Editors note: The Airdrie City View asked all the provincial candidates in Airdrie the same two questions to uncover what candidates will do for residents. Please note, some answers have been edited for length.
This week we took a provincial look and asked: How would you address Alberta’s dependency on oil revenues?
Progressive Conservative candidate Peter Brown: We are blessed with the wealth the energy industry brings, but even small price changes create drastic budget swings. We all know people who are impacted by these changes. Municipalities, school divisions and health care planners all rely on consistent funding for long-term planning. We can and will shift out of the cycle. We need to work with business to find new ways to help them grow so that our budgets and economy are less vulnerable to changing commodity prices.
Alberta Party candidate Jeremy Klug: To truly get diversity in our economy we need to commit resources to people. The Alberta Party recognizes that Alberta’s cultural and artistic communities are the best way to diversify the economy immediately. Helping the creative industries in cities and other communities will improve our quality of life and provide more jobs. We will also help entrepreneurs with new start-ups that grow our economy through innovation. We will look to gradually phase out small business taxes over time. Finally we recognize that oil is not our only exportable resource, we will open new markets for agricultural products.
New Democratic Party candidate Chris Noble: The NDP wants to have an independent commission that evaluates yearly the revenues being brought in. We need to be on par with the rest of the developed nations on what the royalties are. I don’t think we need to be looking at Alberta as the cheapest place to get oil and the cheapest place to do business, we’re a great place to do business and if we’re just looking to be the cheapest all the time we’re going to suffer. If we can afford to be great and the best, we can afford to be setting money aside, we can afford to be investing in other energy sources and other sectors. The greatest asset in this province isn’t our oil, it’s our people.
Wildrose Party candidate Angela Pitt: Alberta has a diverse economy. Alberta beef, farming, tourism and small businesses in Alberta are not to be forgotten. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Our dependency on oil revenues inspired the Heritage Fund to be available for an economic downturn. The Wildrose will invest 50 per cent of budget surpluses into the neglected Heritage Fund and leave interest to compound, growing it to $200 billion in 20 years. We will aggressively negotiate a fairer equalization program in order to keep more of the billions of Albertans tax dollars that are now funding the priorities of other provinces. We will balance the budget by 2017 without raising taxes or cutting front-line services.
Independent candidate Jeff Willerton: How do we end our reliance on oil revenues? There are two ways: raise taxes or reduce expenditures. As we have the fattest, most expensive per capita government in Canada, obviously there are savings to be found, but how did we get to this point? Simply put… oil revenues. When government coffers were overflowing with the same, union bosses lined up with their hands out to get the biggest piece of the pie they could negotiate. So to end our reliance on oil, we need to first reduce expenditures by downsizing government itself, and then renegotiate those overly generous contracts.
