The UCP’s election platform promised to eliminate deficits by 2022-23 without increasing taxes, although critics warned that the plan would lead to painful cuts to services such as health-care and education.Alberta’s new United Conservative government appointed a former Saskatchewan finance minister to lead a panel that will identify the “difficult” decisions required to freeze spending over the next four years and balance the province’s budget.
“Albertans understand that in the long run, debt cripples our ability to provide high-quality public services,” he told a news conference in Edmonton. Ms. MacKinnon, who relied on a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to eliminate Saskatchewan’s deep deficits in the 1990s, said getting deficits under control quickly will allow Alberta to avoid “draconian” cuts in the future.
“The numbers just don’t add up," he told reporters in Edmonton. “There will be cuts, and my concern is that he’s using this panel as a way to justify it.”