EDMONTON — Premier Alison Redford’s Alberta Tories delivered a pre-election budget Thursday that increased spending to record levels, raided billions from the piggy bank, but promised the province will be out of the red within a year.
There are no tax hikes, no new taxes, no significant program cuts and no job layoffs. And there is more money to pay for everything from new police officers to smaller class sizes to student loans.
“We’ve delivered a budget that Albertans said they would support,” Finance Minister Ron Liepert told reporters before delivering the 2012-13 spending document.
“That’s our job: to listen to Albertans.”
The budget boosts government spending by 3.3 per cent to a record $41.1 billion.
Program spending is up almost seven per cent, with substantial raises for education, health, cities and money for the most vulnerable.
The bills are to be paid for with rising oil revenues, higher taxes from a growing population and a $3.7-billion drawdown from the $7.5-billion Sustainability Fund.
The bottom line amounts to an $886-million deficit, the fifth one in a row after 14 years of surpluses.
Liepert denied the government is doing a pre-election bait-and-switch by tabling a feel-good budget that will be followed after the election by job and program cuts when the Tories conduct a government-wide financial review.
“There is no hidden agenda here,” said Liepert.
“If somebody is trying to draw a scenario that somehow after the election we’re going to come up with all these bogeyman theories, well, let them go ahead, because they’re going to be wrong.”
Redford has promised to pass the budget, then drop the writ on a general election, with a campaign likely to begin in mid-March. The Tories currently hold a huge majority of the seats in the legislature and have been in power for 40 years, but are being challenged on the right by the fiscally conservative Wildrose party.
The budget invests heavily in core areas.
There will be an almost eight per cent increase in operating funds for the Health Department and a six per cent increase in operating funds for Alberta Health Services, which delivers front-line care.
Operating budgets for grade schools are going up 3.4 per cent to $6.2 billion. There will be more money for smaller class sizes and for busing.
Post-secondary institutions are to see a 2.7 per cent boost to their operating funds to nearly $2.9 billion. An extra infusion of cash will buttress bursaries, grants and help students with their loans.
Payments under the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped are to go up by one-third to $1,588 a month along with a rise in how much someone on the program can earn before clawbacks kick in.
Income support rates are to go up five per cent for Albertans in 34,000 homes who are training for work, looking for work or unable to work.
About $16.5 billion is to be allocated over the next three years to build schools, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure.
This year, 14 new schools are expected to come on line, along with new medical facilities in Calgary and Edmonton. Work on a cancer-care centre in Red Deer continues.
Money is also to go to municipalities to hire 90 more Mounties and 55 more sheriffs. There will be 180 additional correctional officers and staff for a new Remand Centre in Edmonton.
There’s also an $11 million planned to boost environmental monitoring in the oilsands region.
All the bills are to be paid for by a roaring petro economy expected to grow by 3.8 per cent in 2012 — double the forecast of this year.
The government is budgeting revenues at a record $40.3 billion.