Alberta’s opposition Wildrose Party is taking issue with a number of aspects of the new NDP budget that was tabled in the Legislature Tuesday. Among the biggest issues are increased taxes and the borrowing of money to pay operating expenses. Grande Prairie-Smoky Wildrose MLA Todd Loewen says he would have preferred to see more waste cutting in the budget, rather than taxes being raised so high.
“There’s a lot of things that could be done after 44 years of one government in power. There’s a lot of waste to be cut and we need to cut that, but we don’t need to cut any front line staff. That’s unnecessary and as a result of this debt that they are racking up, we’re just worried that they are going to be cutting front line staff in the future”
Loewen says the Wildrose also intend to have a thorough look at the list of infrastructure projects that are going to be prioritized, once that list has been completed.
“There’s line items in there that are basically blank. There’s money allocated but we don’t know where to. That’s one thing, we want to see a detailed list of infrastructure projects that are being funded, and we need to see that it is being prioritized properly by need rather than by political whims.”
Loewen says he is also concerned about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anything in the budget to address the loss of jobs here in his riding and across the Peace region.