Bill 204 – Fiscal Responsibility (Spending Limit) Amendment Act, 2010


Mrs. Forsyth: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to rise today to speak to Bill 204. When my children were young, my husband and I didn’t have a lot of money. What money we did have went to paying the mortgage, making sure the utility bills were paid, and buying food. These were what we considered the essentials in life.Because we set out a plan and budgeted for these expenses, any money that was left over went into our savings account. We knew that sometimes there would be unexpected spending emergencies or temporary shortfalls in our income, and this way they would be covered. When we got raises or sometimes unexpected amounts of money in a given year, we tried to keep our budget basically the same because we knew we could live just fine this year on the budget that worked for us last year.

There were two things that made us have to increase our budget, and one was inflation. Obviously, when the cost of gas or groceries goes up, you have to adjust your budget if you can afford to. The other thing that made it necessary to increase our family budget was having children.

This makes obvious sense, and I believe it works as well for government as it does for family. This is what fiscal responsibility means to our family and many other families. To us fiscal responsibility meant that your outgo did not exceed your income. What this meant to us as a family was that one could use credit or have debit to some degree but the challenge was deciding what was permissible debt and what was luxurious debt. For my husband and I there was only one good reason to be in debt, and that was to pay for a house, as there are not a lot of people who can purchase their house in cash.

Mr. Speaker, we have spent many decades operating our household with the understanding that sometimes I can’t have what I want when I want it just because I want it. The point I’m trying to make is that because my husband and I budgeted, we knew exactly how much money we had to spend. Just because we made more money one year didn’t mean we had to throw last year’s budget out the window.

Knowing what you need to spend money on and sticking to it is the key to fiscal responsibility, and that is essentially, in my mind, what Bill 204 is trying to accomplish. Bill 204, the Fiscal Responsibility (Spending Limit) Amendment Act, 2010, will allow the government to curb the kind of runaway spending that we have seen in recent years by implementing a spending cap of inflation plus population growth or the average spending of Canada’s remaining provinces, whichever is higher.

What does fiscal responsibility truly mean? Does it mean eliminating the deficit, or does it mean getting the deficit under control? Better yet, Mr. Speaker, what do Albertans want to see?

Well, I can only tell you what I have heard over the last many, many months. Albertans want us to establish a tradition of planning, which means they want departments to run efficiently, and they want departments to run with clear outcomes. They want the government to clearly assess needs, and they want the government to clearly set priorities.

Albertans believe effective budgeting and long-term planning is key. Albertans have clearly told us: it is very easy to say no to everything; it is harder to evaluate our province’s responsibilities, look at past performances, assess the needs of each department, and decide where the money should go.

Let me give you an example of what I mean, Mr. Speaker. As an MLA I have spent a lot of time talking to the constituents of Calgary-Fish Creek. Not once do I remember any constituent in Calgary-Fish Creek telling me to come up with a new slogan for Alberta. They quite liked Alberta advantage. They liked what it meant, and they liked having Alberta advantage as their slogan. Yet the government went ahead with $25 million over three years on rebranding our province. What a waste of money. The money that was spent on this foolish initiative could have been used for – let me think. How about home care for a few thousand seniors to free up acute-care beds?

Mr. Speaker, we must be fiscally responsible and live under spending restraints in the same manner that our Alberta families do.

The government members will stand up and talk about the downturn in the economy – and, you know, I truly understand that – even though it was made a lot worse in the province because of the government’s poor policies.

The Member for Athabasca-Redwater speaks about how members from their Progressive Conservative convention did not support the motion from the Member for Airdrie-Chestermere. Well, Mr.

Speaker, as someone who was on the other side, I saw hundreds and hundreds of motions or resolutions go through the convention floor when I was a member of the Progressive Conservatives. What happened to them? One of the biggest criticisms from the Progressive Conservatives who went to the convention was: what’s happening to the motions and resolutions that hit the floor?

We also know that resource revenues in this province are subject to fluctuations which make it nearly impossible to forecast a specified revenue level. That’s why our spending should be more independent of nonrenewable resources. We have seen this before and, quite frankly, should have learned the lesson already. Mr. Speaker, I love the Boy Scout’s slogan, and I think it’s a good one: Be Prepared.

I’m like many Albertans; I want us to restore the Alberta advantage. Alberta should be leading this country in fiscal responsibility, not in big government and not in huge debt. I urge everyone to support the bill so that our fiscal future will be on solid ground.

Thank you.