Article content

The new United Conservative Party caucus is facing a $337,000 budget black hole unless it takes drastic action, the Journal has learned.

To cover the shortfall, it’s looking at staff layoffs and will ask MLAs to dip into their members’ services allowances. A source spoke to the Journal about the financial situation on the condition of anonymity because the person isn’t authorized to talk about the issue.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or United Conservative Party caucus facing deficit, considering job cuts Back to video

A handful of UCP staffers are currently on leave while they work on leadership campaigns, but even the money caucus is saving there doesn’t plug the gap.

Each caucus gets an annual budget and isn’t allowed to go into deficit. At a high-level meeting Thursday afternoon, UCP caucus brass grappled with finding savings.

The funding essentially comes from taxpayers, administered through the legislative assembly office.

Estimates put the 2017-18 allowance at $2.8 million for Wildrose and $1.13 million for the Progressive Conservative caucus, but those figures were prior to the parties merging.