Prentice addresses public spending, tuition cap, and selling planes
Posted Feb 26, 2015 4:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Cultural change.
That’s the term Alberta Premier Jim Prentice used to describe the direction the province has to go in as the government navigates through a rocky fiscal future.
With the province facing a $7 billion deficit next year, Prentice said it’s critical not to be a province so dependent on oil prices and OPEC meetings to determine how the government spends.
He focused mainly on public sector salaries having to be reduced, noting they are the government’s single biggest expense.
He told reporters nothing can be done about the $2.6 billion of built-in wage increases over the next three years with current contracts, but discussions have to happen with all unions ahead of future negotiations.
“All of this is on the table for discussion, we’re trying to do it in a measured way and in a respectful way,” he said. “The objective is to get the cost of public services in our province down to something that reflects national averages.”
“It’s going to involve discussions with all of the public sector unions, I hope that they will come to the table in a spirit of accepting that there has to be some burden sharing, we don’t want to see job losses, but we have to come up with creative ways to contain costs.”
Prentice also addressed post-secondary education ahead of a meeting Friday with the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary and he was asked if he is considering raising the current cap on post-secondary tuition.
“Certainly we are looking at all of the options,” he said. “We need excellence, we need to ensure that we have a stable revenue base that’s sustainable and that provides excellence in terms of our post-secondary education, so we’ll search for solutions in the same way that we’re talking with all other public sector service providers.”
Prentice also reiterated he isn’t considering cutting corporate taxes because other provinces are catching up when it comes to attractive rates.
“Frankly at this point, Alberta has a very small competitive advantage over British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario which are the provinces with which we compete and so I don’t think that’s the best way forward because I think it’ll result in job losses and I don’t think that’s the answer for Alberta,” he said.
As for saving money, Prentice announced three of the government’s fleet of four airplanes have been sold to North Dakota’s Fargo Jet Centre Inc., for a total of $6.1 million.
He pledged to get the planes sold back in September, adding the profit was actually higher than expected.
He explained the fourth didn’t sell because there wasn’t a compliant bid.
“We’re confident that we will still be able to sell that plane,” he said, adding he has no plans to replace them. “We’re able to access charters, but that’s done sparingly, I think I’ve been on four or five charters since I became the premier, I don’t think that justifies owning a fleet of airplanes. I think our ministers are getting out and around the province and we’re doing just fine.”
Meanwhile, the official opposition is calling for an end to corporate welfare as Wildrose Leader Heather Forsyth said ending subsidies for large companies is a much better alternative to the PC plan.
“In order to keep taxes low, to grow the economy and ensure we can deal with looming fiscal crunch, we believe it’s as important as ever for the era of corporate welfare to come to a crashing halt,” she said, claiming the government is slotted to spend near $1 billion in corporate welfare payments in the next year alone.
