Kenney and United Conservatives promise $714M budget surplus by 2023
Posted March 30, 2019 3:54 pm.
Last Updated March 31, 2019 11:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY — The United Conservatives are promising to get Alberta’s books out of the red and into a $714-million surplus by 2023, a year earlier than the NDP.
UCP Leader Jason Kenney unveiled the numbers today as part of the formal release of the party’s election platform.
The UCP is focusing on the economy and job creation, but says it will take time to dig out from under the multibillion-dollar deficits run up over the last four years by Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP.
The UCP expects revenues from oil and gas royalties will be lower than projected by the NDP.
But they say by keeping spending hikes to about 0.3 per cent per year, coupled with job-creation incentives such as slashing the corporate tax, they can get to balance before the end of their first term in government.
Kenney also released more details on his previously announced commitment to end the carbon tax and replace it with a program targeting large emitters of greenhouse gases.
Under the plan, facilities with emissions higher than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will have to reduce the intensity of those emissions or buy credits or offsets, or pay into a fund that will study ways to reduce GHG emissions.
The Canadian Press
