Government Spending
February 17, 2010
Mrs. Forsyth: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the 1990s the people of Alberta made great sacrifices to help the government get its spending under control, as did many members of this government.
Last week the finance minister said that he wanted a bill that would legislate savings. The government was quick to toss aside balanced budget legislation when times got tough, and now they want to bring forward a bill that legislates savings. My question is to the President of the Treasury Board. Why would Albertans expect the government to treat the proposed savings legislation any differently than the balanced budget legislation when times get tough again?
Mr. Snelgrove: You know, Mr. Speaker, this finance minister and the previous finance minister both understand finances well enough to know that in the middle of the recession the most important thing we can do is get Albertans working and make sure that our financial house is in order. When things turn around – and they will – we will have a broad discussion with Albertans about how they want to see their future dollars, their savings, their investments in the future, their returns to Albertans being allocated. That’s exactly what the finance minister is committed to doing.
Mrs. Forsyth: Mr. Speaker, Albertans have every right to question this government’s commitment to truly fiscally conservative principles. At times their words are good, but their actions leave a lot of Albertans with heartaches. If this government had kept its spending under control in the really good years, this government wouldn’t have needed to get rid of the Deficit Elimination Act or drain the sustainability fund. My question is to the same minister: how soon can Albertans expect that the sustainability fund will be restored to the same level it was at before this government decided to use it to re-create fiscal restraint?
Mr. Snelgrove: Some days it’s spending, some days it’s saving, some days it’s, “Let’s go back to the ’90s,” and some days it’s, “Let’s go back to the ’50s.” The reason people are coming to Alberta is because we got it right. We didn’t get it perfect, but we got it right. We’re creating an environment where people are allowed to create wealth, to raise their families, to build small business into big business, to make responsible use of our resources and our people. We have a province that the rest of the world is trying to come to. All of the preview of what they’re going to offer Alberta is not what they want.
Mrs. Forsyth: Mr. Speaker, what we’re offering is what Albertans want. Mr. Speaker, it is important for Alberta to remain a successful, attractive place to do business. Albertans are hard-working, honest entrepreneurs. The government is planning on burning through more than 80 per cent of our province’s rainy-day fund by 2012. Can the minister assure Albertans that a fixed percentage of nonrenewable resource revenues are saved each year for our children and our grandchildren?
Mr. Snelgrove: Mr. Speaker, let’s be perfectly clear. We have two funds. We have a heritage savings trust fund that is there, untouched, for future generations and will continue to grow, and we have a savings account that we prudently put aside on the eventuality that this might happen, that we might enter into a recession. Wisely led by this Premier, we said: we’d better set some money over here for a rainy day. Well, I’ve got bad news for the member over there.
For a lot of Albertans it’s been raining pretty hard lately, and they want to see us get through it. They haven’t bothered to say: “What school are we going to close? What hospital are we going to close?”
We’re going to bridge this economy to the next go-forward.
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