The six candidates who want to be the next premier of Alberta pledged to avoid repeating the financial mess of the mid-1990s and return the province to balanced budgets.
Ted Morton, who resigned as finance minister to run, said he couldn’t commit to balancing the budget by 2012, but said that can happen in 2013, in response to an audience question put to the candidates.
“The good news there is we don’t have to have deep budget cuts to do it, we just have to tighten our belts for another year and a half,” he told a standing-room only forum of about 600 at the Capri Hotel and Convention Centre on Thursday night.
In the mid-90s the first things sacrificed to balance the books was health, education and social services. “I don’t want that again.”
Rick Orman, an energy minister under former premier Don Getty, said “we have to be vigilant in the way we spend taxpayers’ dollars,” adding his first job as premier would be to take a look at the books.
“We take in $35 billion into this province this year. (With) 3.7 million people we should be able to live within our means,” saying it would probably take a couple of years to balance the budget.
Doug Horner recalled the period of provincial “credit card debt,” saying “there’s no way we should ever go that direction again.”
Besides making ends meet the province must grow its economy globally to keep pace with an increasing population, said Horner, who stepped down as advanced education minister to run.
Gary Mar said he joined government at that time and “it was a hot fiscal furnace to be forged in.
“This is a part of me that is very conservative. We must have balanced budgets,” said Mar, who was health minister under former premier Ralph Klein.
Doug Griffiths also supported balancing the budget but warned legislating break-even budgeting would only force the government to make cuts during a downturn and “exaggerate the roller coaster.”
Alison Redford said, “If you take a look at my fiscal plan I know that we can provide the services that I’m talking about based on not increasing our budget beyond population plus GDP (gross domestic population) growth.
“I’m not talking about spending a whole bunch of money to fix problems,” said the former justice minister. “I’m saying it’s time to manage government differently.”
Redford also said it’s time the province reduced its reliance on non-renewable resources.
Candidate opening and closing statements sandwiched a nearly two-hour question and answer session that saw them fielding a dozen questions covering issues such as reducing poverty, degree granting at Red Deer College, a recently axed restorative justice program, restoring Alberta’s edge in attracting industrial projects, maintaining environmental department staffing, boosting exports outside the U.S., a phamaceutical strategy for seniors, high-speed rail, and whether candidates would declare a moratorium on new transmission lines.
The power line question prompted a couple of the more pointed digs at past government decisions.
Orman noted that many of those running as candidates had approved bills connected with the transmission line projects but were now speaking against them.
“That creates instability and unpredictability in the marketplace, and if we’re expecting attracting business to our province we can’t conduct ourselves like that,” he said.
Griffiths, a long-time Tory backbencher, said the process should be opened to a competitive bid process so that other companies besides the province’s main two power line builders could bid, and perhaps come up with a better way of running lines. More public consultation is also needed.
Redford said the province needs one more north-south line, but not the “cadillac grid” being proposed.
Morton said he has already committed to rewriting Bill 50, The Electric Statutes Amendment Act, and said that the five major tranmission projects proposed should not be exempt from a needs assessment.
“The whole project is premised on expensive gas and cheap coal,” he said, adding that is no longer the case.
One of the questions with a Red Deer spin focused on how the candidates would support funding and infrastructure for the city, which is often over-shadowed by Calgary and Edmonton.
Mar said he would return the school portion of property taxes to municipalities to help them pay for infrastructure. “The property taxes you have here should stay here in the City of Red Deer.”
Horner said the government would support cities by ensuring they get the full amount of Municipal Sustainability Infrastructure funding previously proposed by the province.
Candidates were also asked about extending degree granting to Red Deer College and all supported it.
There was strong support among the candidates to allow the college to reach out to students by offering degrees.
Gary Mar said geography should not be a barrier to getting a university degree. Many young people who leave a community to attend a university elsewhere don’t return. Providing degree granting would build a stronger community.
Alison Redford said there is no reason the college should not be allowed to grant degrees. The present situation is a sign of “stagnant thinking” in the Department of Advanced Education and Technology.
Doug Horner pointed to Mount Royal College as an example of an institution that boosted its ability to attract students by granting degrees. The province’s educational model allows for the transformation. The only thing stopping it is having the money in the budget and he would ensure that, he said.
Griffiths got the biggest laugh of the night in his closing remarks. Noting he was the only one at the table who was not a former cabinet minister, he pointed out that amateurs engineered the Ark, but experts built the Titanic.
This was the sixth of eight forums before the Sept. 17 vote. The next forum is in Calgary on Wednesday, followed by Edmonton on Sept. 15.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com