Critics react to Alberta Budget update
Posted Aug 29, 2013 12:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Derek Fildebrandt, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation tells 660News, with roughly $3-billion in flood cleanup this year and a few more billion in the next fiscal years, the province is at approximately a $7.4-billion deficit this year.
“The finance minister generally considers the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,” says Fildebrandt. “He who must not be named, certainly disagrees with you, but you know if you do the math and you do it honestly, it’s hard to avoid it, we’re going to run a massive deficit this year.”
Fildebrandt adds, the CTF is taking both the capital and operating budgets and calculating the cash shortfalls to arrive at their numbers, whereas the province government is not.
Liberal Leader, Raj Sherman, says the true costs are becoming clear on the government’s failure to prepare for the floods that hit southern Alberta this summer.
Sherman says, the problem began when the Tory government failed to implement prevention recommendations following floods in 2005.
“Not only did they not implement the report, the government did not even request funding from the federal government to pay for protective barriers, to protect Albertans,” says Sherman. “Now, we are seeing possibly another $5-billion in costs, not to mention the negative impacts on the economy and the disruption lives of Albertans.”
Sherman made his comments after Finance Minister, Doug Horner, announced that $148-million has already been spent on flood relief with another $556-million earmarked to be spent in the coming months.
Wildrose Finance Critic, Rob Anderson, is also responding to the province’s first quarter fiscal update.
“Doug Horner is a budget contortionist and a twister champion if he thinks our budget is balanced in this province,” says Anderson.
“We’re in a real quandary here. I mean, we have a situation where oil and gas revenues are at levels that they’ve historically never really been in any sustained way and yet we’re still on pace for a $4-to-5 billion consolidated deficit at the end of the day,” says Anderson.
“All the while the government claiming that they’re running an operational surplus and therefore the budget is balanced.”
