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Budget strikes a balance: MLA

Red Deer let out a collective sigh of relief on Thursday upon learning that the new Central Alberta Cancer Centre is still on track after the province introduced its deficit budget for 2011-12.

Red Deer let out a collective sigh of relief on Thursday upon learning that the new Central Alberta Cancer Centre is still on track after the province introduced its deficit budget for 2011-12.

In the fall, the province held a sod-turning ceremony for the new $59.5-million centre that will bring radiation treatment to Red Deer.

Red Deer South MLA Cal Dallas, parliamentary assistant for finance, said the $38.4-billion provincial budget, with its $3.4 billion forecasted deficit, struck a balance.

“For Central Alberta, what the budget confirms is that the programs we’ve come to expect are going to be there to support vulnerable Albertans, to support Albertans who need access to health care. And the infrastructure investments, like the Cancer Centre, are going to be in place and we’re going to proceed with them,” Dallas said on Thursday.

The province intends to spend $17.6 billion on infrastructure over the next three years.

The province was contributing $46 million, and the federal government providing $13.5 million, towards the new cancer centre building that is part of a provincial strategy to open a corridor of cancer treatment centres across Alberta to improve access.

Doug Janssen, vice-president with Central Alberta Council on Aging, said the budget just repeated previous plans with one significant omission — more long-term care beds.

“That’s the gapping hole in the system and the critical area for the last several years,” Janssen said.

Without more funding to build more schools, students have also been forgotten, said Red Deer Public School board chairman Lawrence Lee.

“No matter how superior or how good our programs are, we can’t deliver them if we don’t have places to have that instruction take place,” Lee said.

To make matters worse, the province eliminated funding to reduce class size for Grades 4 to 6, cut grants to encourage innovation in the classroom to improve learning by 50 per cent, and eliminated other educational funding.

Red Deer Public will lose about $1.5 million.

“We do have some hits to programming and some hits to overall revenue that will cause changes to operations for sure,” said superintendent Piet Langstraat.

Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division expects a funding cut of about $1.2 million.

Both jurisdictions will be looking at their reserves to help cover the shortfall.

Paulette Hanna, Red Deer Catholic superintendent, said the division hopes money for capital projects will still come through.

“We have huge needs in Red Deer. We need a new elementary school — yesterday,” Hanna said.

But as much as it is a tough budget, the province has still made education a priority, she said.

Mayor Morris Flewwelling said funding for municipalities is expected to remain steady and the city was prepared for that.

“We are the only province in Canada that gets direct funding from the province for municipalities. It is critical for infrastructure, maintenance and development,” Flewwelling said.

The province’s continued focus on homelessness, regional water and waste water systems, provincial highways and health care is good news, he said.

“We were very happy to see the money for the cancer centre is reaffirmed,” said the mayor, which was a frequent comment on Thursday.

Red Deer Chamber of Commerce president Bruce Schollie gave the budget a B plus.

Maintaining infrastructure projects contributes to employment and builds a better environment to do business in, he said.

“It would be nice to not be faced with a deficit, but the reality is we just came through the worst economic crisis in 80 years. It’s been a very challenging environment to try and turn surpluses,” Schollie said.

Graham Heron, a senior tax partner with Meyers Norris Penny in Central Alberta, said with no changes to personal and corporate taxes in the budget, the Alberta Advantage remains intact.

Increases people will see to the cost of passenger motor vehicle registration, motorcycle renewals, licence plates and other fees, are understandable given they haven’t changed in about eight years, he said.

But he couldn’t ignore the deficit.

“If their projections play out, spending while things are slow and costs are cheaper, will benefit the province in the long run. But looking at things from a borrowing standpoint, they’re spending money now in the hopes that the revenue will come in the future,” Heron said.

Fred Scaife, Red Deer Food Bank executive director, said without a welfare increase, the poor people of Alberta once again have a budget that does nothing more to help them.

“To me that is the most insulting thing you can say — ‘we’re not taking anything away, so you should be really happy.’”

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com