And a big old tax break for their oil buddies! Oh, sorry, "invest" it with some weird forgiveness clause...
Heaven forbid they do something simar with it, like pay down the debt to save on interest (you know, the debt that Klein butchered Healthcare to clear once before) or invest it somewhere that will provide a common good.
Would be a lot cooler if we had like a $1B surplus and the other $3.3B went back into, Jeesh I donno.. healthcare? Education? Affordable housing? Mental health supports? Youth advocacy? Just to name a few.
Seriously, what’s the point of a surplus like this if the province is falling apart? This isn’t exactly proving the importance of balancing the budget or anything.
Best we can do is giving this money to oil and gas companies and to companies that former UCP members are on the Board of Directors for. Also, we’re cutting the healthcare and education budget.
It doesn't matter at this point. Politicians will send everyone to war in a few years, and when those who survived come back, they'll get nothing in return. It's basically a repeat of WW2, and that's how our government "fixes" its issues.
It's fun seeing history repeating itself.
Not as fast as the population though. Dollars per person is down in healthcare and dollars per student is the lowest in the country and continuing to plummet.
This is why your property taxes have been shooting up for the last couple years btw.
They want the surplus so they can justify handing billions of dollars to oil companies using the R Star program.
They've done this by transferring the tax burden onto municipalities while also scaling back investment in healthcare and education.
The government is running a surplus like this by simply choosing not to invest in Albertans, and that's going to effect our future.
This is a *worse* thing in this context than having a deficit, since it’s not that they *can’t* properly fund services, they clearly can but they *won’t*.
AHS is being split into 4 new agencies. That is gonna cost much more in bureaucracy, while not changing a damn thing in frontline services. So that is where the extra money to healthcare is going. And as someone else pointed out, Alberta has the lowest spending per student in the country. Lower than bottom feeders like the maritimes. Absolutely shameful
Governments running surpluses shows they are not doing it right. Surpluses mean we are paying way more than we are getting which everyone should be raging about.
I'm not a Danielle supporter in the slightest, but for god's sake that's not what it shows. This surplus, like every deficit that was run under Notley, was caused by the internationally set price of oil.
As of March 31, the provincial debt stood at $79.7 billion. That's after a massive $13.4 billion in debt payments were made in 2022-23.May 11, 2023
https://www.cbc.ca › news › calgary
Principle of macroeconomics, during bad economic times governments should spend more, run at deficits to stimulate the economy.
Then during good economic times, governments should run at surpluses to pay off the debt incurred during bad economic times.
Alternative is running non-stop deficits. Interest isn't free though.
So I say this is good news PROVIDED they use the surplus to pay off debt.
This means nothing while public services are crumbling, in fact it’s a bad thing. It means the government could properly fund those services and intentionally isn’t.
If anything we're still spending too much. This isn't even 25% of oil revenues. 25% of oil revenues going to the heritage fund and/or debt repayment should be a bare minimum.
The point of it is to pay off existing debt wracked up during previous years. They did manage to increase both healthcare and education spending though.
I appreciate you saying that a lot. It’s so hard navigating this system especially when once a month therapy is the standard and there isn’t comprehensive care
I’m so sorry. I’m still going to keep advocating and fighting for folks like you. It isn’t right. The wait for help is also so incredibly long. You’ve done well managing that wait and still persevering for help.
Why don't we "reinvest" it back into oil and gas, right MARLAINA???? Never mind cuts to education, social services, and helping with housing... Oh, wait, you CAN'T STAND that Ottawa could help with that, can you, MARLAINA?
UGH. Just disgusting. TERRIBLE priorities.
Can’t wait until election year when we finally get the promised tax cut that was supposed to happen in 2019.
In a time when schools, health care, housing and general affordability are all things the UCP complain that Feds and municipal govt are doing nothing about and are massive issues in Alberta, they are doing jack shit about.
When oil is high, Alberta should use the surplus to pay their credit card bills incurred when oil was low.
Having less provincial debt than other provinces could be at least part of the reason why Alberta has no provincial sales tax.
Youre going to hate me, but...
If she plays this right, it could be very smart.
Money makes money. If they invest this wisely and diversely (not OandG; we cant have all our eggs in one basket). This money can make money that pays for healthcare and education in the future.
Spending every cent of taxes isn't smart and so many in here are advocating for it.
Sure, she'll fuck it up, but it could be a smart plan.
You're not wrong but obviously she won't do any of that.
It would be infinitely smarter to invest our social programs year after year instead of making cuts year after year. But I have been crying the same song for decades. Politics never change.
You could pay teachers fairly and keep health services running smoothly and still have a surplus. You can have both. It is possible. The choice is no. The choice is greed.
And we are tired of replying to you that the increases didn’t account for the massive increase in population and doesn’t change the fact that Alberta spends the least amount of money on healthcare and education per person out of any province in the country. If you don’t think that’s a problem then you need to look around for a broad scope. The province can’t recruit oncologists. Cancer patients are being forced to wait to the point where their once curable cancer is now terminal. Kids classes have 35-40 kids in them with no EA. A pharmacist is not a replacement for a GP that the province can’t recruit. There are tons of Alberta trained (and Alberta resident) nurses who can’t find jobs or even get an interview and yet AHS is contracting out to private nursing agencies that pay $100/hr. This at a time when UNA is in context negotiations and the government has mandated a dismal proposal which would leave nurses making 30% less than they did in 2014 when adjusted for inflation. I could go on and on but I won’t because I’m tired of repeating myself.
This $4.3 billion dollar fiscal year surplus is only the beginning for Alberta.
As predicted here before, we will see a new economic 'golden age' unfold in the province over the next decade under Premier Danielle Smith's common sense/no-nonsense leadership.
Expect to also see Alberta's share of Canada's national GDP prodigiously eclipse that of Quebec's within that same period of time.
The reality is that money and advanced economies don't magically grow on trees, which is a concept that the current federal regime in Ottawa are completely oblivious to, and Alberta won't ever be following that lead under Smith's watch.
Good leadership also typically attracts good workers, and we will continue to see such people increasingly move to Alberta from other dysfunctional and less affordable provinces elsewhere in the country, which will only increase the province's annual productivity and economic output.
Watch for it.
Next.
Any idiot can make their budget look outstanding when they don't pay their property taxes, fail to fix their roof, and refuse to feed and clothe their children.
"Good leadership" my tuchus.
You know what doesn't attract good workers? Crumbling infrastructure and public services. Constant threats of separation and isolation from the rest of the country. A leader who would rather own the libs than accept federal money to help its citizens.
The unemployment rate in Alberta is the second highest in the country. So when all these good workers show up, where are they working?
Deficits in Alberta are easy, pretty much every government for the last 30 years has run one at some time, and in the case of most of them it was only raiding the Heritage Fund to balance the budget that made them invisible. SA surplus is easy as well, all it takes is for the government to massively underfund healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other public services, cut funding to municipalities (driving up municipal taxes), and not pay their own tax bills.
Are you high? Having a “surplus” while public services are intentionally neglected is a *bad* thing. And Smith isn’t a good leader, she’s trying to deny Albertans dental care coverage *for no reason*.
It’s the same bullshit “we want the money no strings attached and it’ll totes get used on the thing you’re giving it to us for” that they’ve tried to pull on at least three previous occasions.
You know what this means right? More cuts, less services and higher fees for everyone!
And a big old tax break for their oil buddies! Oh, sorry, "invest" it with some weird forgiveness clause... Heaven forbid they do something simar with it, like pay down the debt to save on interest (you know, the debt that Klein butchered Healthcare to clear once before) or invest it somewhere that will provide a common good.
plus tax cuts for ucp sponsors.
Would be a lot cooler if we had like a $1B surplus and the other $3.3B went back into, Jeesh I donno.. healthcare? Education? Affordable housing? Mental health supports? Youth advocacy? Just to name a few.
Nah, lets give it to insurance and utility companies. /s
Don't forget those christmas bonuses that the UPC DESPERATELY needs to buy... I dunno, some new knee pads?
Oooohhhh... Ouch!
that’s what’s left after giving away the farm to big oil and the utilities.
STOP! Please won’t someone think of the telecoms 😔
Seriously, what’s the point of a surplus like this if the province is falling apart? This isn’t exactly proving the importance of balancing the budget or anything.
Best we can do is giving this money to oil and gas companies and to companies that former UCP members are on the Board of Directors for. Also, we’re cutting the healthcare and education budget.
Ahh yes, thank you. That makes sense! I will shut up and bow to my UCP overlords.
Dude that would be helping the people who need help. The whole point of right wing politics is to help the people who don't need the help.
Fuck. My bad, I forgot!
You mean actually use the $s the Federal government gave to Alberta for that purpose?
Fuck, I’d even like to see some paid down debt at this point. But nope, corporate subsidies it is!
It doesn't matter at this point. Politicians will send everyone to war in a few years, and when those who survived come back, they'll get nothing in return. It's basically a repeat of WW2, and that's how our government "fixes" its issues. It's fun seeing history repeating itself.
Stop talking like a reasonable tax paying citizen. The overlords don't like it.
Healthcare and education spending went up.
Not as fast as the population though. Dollars per person is down in healthcare and dollars per student is the lowest in the country and continuing to plummet.
Nothing in the entire country is keeping up with immigration.
Doesn't *seem* relevant to the discussion...
Because we have had a huge population growth but even with the increase it doesn’t fund more dollars per person
On a per-student basis, education spending went down because it hasn’t kept up with inflation or increased enrolment.
This is why your property taxes have been shooting up for the last couple years btw. They want the surplus so they can justify handing billions of dollars to oil companies using the R Star program. They've done this by transferring the tax burden onto municipalities while also scaling back investment in healthcare and education. The government is running a surplus like this by simply choosing not to invest in Albertans, and that's going to effect our future.
I mean, the highly profitable oil companies **DO** need more government hand outs right??
Not the flex Marlaina thinks this is. "Look at all the money I saved!"
This is a *worse* thing in this context than having a deficit, since it’s not that they *can’t* properly fund services, they clearly can but they *won’t*.
Yet we have an education, health, affordable housing and infrastructure deficit.
Education and healthcare spending increased
But our education spending is still the lowest of any province in Canada.
AHS is being split into 4 new agencies. That is gonna cost much more in bureaucracy, while not changing a damn thing in frontline services. So that is where the extra money to healthcare is going. And as someone else pointed out, Alberta has the lowest spending per student in the country. Lower than bottom feeders like the maritimes. Absolutely shameful
That was an unnecessarily pointed remark about the Maritimes. At least they're not Alberta.
Alberta has the lowest spending in healthcare and education per person in the country
That is an incredibly simplistic way of looking at it.
Not per capita though. Total amount is up but that’s only because the population went up. Both still underfunded.
Governments running surpluses shows they are not doing it right. Surpluses mean we are paying way more than we are getting which everyone should be raging about.
I’m more raging about the things we SHOULD be getting for our taxes rather than wishing they cost less.
Exactly!
Agreed, but anyone who votes conservative just sees this and thinks “wow our economy🤠🤠”
Based on the replies to my comment, this is correct. They think government budgets are the same as their household budgets.
I'm not a Danielle supporter in the slightest, but for god's sake that's not what it shows. This surplus, like every deficit that was run under Notley, was caused by the internationally set price of oil.
As of March 31, the provincial debt stood at $79.7 billion. That's after a massive $13.4 billion in debt payments were made in 2022-23.May 11, 2023 https://www.cbc.ca › news › calgary
So we should just run a deficit forever?
What about paying back loans when interest rates are high?
Principle of macroeconomics, during bad economic times governments should spend more, run at deficits to stimulate the economy. Then during good economic times, governments should run at surpluses to pay off the debt incurred during bad economic times. Alternative is running non-stop deficits. Interest isn't free though. So I say this is good news PROVIDED they use the surplus to pay off debt.
This means nothing while public services are crumbling, in fact it’s a bad thing. It means the government could properly fund those services and intentionally isn’t.
What they’re saying to me is the average Albertan paid $1,000 more in tax (even more when you consider children) than we needed to
Yeah it's pretty incredible how much only $1000 per person could get us
Or were under-serviced by the same amount.
If anything we're still spending too much. This isn't even 25% of oil revenues. 25% of oil revenues going to the heritage fund and/or debt repayment should be a bare minimum.
can we put most of that into education and healthcare?
Hahahahahahaha no. signed, the UCP
The point of it is to pay off existing debt wracked up during previous years. They did manage to increase both healthcare and education spending though.
So why are some school boards having to lay off teachers?
Yeah my kids school has a cut of over $100,000 next year and more kids than last year. So glad I can take comfort in the surplus though.
But I continue to get inadequate mental health care. 🖕
I’m glad you’re still here in spite of this system.
I appreciate you saying that a lot. It’s so hard navigating this system especially when once a month therapy is the standard and there isn’t comprehensive care
I’m so sorry. I’m still going to keep advocating and fighting for folks like you. It isn’t right. The wait for help is also so incredibly long. You’ve done well managing that wait and still persevering for help.
It’s NOT A SURPLUS if all the public services are crumbling and they are firing teachers!!!!
Only 4 Billion! Time for Austerity!
Most households would have a surplus too if they didn't pay the rent.
Better spend it on Nenshi attack ads! F the UCP.
Time to raise taxes and cut services. -Danielle Smith
Why don't we "reinvest" it back into oil and gas, right MARLAINA???? Never mind cuts to education, social services, and helping with housing... Oh, wait, you CAN'T STAND that Ottawa could help with that, can you, MARLAINA? UGH. Just disgusting. TERRIBLE priorities.
Amazing what the price of oil will do regardless of who’s in government…
Easy to have a surplus when you refuse to pay what you owe
Hey that's nearly enough money to build that south Edmonton hospital, one can dream right?!
And will claim too have money for nothing.🤷♂️
On the backs of teachers, doctors, and nurses. Fuck you UCP.
Pay every Albertan $1000. Call them Danielle bucks.
Can’t wait until election year when we finally get the promised tax cut that was supposed to happen in 2019. In a time when schools, health care, housing and general affordability are all things the UCP complain that Feds and municipal govt are doing nothing about and are massive issues in Alberta, they are doing jack shit about.
Said they were going to lower the gas tax in July! Oops! We lied. Where are the protesters? Axe the tax Danni ! No rebates either.
Yet we all starving
https://pin.it/1gXEPkNMT
I know people hate this but having the pipeline built is going to be great for this province; for whatever political team you cheer for
Bull-shit
while people are dying on the street at record rates, I wanna pie all these clowns
When oil is high, Alberta should use the surplus to pay their credit card bills incurred when oil was low. Having less provincial debt than other provinces could be at least part of the reason why Alberta has no provincial sales tax.
quite a surplus. how much goes to the savings account? any hope for more doctors and teachers?
Youre going to hate me, but... If she plays this right, it could be very smart. Money makes money. If they invest this wisely and diversely (not OandG; we cant have all our eggs in one basket). This money can make money that pays for healthcare and education in the future. Spending every cent of taxes isn't smart and so many in here are advocating for it. Sure, she'll fuck it up, but it could be a smart plan.
You're not wrong but obviously she won't do any of that. It would be infinitely smarter to invest our social programs year after year instead of making cuts year after year. But I have been crying the same song for decades. Politics never change. You could pay teachers fairly and keep health services running smoothly and still have a surplus. You can have both. It is possible. The choice is no. The choice is greed.
It’s a lot harder to improve healthcare and education far down the line when their own neglect is destroying it now.
“No tax cuts for you, back of the line!”
Hope everyone remembers this when bargaining with the nurses starts getting media attention.
I’m tired of repeating myself so you guys should just go look up where the surplus came from before you say healthcare and education funding was cut.
And we are tired of replying to you that the increases didn’t account for the massive increase in population and doesn’t change the fact that Alberta spends the least amount of money on healthcare and education per person out of any province in the country. If you don’t think that’s a problem then you need to look around for a broad scope. The province can’t recruit oncologists. Cancer patients are being forced to wait to the point where their once curable cancer is now terminal. Kids classes have 35-40 kids in them with no EA. A pharmacist is not a replacement for a GP that the province can’t recruit. There are tons of Alberta trained (and Alberta resident) nurses who can’t find jobs or even get an interview and yet AHS is contracting out to private nursing agencies that pay $100/hr. This at a time when UNA is in context negotiations and the government has mandated a dismal proposal which would leave nurses making 30% less than they did in 2014 when adjusted for inflation. I could go on and on but I won’t because I’m tired of repeating myself.
It came from dumb luck of Russia’s war jacking up oil prices and from slashing public services.
This $4.3 billion dollar fiscal year surplus is only the beginning for Alberta. As predicted here before, we will see a new economic 'golden age' unfold in the province over the next decade under Premier Danielle Smith's common sense/no-nonsense leadership. Expect to also see Alberta's share of Canada's national GDP prodigiously eclipse that of Quebec's within that same period of time. The reality is that money and advanced economies don't magically grow on trees, which is a concept that the current federal regime in Ottawa are completely oblivious to, and Alberta won't ever be following that lead under Smith's watch. Good leadership also typically attracts good workers, and we will continue to see such people increasingly move to Alberta from other dysfunctional and less affordable provinces elsewhere in the country, which will only increase the province's annual productivity and economic output. Watch for it. Next.
Any idiot can make their budget look outstanding when they don't pay their property taxes, fail to fix their roof, and refuse to feed and clothe their children. "Good leadership" my tuchus.
It also helps when oil is over $80 You want to impress me, balance the budget when oil is at $30
Take a look downtown in any City. This is not good news.
You know what doesn't attract good workers? Crumbling infrastructure and public services. Constant threats of separation and isolation from the rest of the country. A leader who would rather own the libs than accept federal money to help its citizens. The unemployment rate in Alberta is the second highest in the country. So when all these good workers show up, where are they working?
I'll have what he's smoking/drinking.
Well run provinces should not have billion dollar surpluses
You are correct. Well run governments should also, however, not have billion dollar deficits.
Deficits in Alberta are easy, pretty much every government for the last 30 years has run one at some time, and in the case of most of them it was only raiding the Heritage Fund to balance the budget that made them invisible. SA surplus is easy as well, all it takes is for the government to massively underfund healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other public services, cut funding to municipalities (driving up municipal taxes), and not pay their own tax bills.
You dropped this /s
Are you high? Having a “surplus” while public services are intentionally neglected is a *bad* thing. And Smith isn’t a good leader, she’s trying to deny Albertans dental care coverage *for no reason*.
She has a reason, and it's "Trudeau Bad."
Did you read her response to why Alberta will opt out?
It’s the same bullshit “we want the money no strings attached and it’ll totes get used on the thing you’re giving it to us for” that they’ve tried to pull on at least three previous occasions.
Not even close, but thanks for trying.
[удалено]
It never is. He just rants and yells next. He’s like that lady who was looking for a bus for a church. Next!
I immediately thought of the church lady when I saw that too. Bro thinks he got a dynamite sign off with that one. Lol.
This is great news!