As a multimedia journalist in central Alberta, I cover a number of beats.
Depending on what is happening, I cover crime, sports, and even provincial politics.
With our provincial MLA, Nate Horner, sitting as the province’s current finance minister, I have definitely been covering provincial politics more.
Thursday, Feb. 29 was Budget Day in Alberta.
Listening in on the budget presentation, I can appreciate the challenges the province is facing and the necessity of holding back spending.
Still, education and health care each received needed 4.4 per cent increases and in the central zone, Red Deer Regional Hospital has been earmarked for over $800 million over the next three years.
Seniors and AISH have also received an increase of around three per cent.
So, okay, the province at least looks like it’s trying to help out in areas of immense need.
The province is also making some debt payments and making a significant investment in the Heritage Trust Fund.
All in all, the province is calling things a balanced budget with revenues and expenses roughly equaling $72 billion.
According to the budget documents, the province is going to see a razor-thin surplus of around $370 million.
However, there’s an issue with that math.
I’m not great at math, it’s the reason I became a writer.
But, I digress.
To get to that razor-thin surplus, the province is actually taking on around $2 billion of new borrowing to go towards capital projects.
I’m a little slow here, but isn’t that what is actually called a deficit?
Looking at the numbers, I honestly have no idea how the province can come up with the budget they did and call it a surplus.
I really don’t.
Another thing that Alberta taxpayers need to brace for is the full return of the $0.13/litre fuel tax, which hasn’t been widely advertised but is in the budget as being fully returned at the beginning of April, just in time to coincide with the federal government’s increase of the fuel carbon tax.
Something else missing from the provincial was the campaigned-on tax cut.
It’s now been promised to be legislated in 2025, phased in beginning in 2026, and fully instituted in 2027, coincidently just in time for the next election.
There was good and bad in the provincial budget, and the governing United Conservative Party has been promising big things yet, it seems that at least half the promises they make fail to materialize.
They promote themselves as making life more affordable for Albertans, yet every time you turn around, costs and fees keep going up, and up, and up.
They are promoting a deficit budget as a balanced budget.
I’m not saying that I can do better, nor am I saying that we should vote NDP next time, because honestly, at this point all political parties are equally bad.
I’m saying that there are significant enough problems in the budgets and the promises that are being made that the concerns should be voiced with our MLAs. They need to hear the electorate’s concerns.
I long for the time when the politicians actually do what they promise and work for the greater good.
I’m tired of the promises, the lies, and the smoke and mirrors.
-Kevin Sabo is the editor of the Bashaw Star, Castor Advance, and Stettler Independent newspapers for Black Press Media.