Several groups give the budget a thumbs up
Posted Mar 6, 2014 6:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Several groups see some good things in this budget.
Lanny McInnes from the Retail Council of Canada says the budget is bringing good news for consumers.
“Your prices aren’t going up as a result of this budget. The government didn’t increase any taxes, didn’t increase any fees and are investing certainly heavily in the infrastructure that is definitely needed in the province” says McInnes
McInnes says the worry was the government might add a sales tax, but Alberta remains the only province that doesn’t have one.
Calgary Homeless Foundation President Gerrad Oishi says he’s pleased to see $19-million in new funding will be rolled out across the province.
“You know, the thing about the budget roll-out is that it’s a lot like a movie preview, where you just get the highlights, but you really need to see the whole movie to know the story. So that’ll be what we we’ll look for in the next little bit, is to see how that story unfolds,” said Oishi. “But lots of good news in today’s budget I think.”
He adds a new social innovation endowment will also help them make progress in ending homelessness here in the city.
The University of Calgary President says investment in creating new student spaces is appreciated.
Elizabeth Cannon says there was a lot of good news in the budget announcement.
“The announcement of the new social innovation fund, the billion dollars that will be endowed to help fund research and translate that research into new programs in Alberta is also very exciting. And I think the third piece that we’re pleased about is the reinstatement of the ‘Access to the Future Fund’, which is a matching program for community investment.”
A statement from SAIT says the school is pleased with the government’s focus on skills based education, adding to the recent announcement of bill 1, also targeting trades training.
On the other hand, the Calgary Board of Education says the new budget will present challenges.
Board chair Sheila Taylor says they are happy there’s funding for enrolment growth, but they’ll still be struggling to deal with increased costs.
the C-B-E says they are in a “difficult position” as they have limited reserves to tap into, and funds have diminished steadily in the last four years.
