Alberta Minute: Budget Day, Gun Bans, and Progressive Groups Pushing Sales Taxes

Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.

This Week In Alberta:

• On Thursday, the Legislature will return for one day for the presentation of the 2021 Alberta Budget. The budget will be presented at 3:15 pm and you can live-stream it here on the Alberta government website. We'll also have commentary and analysis on our Facebook Page, Facebook Group, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts.
  
  
• Two Legislature committees will also be meeting this week, with the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices meeting on Tuesday at 9:00 am to discuss changes to the Ombudsman Act. Meanwhile, on Friday at 9:00 am, the Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members' Public Bills will meet to consider a proposal to amend the AIMCO Act by Shannon Phillips, and Jason Stephan's Cost of Public Services Transparency Act.
  
  
• Alberta has also launched Phase 1B of its COVID vaccination rollout. Seniors aged 75 and older will be eligible to book their vaccine appointment through AHS online or on the phone, beginning Wednesday, February 24th.

Last Week In Alberta:

• The Business Council of Alberta, representing a "progressive" group of businesses laid out their plan to balance the Alberta budget which included some spending cuts but also included major tax hikes on already struggling Albertans, including a $50/ton carbon tax and an 8% sales tax. This perhaps isn't too surprising given these are both taxes that could easily be passed on by businesses to consumers (ie you!)
  
  
• The Canadian Taxpayers Federation also took issue with the BCA's proposal, noting that the business group didn't recommend cutting any of the corporate welfare that their supporters benefit from. We also pointed out that, despite low oil prices, a recession, and a pandemic, all Alberta would have to do to balance our budget is spend the same per-capita as Ontario.
  
  
• Finally, after the federal government announced their plans to allow municipal governments to ban guns, the Province said that they will speed up the introduction of a Bill that was originally a Private Members Bill by Michaela Glasgo, MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat, that would nullify the federal law in Alberta.

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