Following Alberta’s Economic Summit in Calgary over the weekend, Cochrane mayor Truper McBride said he believed the non-partisan event made significant strides toward finding a way for the provincial government to collect and utilize taxpayer money more efficiently.
Invited by Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey to attend the summit, McBride, who is also chair of the Calgary Regional Partnership, said his main reason for wanting to be part of the event stemmed from his concern that Alberta currently needs to repair its fiscal framework.
“Right now, nearly a third of the provincial operating budget is funded through non-renewable resource revenue,” said McBride, “essentially, we’re discounting the today at the expense of the future.”
McBride said he believes Albertans should stop spending the next generation’s inheritance and begin paying for the services they now use, and to do so, the province must look at ways to bring in revenue, while at the same time, reducing its spending.
McBride said the additional resource revenue that could be brought in through a mix of revenue solutions, should be invested into Alberta’s Heritage Fund, which would in time create an additional revenue stream and resolve the gab between what the province brings in to what it spends.
“The reality is that this province has to relook how it’s spending, generating revenue and investing,” said McBride. “It’s not only a revenue problem and it is not only a spending issue.”
Discussed during the Feb. 9 summit was the introduction of a consumption tax as one way to bring about financial stability.
Another approach would be to abolish income tax on all but the very wealthy, while instituting a consumption tax with low-income exemptions.
A third option was to end Alberta’s flat tax and return to the progressive model used by other provinces.
McBride said health care and education consumed discussions on the spending side.
“We spend near the highest on these two areas, yet we aren’t seeing the top results in terms of output,” he said.
McBride said many at the summit believed inefficiencies in health care and education were due to Albertans not paying fully for the service.
“They argued that if the government actually had to fully fund these systems with taxpayers’ dollars that we would see the accountability in these systems go up dramatically,” said McBride.
As for funding to municipalities, McBride pointed out that with grants being provided by the provincial government to communities like Cochrane, the level of government that spends the money is not necessarily the one generating that money, and that many who attended the summit are of the belief that governments that spend the money should also raise the revenue through taxes.
“This is something that both myself and many mayors support,” said McBride, “and something that I think would also bring some efficiencies to the complex and administratively costly grant system the province currently employs for municipalities.”
With the array of ideas tossed around during the economic summit, McBride hopes people get the right message as to what came out of the event.
“Nothing at this conference was about the government or those in attendance trying to dream up new forms of taxation just so they can spend more money,” McBride explained, saying that it is more about taxes being collected differently. “No one want to pay more taxes, but we all need to realize that the current system is broken, irresponsible to our children and works against government accountability.
“I hope they take the advice given to them over the weekend and move forward with it.”
