This Week in Alberta - Special Deficit Edition

Ed Stelmach(February 23, 2008): “A Progressive Conservative government will never put Alberta back into a deficit position”

Ed Stelmach (today): "Err...on second thought..."

Alberta has joined the deficit club!

Alberta's Finance Minister Iris Evans has let it be known that the province will post a billion dollar deficit for the 2008-09 financial year.

As a concerned (former) citizen, I sent the following note off to Alberta's Solicitor General Fred Lindsay earlier today - I encourage everyone else to follow suit.

Dear Mr. Lindsay,

Hello. I read today that your colleague, Iris Evans, has said Alberta will post a billion dollar deficit this year. As you are no doubt aware, this is a clear violation of Alberta's no-deficit law - a sober law created by Ralph Klein, and repeatedly pointed to as a sign of your government's fiscal responsibility as recently as the last election.

I am therefore asking you to answer the following questions for me:

1. When will you be issuing an arrest warrant for Miss Evans?

2. Will Iris stand trial for this?

3. If she does stand trial, who will pay for her legal fees? It does seem to be the Alberta precedence for the government to always cover a treasurer's legal fees, but I worry this could push the province even further into deficit.

4. What is the maximum sentence for this crime?

5. Could Iris continue to perform her duties as Finance Minister from jail, or would a replacement be named? Given her performance in the portfolio to date and the depth of Ed Stelmach's legislative agenda, I suspect Iris could still carry on without anyone noticing the difference - although she might not win "best dressed MLA" next year.


Finally, being a Stony Plain MLA, I know you must be a respected member of the Cabinet who the premier listens to. So I would like to plead with you to reconsider the decision to scrap your government’s consultation program to change Alberta’s license plate slogan.

Last election, Ed Stelmach promised voters a bold program of “change that works for Albertans”. Voters elected your government and were rewarded with an aggressive legislative agenda that included changing Alberta’s license plate slogan…and maybe some other stuff I missed.

Even though there is no “changing the license plate law” in Alberta, I urge you to follow through on this bold commitment. If not for the voters who elected you on a platform of change, then for poor Iris Evans who could find herself making license plates very soon, and who would much rather make them with the new slogan.

Sincerely,

Dan Arnold

hat tip - tGPOitHotW

Second Budget, Same as the First

In honour of earth day, it was a very environmentally friendly budget by Ed Stelmach's Conserva...ha ha. No, of course not. Now that the joke is out of the way, here's a serious rundown:

-Would someone care to remind me again how the Alberta Liberals got portrayed as "tax and spend Liberals" during the last campaign? Stelmach followed up one of the largest spending increases in Canadian history last year with a budget that increased spending by another 12%.

-Once again, there was no real focus or forward planning...this was mostly about playing catch up on infrastructure after years of neglect from Klein.

-I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the increased subsidies for horse racing and bingo weren't in Lyle Oberg's pre-election budget.

-Cutting health premiums completely by January 1st is a pleasant surprise given Stelmach's pre-election announcement planned to phase them out over three years.

-At first glance, there does not appear to be much for post-secondary education in this budget, which is disappointing given the massive spending everywhere else.

-Stelmach and Iris Evans will be criticized by the Alberta Liberals for, once again, ignoring the Heritage Fund and long term savings. However, with a low balled estimate of $78 a barrel oil, I'd expect a multi-billion dollar "unexpected" surplus, a third of which will be injected into the Heritage Fund.

I'll update this once other bloggers closer to the scene have a chance to weigh in. I'd also be curious to see some analysis about which election promises were included or ignored in this budget.


UPDATE: Daveberta has a good run-down, including this great synopsis:

Overall, the 2008 Alberta PC budget looked and sounded like a confused 37-year old: still paying for the mistakes of its youth, not quite ready to settle down, almost ready to hit that mid-life crisis point (hello, Ferrari!), and not quite ready to save for the future. It felt like it could have been something out of the 10th season of Friends.

Also, check out ES and get rich.

Cabinet Shuffle

In most places, the first cabinet after an election is called a "new" Cabinet. In Alberta? It's called a cabinet shuffle. And, even as far as cabinet shuffles go, this one was minor with only two ministers changing portfolios. A few thoughts on the new PC cabinet:

1. By most standards, representing the two cities that make up two thirds of Alberta's population with under 40% of the cabinet spots, would be a slight. After only placing three Calgarians and one Edmontonian in his first Cabinet, this is likely enough to get Ed rave reviews.

2. Likewise, the seven women in this Cabinet is a massive jump from the two who made his first Cabinet. Of note, Iris Evans gets Finance.

3. The Cabinet has ballooned to 24, after Stelmach promised to cut its size during the leadership race. In addition, there are 10 parliamentary assistants (think Parliamentary Secretaries) and 5 cabinet committee chairs. So, in other words, if you're a Tory MLA who didn't get something today, you're in the minority.

4. Guy Boutlier is the only person dumped from Cabinet. Ouch.

5. Stelmach's most effective Minister, Dave Hancock, gets shuffled out of health, and into Education.

6. The "giant-killer killer", Alison Redford, winds up in Justice. Not bad for a rookie and it sure beats being a backbench MP in Ottawa, which she would have been had she beaten Rob Anders for the Calgary West nomination when she ran against him.


So, from the optics perspective, the only real knock Stelmach will get is from increasing the size of the Cabinet. Might be a good place to start the attacks if the ALP want to portray themselves as the fiscally conservative alternative in Alberta.