Alberta Minute: Teck Frontier, Arts Spending, and more Corporate Welfare
Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.
This Week In Alberta:
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The Legislature will reconvene this week with the Speech from the Throne planned for this Tuesday. The speech will open a new legislative session and outline the broad goals and direction for the government. The Premier has already indicated that one of the things the speech will address will be his government's mandate to fight for Alberta.
- The Finance Minister will be tabling his provincial budget on Thursday. He has indicated that the budget is designed to create jobs and grow Alberta's economy, but one thing we know for sure regarding next week's budget is that Albertans' income tax bills are going up.
- While the federal government will no longer have to make a decision on the Teck Frontier Project this week (see below), the Alberta government must make a decision on the Rigel Oildsands Project this week, unless their appeal of the Court of Queen's Bench decision is successful.
Last Week In Alberta:
- Late last night it was announced that Teck have withdrawn their application for the Teck Frontier Project. Presumably, this decision has been made because they received confirmation that their project was going to be rejected by the federal government this week. The federal government should apologize, invite Teck to resubmit the application, and then IMMEDIATELY approve it to provide the certainty required for this project to get underway. You can sign our petition calling for this here.
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Despite facing challenging economic conditions, budget cuts in many departments, and more than $70 billion of debt, the Alberta Government has somehow found $40 million for the Glenbow Museum's revitalization project. Given most of the project's expected cost of $115 million is to be raised from private donations, couldn't the project have been scaled down slightly (or the donors have just chipped in a little extra) in order to be able to do it without relying on already over-taxed Albertans?
- Speaking of spending money we don't have - why on earth is a Sherwood Park chocolate shop receiving taxpayer-funded corporate welfare? As the Canadian Taxpayers wrote, a better headline would have been "Sweet corporate welfare leaves a bitter taste in taxpayers' mouths".
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