By Mabell, Dave on October 26, 2019.

Dave Mabell

Lethbridge Herald

dmabell@lethbridgeherald.com

Premier Jason Kenny is a liar.

That’s the verdict of Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips, finance critic for the Official Opposition, in response to this week’s provincial budget announcements.

During the campaign, she says, Kenny promised no more taxes, no cuts to public education and no cuts to health care. He also promised to replace the aging Highway 3 bridge into Lethbridge, she pointed out Friday.

But instead, Phillips said, this week’s provincial budget is increasing property taxes and income taxes, while killing provincial tax credits that helped Alberta families send their kids to college.

And seniors may be the hardest hit, she said in an interview.

Substantial cuts in grants to cities and municipalities will force local governments to cut services and raise property taxes, she predicted. On top of that, homeowners will see higher school requisitions on their tax notice.

Yet Kenney promised to reduce the size of government so Albertans would pay less.

“We knew there would be cuts,” Phillips said. “Jason Kenney didn’t campaign on cuts but we knew he lied about that.

“What we didn’t know is how he would raise taxes,” including income tax.

“Every single Albertan who pays taxes will be paying, in some cases, hundreds of dollars more.”

Provincial income taxes will rise year after year, she said, because the United Conservative government will no longer index the tax brackets to the cost of living.

“With the power of compounding, you will be paying hundreds of dollars more, even if your income does not change,” she warned. “This is a man who said he was not going to raise taxes.”

At the same time, Phillips said 46,000 Albertans were “kicked off” the seniors drug plan. And rent subsidies for seniors and low-income Albertans are being reduced or eliminated.

“For seniors this is a very, very bad budget,” she said

“I’ve never seen Conservatives take a run at seniors’ programs like this, not even the (Ralph) Klein government.”

Phillips said she’s “very skeptical” about any new schools being built in Lethbridge in the near future.

The budget provides for only 25 modernization projects or new buildings, she noted.

By comparison, she said the New Democratic Party government completed 244 school projects over its four years in office.

And a specific Lethbridge project has been scuttled as well – replacing the original, 1940s bridge on Highway 3, now the eastbound span over the Oldman River.

“You’ll recall that Jason Kenny promised that during the campaign,” she said. “He is a liar.”

The highways maintenance budget also took a big hit, Phillips said, along with agriculture, provincial parks, conservation officers as well as fish and wildlife officers.

While the government is promising to hire 50 more prosecutors, she observed, budget cuts may result in laying off hundreds of sheriffs, courthouse staff members and other justice department personnel.

And while Lethbridge College is facing a modest budget cut this year, Phillips said the University of Lethbridge is facing hard times.

“At the U of L, the picture looks considerably more bleak,” she says, with close to an eight-per-cent cut.

“For sure, tuition is going to go up,” and now students and parents will have lost the opportunity to claim a provincial education credit when income taxes come due.

School boards, city and municipal councils across the province are also facing difficult decisions, Phillips said.

“They have been left with extremely unpopular choices.

“And they only have one person to blame and that’s the liar who sits in the premier’s chair.”

Despite widespread cuts, she said, the Kenney budget shows a deficit that’s $2 billion higher than the New Democrats had planned. And its target for a balanced budget is the same year as the New Democrats had specified.

“He gave $4.7 billion away to large, already profitable corporations – who have done nothing but cut jobs, not create them.”

The Kenney government, she said, has done little to diversify an economy that relies so heavily on oil and gas. Now its budget has cancelled diversification programs for film productions, digital media, renewable resources.

“All those things which would really diversify the economy.”

In the end, Phillips said, Albertans will have to hold the premier to account for his “great big monstrous lies.

“You can’t just go out and sell people a bill of goods and not be called on it.

“If you’re going to say something that’s demonstrably untrue, there needs to accountability for it.”

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