Business council calls for re-examination of provincial revenue model

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The whole lot must be on the desk, together with dialogue of a provincial gross sales tax, mentioned Enterprise Council of Alberta president Adam Legge

Printed Apr 13, 2023 • Final up to date 22 minutes in the past • 3 minute learn

FILE PHOTO: Adam Legge, president of the Enterprise Council of Alberta, in Fort McMurray, Alta. on Oct. 19, 2022. Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray Right now/Postmedia Community

The Enterprise Council of Alberta is looking for a re-evaluation of the province’s income mannequin to interrupt the boom-and-bust cycles which have plagued the provincial financial system.

The group is looking for the creation of a panel just like the MacKinnon Report on Alberta’s Funds. The whole lot must be on the desk, together with dialogue of a provincial gross sales tax, council president Adam Legge mentioned in an interview with Postmedia on the discharge of the group’s election coverage platform on Thursday morning.

“We all know that it’s political suicide in Alberta, and so I fear that the dialog will proceed available however with out the consideration of what’s a really viable choice, and that we’re actually not going to get to the appropriate resolution,” he mentioned.

The thought of a provincial gross sales tax will not be utterly overseas in Alberta. It’s a main plank within the Alberta Social gathering platform as a manner to offer sustainable funding, whereas the Alberta Liberal Social gathering in 2019 proposed an HST whereas decreasing revenue taxes. Each events have been shut out of the legislature within the final election.

Alberta is the one province with out a provincial gross sales tax or harmonized gross sales tax.

CCUS, carbon tax amongst matters raised

With the transition to greener applied sciences and away from oil and fuel, this sort of ahead pondering is essential, Legge mentioned.

The platform notes that oil and fuel will proceed to function an integral a part of Alberta’s financial system for so long as there’s a demand for hydrocarbons.

The council calls on the following authorities to develop a stackable provincial incentive towards carbon seize utilization and storage to enrich the federal authorities’s CCUS funding tax credit score. Many organizations have referred to as on the province and Ottawa to extend help of CCUS packages to encourage funding and to stay aggressive with the U.S.

The platform additionally notes the necessity for the event of an Alberta Vitality Options technique to additional Alberta as a worldwide chief in low/no-carbon energies, minerals and supplies. This consists of renewable pure fuel, geothermal, hydrogen, small modular nuclear, carbon fibre, essential minerals and petrochemicals.

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The report additionally mentioned it’s time for Alberta to re-create its personal client carbon tax, in favour of the federal program.

Legge mentioned the Supreme Court docket has been clear in its rulings on the carbon tax and it’s time for the province to just accept it.

“The fact is that they’re not going away and it’s a matter of management,” mentioned Legge. “We have to reassert our management over the gathering and distribution of that cash.”

Funding in post-secondary vital: report

The platform additionally requires continued funding in post-secondary schooling for the event of an in-demand expert workforce.

Legge particularly recognized science and expertise, engineering and well being care as areas that require funding.

Legge credited the federal government for making strides in adapting immigration fashions and targets for credentialing, and the expert labour mobility act, however extra work is required. He pointed to well being care and the Nova Scotia mannequin, wherein a nurse may be recertified in 24 hours, a course of that might take months if not years in Alberta.

The aim of the coverage platform is to make sure Alberta has the chance to be a worldwide chief in offering options within the areas of meals and agriculture, power, supplies and minerals, and in medical and wellness alternatives.

Legge mentioned Alberta has a historical past of having the ability to keep forward of the curve, and argues it’s time for Alberta to take the same strategy once more.

“We actually really feel that Alberta is at a cut-off date the place we’ve received to be very purposeful concerning the decisions we make and the imaginative and prescient that we’re embracing as a province, and due to this fact what we’re going to lean into,” he mentioned.

jaldrich@postmedia.com

Twitter: @JoshAldrich03

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