The UCP’s first bill of the legislative session proposes to put any corporate or personal tax hikes to a referendum, a plan the province says would “preserve Alberta’s tax advantage,” but which St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud calls a “shell game.”
Tabled on Monday, Bill 1 would stop the provincial government from raising personal or corporate income taxes, reducing personal income tax bracket thresholds, or reducing the basic personal, spousal or equivalent-to-spouse credit amounts without first consulting Alberta citizens in a province-wide referendum.
In a news release, the UCP said the act would “fulfil a promise” to give Albertans a say in tax increases.
“Albertans and Alberta businesses already pay the lowest overall taxes in the country; this legislation would protect that,” the release says. “Alberta’s corporate income tax revenue in 2022-23 was $8.2 billion, the most the province has ever recorded in a single fiscal year. This revenue comes as business incorporations in the province have increased three years in a row, further evidence that Alberta remains a strong place to start and grow a business.”
But St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud said the province doesn’t need to raise taxes to get more money out of Albertans.
“They pass on costs to municipalities all the time,” Renaud said. “A really clear example is [that] … the city of St. Albert now has to pay for certain DNA testing at the lab that was covered previously, or St. Albert used to keep more of the fine revenue — now the Government of Alberta takes more of a share of the revenue.”
Renaud said little changes like these add up, forcing municipalities like St. Albert to increase property taxes to cover revenue deficits.
She said she doubts a vote for higher taxes would ever be popular, and should taxes ever come to a referendum, the province would be forced to waste time and resources.
“It's just very manipulative, and so it's disappointing to see that their big focus is really on a bit of a gimmick instead of some of the real problems that we have,” she said.
Also on Monday, the province opened the fall legislative session with a speech from the throne that covered plans to address doctor shortages, housing and energy costs and drug addiction, among others.
“There are powerful forces in our country, including in the federal government, that believe our province must fundamentally alter our provincial economy and way of life, and that we must do so without delay or concern of cost,” said Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani, who delivered the speech.
“These same individuals believe that our province must also fundamentally transform our power grid to be net zero within approximately a decade, with risk to the reliability of Alberta’s power grid and at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to Alberta ratepayers.”
In the speech, the UCP threatened to use the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act if the federal government doesn’t comply with Alberta’s energy demands.
“If this government is coming out and saying that [the energy transition] is impossible, how on earth do they expect Albertans to trust them?” Renaud said. “We see jurisdictions all over the planet addressing climate change in really important, progressive ways, and we have a government that's hell-bent on going backwards.”
St. Albert MLA Dale Nally was not available for comment.
The legislative session began Oct. 30 and is slated to end on Dec. 7.
