Budget 2018-2019
Alberta may have a story to tell Canada and the nations. It could be a financial success story.
We are now in recovery from an almost unbelievable collapse in oil and gas prices and revenues. Of course, not every Albertan is experiencing the benefits of our financial recovery but most are.
In terms of GDP growth, Alberta was at 4.5 per cent in 2017. In contrast, Saskatchewan was only at 1.4 per cent as of September 2017, a huge difference.
Why the huge difference? The answer to this question is at the core of why Alberta could have a financial success story to tell. Firstly, we must understand government revenues tend to increase as economies grow. Alberta grew at 4.5 per cent in 2017, by far the best in Canada.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but we must admit that somehow, Rachel Notley’s NDP government has found ways to position this province so that it is leading all provinces in economic growth. Certainly, one of her “ways” is deficit financing, and is an ongoing reality. Deficits have been the norm with the PC governments ever since the close of the Ralph Klein era, until their defeat in 2015. In fact, “in the last decade of PC government, spending doubled from $24-billion per year to $48-billion.
Of course, the question I ask myself is this level of deficit-financing sustainable? Has our government got a plan to pay down this growing deficit? For some economists, the answer is yes. It is sustainable if Alberta’s economy grows robust.
The second question will be answered on budget day March 22, if Finance Minister Joe Ceci, includes in his 2018-2019 budget, a plan for debt repayment.
Alberta’s financial future is at stake.
Jim Swan, Red Deer
Where are the snow plows?
I have lived in Red Deer for the past six years. I moved here from Ontario on March 7, 2012, and in all my life I have never seen a city that keeps the plows parked during a snowstorm as I have with Red Deer.
Granted, I said I am from Ontario, but I grew up in a town at the time I initially lived there, it had a population of only 1,100 (1970s, today it has a population of 16,010) and during my childhood, that town had the plows out during the storm, not waiting until 12 hours had passed after the snowfall had stopped.
That town, even today, had someone contracted to plow every sidewalk, this includes residential streets. Now, granted, I don’t expect the city to plow the sidewalks on the residential streets, but with the new paths on the north side of 67 Street having been completed, one would expect the path to be properly cleared. This is not the fact. There is a stretch from Golden West Avenue to the Red Deer Transit bus stop in front of the Radisson Hotel at 65 Avenue that has not been cleared.
Please city manager, if you can have the path plowed from Golden West Avenue to the Orr/Johnstone roundabout cleared as well from the roundabout into Edgar Industrial cleared, then why can you not have the aforementioned stretch be properly cleared? How long will it take before you add Golden West Avenue to 65 Avenue added to the schedule?
John Williams, Red Deer