Hey, Big Spender
"Budget" week has come and gone; along with the pretense of fiscal responsibility.
This week in AB
A couple of years ago, I was amazed to discover that elected officials for the City of Vancouver and the province of B.C. worked towards a long-term goal created by people other than themselves.
I realize that municipal politics are very different from provincial or federal politics but I still found it impressive that Vancouver City Council and the provincial government created a thirty-year plan for public transportation that every subsequent group of elected officials respected.
Sure, it could be their proximity to the voters, or even that people who care about the future of their city and province manage to get elected more often than those who are looking for a quick pay day, but to me — watching my elected officials in Alberta going for broke way more regularly than working together — it was both surreal and special.
Now that I’ve made you all feel warm and cozy, let’s return to the bitter cold reality that is Alberta politics, shall we?
Mr. Speaker, had we, from day one, invested the earnings back into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, without any additional deposits other than what we have made to date, instead of the $18 billion we have in the fund today, the fund would be approaching $300 billion. A fund of this size would earn Albertans close to $20 billion a year in investment income, and while we all wish we started reinvestment earlier, the best day to start is today. And speaking of today, to make up for lost time, we will immediately invest an additional $2 billion into the Heritage Fund from the surplus of the last two years. ~ Alberta Budget, Feb.28, 2023
$2 billion is a lot of money, to be sure, but can you really start talking about how investing all of the province’s resource revenue would have given Alberta a nest egg of $300 billion and follow it up by saying you’re only investing 11 per cent of this year’s resource royalty revenue ($18 billion) as if it’s some sort of noble effort?
Especially considering that Toews stood in the Legislature less than six months ago and said Alberta was “on track” to have a surplus of $12 billion.
To be fair, this is an election budget and Danielle Smith knows that Alberta is full of progressive conservatives who don’t want to actually be tested on their claim of conservative allegiance against someone who Smith herself called the “inheritor of the Lougheed tradition”.
Notley is, without question, the inheritor of the Lougheed tradition. That’s not to say he was a full on socialist, but Notley isn’t either. Danielle Smith ~ 2019
Smith also offered Jason Kenney a well-known PC legacy in former Premier Ralph Klein — who Kenney desperately tried to style himself after — the slash-and-burn Klein who paid off Alberta’s debt with a combination of high resource royalties and higher taxes that is (but Albertans have an extremely selective memory about that last part).
If we have to compare potential future premiers with former, though, Smith is obviously seeking to complete the Klein tradition by being the big spender, too.
At least until after the election.
Budgets are not written in stone; they are wish lists. They purport priorities but reality can set in at any time and nothing is certain until the money is actually spent.
There was money that wasn’t spent, though
Women in need need not apply, basically.
Just like all government-funded safety nets, you don’t know you need it until you do. Funding safety nets protects everyone; ask a tradesman who was injured in his prime working years and has to rely on Assured Income for Severely Handicapped (AISH) disability funding. Ask a woman who was a stay-at-home parent for fifteen years and doesn’t even have her own bank account.
Social safety nets are like insurance — you hope you never need it but you pay into it every year just in case.
Fund your worst case scenario for every person who hoped they wouldn’t need it.
That’s what she said…
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day”, the saying goes, and Smith nailed this during the leadership race.
Yes, as jaded as I am, I still get somewhat excited when I hear wannabe politicians making sense.
When Smith acknowledged the fact that Albertans are not paying the bills, I was beguiled by the possibility that someone would be willing to think about Alberta’s future.
No one wants to pay more but we all, in the rest of our lives, have to pay the costs, no? Yet, somehow, that fantasy of getting out of our obligations scot-free remains Alberta Strong.
Oil and gas is Alberta’s golden goose.
Technically, it’s a golden goose for oil and gas producers without much (if any) consideration for Albertans, but that’s another story.
Trudeau was the first to start handing out cash for unmet oil and gas liabilities in 2020. Smith has decided that policy is worth duplicating with a promise to her former employer — Alberta Enterprise Group — that will now be implemented under her leadership as Alberta’s oil and gas lobbyist premier.
Remediation obligations for Alberta’s oil and gas sector have been estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, if anyone is wondering why oil and gas companies are doing their best to GTFO of this province.
Final thoughts