Alberta Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean departs for the next event after speaking with the media at the flood damaged Kananaskis golf course in Kananaskis, Alberta, Wednesday, April 8, 2015. Mr. Jean unveiled a blueprint to slash management jobs in government and health care, while deferring some capital projects and avoiding tax hikes.Mike Ridewood/The Canadian Press
Alberta's opposition parties, challenged by Premier Jim Prentice to provide their own plans to fix the province's embattled economy, fired back Thursday.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, in Edmonton, unveiled a blueprint to slash management jobs in government and health care, while deferring some capital projects and avoiding tax hikes.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley told an audience in Lethbridge that her team would create an estimated 27,000 new jobs by launching a tax credit to create jobs.
Albertans go to the polls on May 5 in an election Mr. Prentice called to give him a mandate to implement what he says is a budget that fundamentally restructures government finances.
The budget hikes taxes and fees virtually across the board except for corporations, cuts most departmental budgets, racks up a $5-billion deficit this year and an estimated $30-billion in debt by the end of the decade. Mr. Prentice has said these are difficult but necessary measures to ensure that day-to-day spending on people and programs isn't cut every time the price of oil falls.
Oil prices have been halved over the last nine months, leaving Alberta's treasury billions of dollars short.
But Mr. Jean, on Thursday, said Mr. Prentice has failed to attack waste and excess in government ranks and has instead chosen to "punish" Alberta families with tax hikes.
"Our government is bloated because after 40 years [of PC government], too many executive offices and agencies are filled with PC cronies," said Mr. Jean.
He said the Wildrose would cut 1/3 of government managers and half the managers in Alberta Health Services, mostly through attrition. The party would also slash government travel and advertising budgets, limit the use of consultants and roll back pay for politicians.
Mr. Jean said that would save more than $2-billion in this budget year alone and help balance the budget by 2017. He said his government would also keep building critical infrastructure, but would defer lower-priority projects for a year.