Budget 2014-2015 should focus on investment, infrastructure: analysts
Posted Mar 6, 2014 8:08 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The calculating is over and now it’s time to deliver.
The Alberta government will announce the 2015 budget Thursday afternoon at the legislature.
Critics are focusing on the $17 billion the province is racking up by 2016 to pay for infrastructure, but Finance Minister Doug Horner calls that misleading.
“We are the only jurisdiction with no net debt, we’re the only jurisdiction that has net assets of over $40-billion, that’s something Albertans should be very proud of,” Horner said Wednesday.
It’s expected that the operational side of the budget will be back in surplus due to higher oil revenues, but Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith says even if the bottom line is better this year, the Tories have already guaranteed future Albertans will be saddled with red ink.
“If they were keeping their eye on the future of the province, the wouldn’t be racking up debt, by the time we go back into the next election, they’ll have $17 billion worth of debt, they’ll be racking up $600 million a year in interest charges and they have no plan to pay it back,” Smith said.
Many analysts are curious to see what the government will do with that surplus and Michael Holden, senior economist with the Canada West Foundation said there’s been early suggestions this budget will be about investing in our future.
“We will want to see what that means exactly, what they have planned for investing in the future and whether or not, we think that they’re investing in the right kind of things,” he said, adding infrastructure will be another key item especially with an increasing population.
“We had 3.5 per cent population growth I believe, was the number in 2013, and that was about three times the national average rate, it costs money to provide services in infrastructure for all of these new Albertans and that’s a challenge that the province is going to have to face,” Holden said.
Holden also points to references to education reform made in the Throne speech and he’s looking forward to what those details are.
On the business side, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce Director of Policy, Research and Government Relations, Justin Smith, said there is hope for a level of stability in terms of the revenue raises and expenditure levels, giving businesses confidence that tax rates aren’t going to spike or and programs won’t be underfunded.
“I think it will be important for the government to stick to the principles that they laid out in the Fiscal Management Act last year and reinvest that money in the contingency fund to ward off future revenue shortfalls,” he said, adding members of the Calgary business community have been disappointed with past Redford budgets.
But he said something very attractive would be lowering the small business tax.
“Currently, we’re sitting at three per cent, while our neighbour to the west, B.C. is at 2.5 per cent and our neighbours to the east and Saskatchewan have a small business tax rate of two per cent,” he said.
The Alberta government will announce the 2015 budget Thursday afternoon at the legislature.
Critics are focusing on the $17 billion the province is racking up by 2016 to pay for infrastructure, but Finance Minister Doug Horner calls that misleading.
“We are the only jurisdiction with no net debt, we’re the only jurisdiction that has net assets of over $40 billion, that’s something Albertans should be very proud of,” Horner said Wednesday.
It’s expected that the operational side of the budget will be back in surplus due to higher oil revenues, but Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith says even if the bottom line is better this year, the Tories have already guaranteed future Albertans will be saddled with red ink.
“If they were keeping their eye on the future of the province, the wouldn’t be racking up debt, by the time we go back into the next election, they’ll have $17 billion worth of debt, they’ll be racking up $600 million a year in interest charges and they have no plan to pay it back,” Smith said.
Many analysts are curious to see what the government will do with that surplus and Michael Holden, senior economist with the Canada West Foundation said there’s been early suggestions this budget will be about investing in our future.
“We will want to see what that means exactly, what they have planned for investing in the future and whether or not, we think that they’re investing in the right kind of things,” he said, adding infrastructure will be another key item especially with an increasing population.
“We had 3.5 per cent population growth I believe, was the number in 2013, and that was about three times the national average rate, it costs money to provide services in infrastructure for all of these new Albertans and that’s a challenge that the province is going to have to face,” Holden said.
Holden also points to references to education reform made in the Throne speech and he’s looking forward to what those details are.
On the business side, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce Director of Policy, Research and Government Relations, Justin Smith, said there is hope for a level of stability in terms of the revenue raises and expenditure levels, giving businesses confidence that tax rates aren’t going to spike or and programs won’t be underfunded.
“I think it will be important for the government to stick to the principles that they laid out in the Fiscal Management Act last year and reinvest that money in the contingency fund to ward off future revenue shortfalls,” he said, adding members of the Calgary business community have been disappointed with past Redford budgets.
But he said something very attractive would be lowering the small business tax.
“Currently, we’re sitting at three per cent, while our neighbour to the west, B.C. is at 2.5 per cent and our neighbours to the east and Saskatchewan have a small business tax rate of two per cent,” he said.
