Life is about to become more expensive for the average Albertan.
With a consumer protection cap removed, insurance rates are inevitably going up substantially.
So is post secondary-education tuition, whose cap was also lifted, which will hurt students of all ages, but especially teens who now have to work more to save up for school following their reduced minimum wage that King Klein himself was opposed to. His government even nixed an unequal youth wage in 1998 as it encouraged discriminatory hiring practices, especially in the service sector, resulting in abuse.
The grievances of Edmonton's and Calgary’s mayors — who both decried broken promises — probably won’t mean much throughout rural Alberta.
But make no mistake, our communities also stand to be detrimentally impacted. Although thankfully maintained for the rest of this fiscal period, Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding is being slashed in following years. So we can expect already onerous municipal taxes to increase more than the average hike in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the public sector is to be reduced by 7.7 per cent over the next four years, mainly through attrition. In other words, while our population continues to grow, teachers that retire won’t be replaced, straining an already stressed educational system.
And the promise to balance the budget in four years is a pipe dream full of wishful thinking. I’ll believe it when I see it. Short of oil surging back to more than $100 a barrel, or a sudden policy reversal to re-examine Alberta’s revenue problem — a tax structure resembling Canada’s other prosperous provinces would alone nearly single-handedly deal with the deficit — a balanced budget will remain elusive, even arguably impossible.
In short, the peasantry is being asked to sacrifice and do more with less, while major corporations are handed lavish handouts in the form of tax cuts that have yet to meaningfully spur job growth.
In fact Husky, whose CEO rakes in millions, laid off workers despite the $233-million giveaway courtesy of Kenney’s corporate tax cuts. Tried and tired old “trickle down” economic policies have never worked since former U.S. president Ronald Reagan first introduced the idea back in the 1980s, when income inequality started to soar as a result.
Countries like Canada were quick to follow suit, and that income gap has continued to grow ever since as subsequent Conservative and Liberal governments cut tax rates on the wealthy, while reducing once strong social programs and services to shadows of their former selves.
The wealthy get lavish handouts as their shady offshore bank accounts bloat to record levels, while everyone else is expected to sacrifice and “live within our means.”
There is now decades of data on the negative impacts of trickle down policies. Companies buy back stock, pay off debt, satisfy stakeholders. They. Do. Not. Hire. More. People. Sometimes, they even lay them off instead. Pretty well the only reason companies hire new employees is to meet growing demand for a service or product.
The only tax cuts that really would generate economic growth are for the middle class. Marginal tax rates for the super wealthy during the post Second World War period of unprecedented economic prosperity was in some cases triple today’s rates and the rich, believe it or not, not only did not "pack up and leave," but were still super rich.
And yet, millions of voters keep falling for the deceptive promise of trickle down. Then, deficits soar astronomically as tax revenues drop through the floor, overall debt increases, and the right conveniently blames social programs and soaring spending, and before long we start to hear whispers of privatization.
Perhaps one of my favourite comments by Finance Minister Travis Toews, who last week tabled the budget, was, “We all have an obligation to live within our means.”
Except, of course, huge profitable corporations. They get subsidies and tax breaks.
Welfare for the wealthy, austerity for everyone else.
But hey, no more carbon tax at least, right?
