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Stokes Economics assessed the platform and concluded it would lead to a balanced budget by 2022-23, but — like the last NDP budget — relies on two out of three pipelines being built to do so. It also banks on 2.2-per-cent economic growth and employment growth of 1.4 per cent.

Environment

The UCP has made no secret it will scrap the carbon tax, but it would also kill (and spend taxpayer dollars to review) the NDP government’s entire Climate Leadership Plan. Among other things, that plan put a price on greenhouse gas emissions, pledged to end coal-generated electricity by 2030 and outlined a 100-megatonne oilsands emissions cap (which would be nixed by the UCP).

The current large emitter tax would be replaced with a new Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) program. The first $100 million of TIER would fund new technologies to reduce carbon emissions (the party cited improved oilsands extraction technology and carbon capture as examples) and $20 million would go to the energy “war room.” The rest will fall into general revenue. That change would likely sound a death knell for both Energy Efficiency Alberta, which oversees projects solely funded by the carbon tax, and Emissions Reduction Alberta, an arms-length agency established in 2007 and a recognized world-leader funding research technology with carbon tax dollars.

Jobs

Under an Open For Business Act, the UCP would introduce a $13/hour youth minimum wage, publish economic data on the NDP’s minimum wage increase, allow banked hours to be paid at regular instead of time-and-a-half pay, and restore mandatory secret ballots for union certification.