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“There’s good times and bad times to be making shifts in policy,” she said. “Right now, with what’s happening in our economy, now is not the time to be putting a further burden on business, now is not a time to be making us less competitive, to be making us less attractive for investment, this is just not the time.”

She was less specific when asked what the right time for them would be.

“There are gradual policy shifts but I think they all need to look at what’s happening right now cumulatively,” she said.

The KPMG report shows personal and business insolvencies have increased by nearly a third since 2014.

When asked whether the rest of the country might simply see that as a levelling off of Alberta, Riopel turned the focus on individuals.

“There’s no denying that Alberta has been an economic engine for this country for years and can continue to be that in future,” she said.

“Alberta, the north particularly, has employed hundreds of thousands of people from other parts of our country, that now are being faced with going home to no jobs and no ability to feed and clothe and house their families … that means there’s less money to spend for families on all of the things that they need and those things were generated out of the energy sector. Alberta has more than contributed their share to this country and they will continue to do that.”

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