A new tax on large industrial emitters, killing the climate leadership plan and an Open for Business Act all form part of the UCP’s 117-page campaign platform released Saturday afternoon.

Distroscale

It also included a costed budget which includes $700 million in new spending over four years and with provincial debt projected to hit $86.1 billion by 2022-23 (compared with what the UCP calculates would be a projected $101 billion under the NDP, though the NDP put that figure at $94.8 billion in its most recent quarterly fiscal update ). It also aims to move Alberta closer to the provincial average in program spending through a “rigorous evaluation of all programs and services.”

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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.

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It would reduce the business general income tax rate from 12 to 8 per cent over four years in the hopes of creating jobs, cut red tape by one-third and replace farm safety Bill 6 with a Farm Freedom and Safety Act. However, the party would maintain some employment law changes made under the NDP, including provisions around long-term, bereavement, domestic violence and child illness leave.

The party pledged to develop a 10-year tourism strategy focusing on jobs, “reorient” the mandate of Travel Alberta towards public-private partnerships, and make the department the responsibility of the Economic Development Minister.

The UCP would also create Fairness for Newcomers Office with a $2.5-million budget, and international student entrepreneur and foreign graduate startup visa programs.

Infrastructure

The UCP would retain the NDP government’s capital plan from 2019-20 to 2022-23, and bring back public-private partnerships (like the P3 school-build scheme slammed in a Deloitte review under the former Progressive Conservative government). The UCP would also create a 20-year strategic capital plan for the province and pass an Alberta Infrastructure Act to provide transparency around capital project funding.

Energy and electricity

The Alberta Energy Regulator’s board of directors would be fired by a UCP government. Oil well licence review and well abandonment processes would both be streamlined, and timeline benchmarks created for new well approvals.

On the electricity side, the UCP would tell the Auditor General to audit power purchase agreements held through the Balancing Pool, consider returning Alberta to an energy-only market and kill renewable power subsidies.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect what the NDP calculates Alberta’s projected debt will be in 2022-23.