More spending seems to be the name of the game for the Alberta NDP’s third budget that will be released on Thursday afternoon.
The Notley government has already said that the document will include money for new initiatives including schools, more prosecutors and court staff and support for frontline services.
Ten new schools are planned to be built in the province, with at least one of those in Calgary.
The funding for Crown prosecutors and other court staff comes from the fact that multiple court cases have been dropped because there weren’t enough people available to move them through the court system.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci spoke about the budget on Tuesday, during an annual photo-op where he handed a young soccer player a new set of cleats.
He also said the budget will include money for programs and services but the government will need to borrow to cover those costs.
Ceci said that that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point.
The Wildrose isn’t happy about the strategy the Notley government is taking, saying that it will lead the province to a deficit of nearly $11B.
“The Alberta Advantage is gone right now and, in fact, it’s going to get worse because if anybody’s looking at our own balance sheet, they understand that we are borrowing a quarter of our budget a year and we’ve been borrowing money for 10 years in a row now,” said Wildrose finance critic Derek Fildebrandt.
The Alberta PCs have also criticized the NDP’s stance, saying that the party is ‘spending its brains out’ and continues to put Alberta into a deep hole.
However, the Notley government says it has a plan to take on the deficit but admits it won’t be able to balance the books until 2024.
More details on the NDP’s plan will be released along with the budget on Thursday afternoon.
Full coverage of the Alberta Budget 2017 will be available online.
