes.

Meanwhile, junior oil and gas companies around the province are still benefitting from the UCP government’s continued “tax holidays” and the Alberta government’s unwillingness to force them to catch up on unpaid property tax. Much of the more than $250 million owing was “cancelled” by 2023, due to insolvencies.

“Does (industry) need to be stimulated on the backs of rural Albertans?” asked association president Paul McLauchlin. “That’s the choice that’s being made.”

Global News, August 2024

A favourite saying from conservative-leaning politicos is “you can’t tax your way to prosperity” but it seems like they’re more than willing to tax Albertans so that some can prosper more than others.

Private benefit, public costs

Take the $49 million the UCP cut to Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), for example. As it happens, that’s the precise amount that the UCP is refusing to look at for a contract that went to a third-party procurement service provider who neither provided the service nor procured the product they were paid for.

Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange want to point fingers at Alberta Health Services staff, but the fact remains that the company who agreed to provide the product failed to do so yet retained the balance of $49.2 million.

In a letter sent from AHS chief financial officer Michael Lam to MHCare on Dec. 20 (2024)… he said the company had been holding $49.2 million of government money for “well over a year” and demanded to know whether MHCare was taking steps to additionally import intravenous acetaminophen.

He said a supply agreement signed in July, 2023 (along with an additional payment of $28 million, added to the $21.2 million also being held that was prepaid in December 2022), required MHCare to initiate the process with Health Canada… and keep AHS informed of its progress, including when the first shipment would arrive.

Health Canada said in a statement to The Globe (during the week of February 11) that the agency had not received any proposals from the Alberta government, MHCare, or (the Turkish supplier) to import intravenous acetaminophen to the province.

Globe and Mail, February 20, 2025

Within days of AHS directly questioning MHCare Medical about the contract, the Ministry of Health demanded a “wind down” of the investigation.

After AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous allegedly updated the Health Ministry that they were meeting with the Auditor General to discuss concerns of fraud (65.), the Deputy Minister allegedly emailed those involved and told them to cancel the meeting (65.), firing Ms. Mentzelopolous two days later, and the Board three weeks after that.

Additional contracts for privately delivered and publicly funded services involving the owner of MHCare, Sam Mraiche, were also under review by AHS as their initial bids were uncompetitive, and far overpriced in comparison to other contracts for similar services, yet still managed to receive approval before Ms. Mentzelopolous took the position in late 2023.

In response, the Minister of Health initiated a Ministerial Order to remove approval authority from AHS under Ms. Mentzelopolous’ purview.

Ms. Mentzelopolous alleged that after meeting with some of the owners of the company, Alberta Surgical Group, she was concerned about their request for additional funds, $3.5 million over contract (22.).

The Health Ministry, after taking over approval authority in October, provided ASG with an additional $15,848,569.

In August, AHS “leadership” denied a $240,000 proposal to restart surgeries at the Royal Alexandra Hospital saying any resolution must be “revenue neutral”.

There’s a lot of money flying out the door in health, and since the Premier and the Ministry of Health cancelled all investigations within their authority, we will be waiting even longer for them to start new ones — but they have assured Albertans they’re looking for that “third party” who will do it just right.

Ms. Mentzelopolous is suing Alberta Health Services, and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange for wrongful dismissal. The allegations have not yet been tested in court as the Health Minister dithers on filing a statement of defence.

An Alberta Advantage for some

While a few people still benefit from not having to pay taxes, and charging double or triple AHS rates, or just walking away with millions and providing neither service nor product, the rest of us are being asked to pick up the tab at home.

And it doesn’t stop with increased property taxes.

Other increases in this year’s budget include land title transfers, and registry fees, ensuring the additional costs to home ownership pads the government’s low tax paradise, while also eating away at that shiny new tax cut that adds more to debt-servicing costs since we didn’t have the fiscal runway to do it.

Unless you were able to ride high on oil and gas when it was good and walk away from property taxes and clean up costs, or scam the UCP for contracting and procurement, or flip property for a profit of $100,000 per month that government was looking at purchasing anyway, you’re paying for it.

We all are.

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