UCP Budget will make Albertans pay more while corporations pay less

Premier Jason Kenney and the UCP Government’s bait-and-switch budget is going to hurt Albertans.

The UCP’s budget is a plan to make every day Albertans pay for their $4.5 billion no-jobs handout to big corporations and the super-rich which has done nothing but usher in 27,000 job losses.

And while people are losing their jobs, this government is cutting employment and income supports by 20 per cent over the next four years.

“What we saw today is Premier Kenney’s plan to make you pay more and get less,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said. “What he didn’t tell us was that every single Albertan was going to pay more in income tax.”

For the first time since 2001 they are not indexing tax brackets. This means Albertans will have to pay $600 million more in taxes over this term. They are raising taxes and cutting benefits while they give $4.5 billion away to big corporations.

The UCP also said they would maintain or increase spending to healthcare and education but they lied. There is now $100 million dollars less for nurses, fewer doctors in rural communities and there will be $90 million cut to drug coverage. This will kick at least 46,000 people off of the seniors drug plan.

“There’s less money for acute care in hospitals and if you live in Red Deer, and were counting on a badly needed re-build of the hospital, you’re out of luck,” Notley said. “Edmonton’s first new hospital in decades years will now take at least another decade if not more. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

On education, the UCP is not funding enrollment over the next four years. This year, they’ve just patched together funding for enrollment by cutting elsewhere.

While the NDP cut child poverty by 50 per cent, under the UCP up to 165,000 families will see a reduction in child and family benefits, including 55,000 families who will lose them entirely.