Notley on fiscal reality: challenges are a bit bigger
Posted May 27, 2015 3:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Alberta’s premier says the province’s fiscal reality is a bit bleaker than what was portrayed during the election.
Rachel Notley took questions during a break from her first cabinet meetings in Calgary Wednesday afternoon, mostly on health care issues such as the future of the Calgary Cancer Centre and overcapacity issues at Alberta hospitals.
She repeated that she’s still getting briefed on many projects and issues and the public can expect announcements in the coming days and weeks, but she did give some insight on the state of the economy.
“There is no question that as we get briefed, we are starting to find that the challenges are a bit bigger than what may have been featured in the Prentice government’s campaign,” she said. “Our plan was built off of their plan and so we’re now looking at the fact that maybe their plan was not as fulsome as Albertans might’ve expected from a government that was talking to them about their budget.”
“You will probably over time here from us, gee we’ve got some new information now that we are behind the curtain and we’re going to have to adjust accordingly.”
The premier also said she won’t rush into any decisions.
“We are the ones that are in charge, but I also think that it’s not unreasonable to expect that anybody who is new on the job take a bit of time to become well-informed, rushed decisions can be bad decisions,” she said.
An education announcement is expected Thursday.
