Alberta’s Alternative Budget: What is the Official Opposition NDP Proposing? (Part 2 Q&A)

Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The Official Opposition’s 2019 Alternative Budget lays out a path for Alberta to create jobs, diversify the economy, protect vital public services, and bring the provincial budget to balance. This path is based on economic data in the government’s budget, and more crucially, on widespread consultation with Albertans. Last fall, the NDP Caucus held town hall meetings in communities across Alberta, and the people that spoke up, provided a tremendous amount of information about what values and priorities they wanted to see reflected in the provincial budget. NDP’s budget suggests that there is another way. It does not include the $4.7-billion corporate handout in the UCP Government’s budget. As Albertans have seen, that corporate handout so far has failed to create jobs and many companies distributed the money to shareholders, and or invested it in places outside of Alberta, like Newfoundland, Texas and Wisconsin. NDP’s budget reverses the hidden scheme of raising personal income taxes on every single Albertan in the UCP Government’s budget. Instead, NDP’s budget establishes a one per cent increase to personal income tax on the top one per cent. Unlike UCP, the NDP would limit tuition hikes in post-secondary to the rate of inflation and continue to reduce school/busing fees. NDP would maintain the cap on insurance premiums and electricity bills and would not download a $200-million bill for policing onto municipalities. The speaker will elaborate and detail other measures the NDP would take in order to deal with Alberta’s financial woes. Speaker: Shannon Phillips, Alberta MLA for Lethbridge West Constituency Shannon Phillips was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the constituency of Lethbridge-West, on May 5, 2015, and was re-elected on April 16, 2019. She currently serves as chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. During her first term Ms. Phillips served as Minister of Environment and Parks, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Minister Responsible for the Climate Change Office and as Deputy Government House Leader. Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Ms. Phillips worked with the Alberta Federation of Labour as a policy analyst for five years. She also spent five years as a member of the board of directors for the Womanspace Resource Centre, a nonprofit organization that provides resources, referrals and education to the community and to individual women. In 1999 she received a bachelor of arts with honours in political science and in 2002 she completed her master of arts, both at the University of Alberta. Moderator: Mike Spencer Date: Thursday, January 9, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required