After four years of the socialist NDP government, Alberta is
still reeling under an economic downturn
caused by both the provincial and federal governments. However there seems to be real signs of
economic revival as we see a new conservative government and the business
community working to bring back the Alberta advantage.
The elected UCP government under Jason Kenney has already
made some significant changes to stimulate the economy. A cancellation of the
carbon tax is only one of the many changes made to free the economy. There
still remains much work to be done on many fronts. Altering the many
destructive policies of the previous government will take some time, but we
have confidence and optimism that the right decisions will be made. On the
other side of the equation the Institute for Public Sector Accountability
(IPSA), does not support any interference by the government to use the excuse
of economic diversification to affect the free market. With this in mind we are very
pleased to see that the business community is willing and able to work towards the
province’s economic revival.
The formation of the Business Council of Alberta by a number
of business executives and entrepreneur s is the right way to help the economy.
Such an organization has been badly needed since the Calgary Chamber of
Commerce has lost its real ‘raison
d’etre”. It will take the business community, with the help of the
government, to diversify the provincial economy. IPSA has always maintained
that governments choosing winners and losers are not the way to diversify an
economy. Advice and involvement of many of these founding members will work
towards the prosperity for all Albertans.
Furthermore in another much awaited announcement is the
involvement of Calgary’s business leaders to start questioning the decisions
made by a dysfunctional Council. In view of the recent and continuing inability
for the current Council to properly manage its financial affairs, IPSA is very
glad to see that the business community is ready to question the decisions made on increasingly risky capital investment.
This Council is unable to make decisions regarding budget management. They
continue to bring forward proposals to curtail essential services before cutting
useless expenditures, benefits and large pensions. This strategy by
administration to offer essential services as the first cut in a reduction of
costs, is a long established ploy to get citizens to accept their continued
spend and tax tactics. They believe that citizens will allow Council to save
essential services and make no significant cuts. There are many areas which can
be subject to reductions and sometimes complete eradication. This Council has
been unable to set priorities; it is time for the business community to set
guidelines for Council to get its house in order. It is very unfortunate that
we have to resort to this type of oversight of an elected body, but Calgarians have reached the end of their tether.
As a contribution to the economic debate IPSA has made
proposals to the Alberta government to make some significant changes to the
property tax regime. Given the recent ruling concerning the assessment of the
Metropolitan Centre, i It has become quite clear that our proposal should be a
priority for the UCP to reform the Market Value Assessment basis for property
taxes. The proposal can be found on our website www.theipsa.org in a
publication called A Blueprint for Alberta II.
As Don Braid wrote: “Cities have no real need for their own property
assessors… Calgary assessment department costs $22 million a year to operate.
Abolishing it would help the downtown tax hole.” For these reasons IPSA calls
upon the government to consider a review of the assessment system.
All of the above developments bode well for the future of
the Alberta economy. If only the new UCP government would consider working with
these new groups to redress the dismal performance of the previous destructive
government policies.
