The Kenney Government
 

Lots of threads on other levels of politics. Lets talk about the Kenny UCP government.

What do you think so far? What do you think of the released budget? Any policies or legislation you like or dislike?

Well he did finally get me to quit smoking with the price increase, honestly a disgusting habit so have no problem with the increase.

What he’s done so far he’s s ok, with me including last weeks budget. What concerns me is I see him waffling with sparkle socks. Playing politics with a clown is never a good idea as far as I’m concerned. His 2 years to see results is WAAAAAYYYYY to long.
Cancel bill c69 and 48 in 90 days or we’re having a referendum to deal with separation. He needs to be aggressive in his approach and walk his talk.

BW

They've been doing what they promised to, how refreshing.

Axed the provincial carbon tax: Check. Doing so then transferred it to the feds to institute on us later, but it also gives the feds all the voter resentment that accompanies it.

So far so good, get that referendum going with in the year. Why wait. Capitalize on the anger :)

Reducing the funding to technology innovation is a short-sighted strategic error that will set us back and hurt an important part of the Alberta Advantage. The oil sands were brought into production with this funding support. Makes no sense unless the immediate objective is to make falsely significant moves and then leverage enough favour to support a Federal PC leadership play.

Counting on revenue increases to really reduce the deficit is a dicey gamble.

The stronger strategy would be to reduce or eliminate transfer / equalization payments. But that’s real work. Easier to play with smoke and mirrors in your own playground.

I said years ago that for budgeting purposes, the budget should be based on $25/barrel oil. All the excess should be placed into the heritage trust fund.

100% agreed on your first part. That and eliminating STEP are two things that I don't agree with at all. STEP, which was where the gov't would subsidize $7/hr (up to 37.5 hrs) of a wage for a company hiring a student.

For those with kids in highschool/college/university that program was worth its weight in gold. Incentivized companies to create temporary student positions where the students not only got employment opportunities in their out-of-school months but also quality experience. This was an especially huge program for uni students. Gave them a chance to have some real work experience coming into a job market where entry level positions ask for 1-2+ years of experience, or even better, got them a foot in the door at an org. This also meant it was a valuable method for companies to create risk-free talent pipelines of students coming out of post-secondary.

Program cost $7.1m in 2018. I get the cuts have to come from somewhere but a guy has to figure there has to be a worse utilized funds than that. Like maybe they could have reduced the $4 billion tax cut to energy companies by $7m...

Gotta disagree with you jstubbs. Subsidizing any class of worker is a slippery slope, and in my view, not a core government function. Until we get back on our feet and our debt paid down, stick to core functions only. If we can afford the feel-good or 'wouldn't it be nice' stuff, then we can afford to pay down debt.

I think Kenny's doing just fine, we hired the pit-bull, now give him the yard!

I really love the cuts he is making to front line health care workers. The ones already overworked and stressed with an ever increasing workload and no corresponding increase to resources. Cut management all you want but we need paramedics in ambulances on the streets and nurses in the hospitals taking care of people’s families and friends.

I'm not too impressed with him, but I didn't expect much better.

His cuts to the bloated government are not enough. He doesn't want to stick his neck out and make the bigger cuts that we need, he just wants to be popular to further his career and will mostly continue the status quo in a way that won't **** anyone off.

He won't do anything to curb the massive immigration or social welfare programs or bloated government in general that is destroying the middle class.

Reducing tax on business is a conservative mantra that I find very questionable in the age of global and foreign companies where everything is about profit for shareholders, not about doing the nice thing and reinvesting in the local economy.

He's better than the NDP, but that's an extremely low bar.

Kenny is going to make Ralph Klein look like Bernie Sanders as he guts the public sector.

Everytime you hear Kenney refer to the "ndp's unsustainable path to $100 billion debt" remember this: According to his own budget, the NDP was on a path to $97 billion in debt, now we are on a path to $93 billion.

Those projections are just educated guesses. And the NDP beat their projections in 3 out of 4 years. There was a good chance that difference would end up smaller.

That $97 billion included more roads, schools, teachers, nurses, oil upgrading, refining, petrochemical plants, transit, efficiency upgrades, innovation and research, funding for cities, lower tuition, lower income taxes, free drug prescriptions for seniors and $25 daycare for everyone.

The $93 billion includes tax breaks for corporations and a degradation of services across the board

I think you are leaving out the fact that $93 billion is still paying for most of the services you stated. They haven't disappeared. $25 day care for everyone?!?! This was select day cares at select places.

Think of it this way. That is $4 billion less that our kids will have to pay. Piling on debt isn't sustainable in our personal lives so why would it be for the government?

Exactly, the first question I ask anybody that complains about spending cuts and fiscal responsibility is: How long is it acceptable for a government to live beyond its means?

How long would you consider it acceptable in your personal finances to spend more than you make? Does that behavior secure future sustainability?

The first payment requirement of any government in debt is to service that debt. That is money that doesn't get spent of basic services or anyone's pet programs. It goes to the lenders.

As repeated annual deficits add to the accumulated debit it further limits a government's ability to supply services. If interest rates were to rise, that problem is compounded when you're carrying debit.

How long can we continue to mortgage the future for our children and limit future governments ability to provide basic services because they're saddled with massive debt and interest payments?

There are consequences to elections and we sit on different sides of the fence. I haven’t seen anything yet, especially since the budget came out, that gives me hope this isn’t going to be the early 80’s all over again. And that may be just what some folks want, I get that too.

I doubt anyone here wants front line services cut. A small haircut to the front line and some big cuts to the bureaucracy. We need our great teachers and we need our great nurses, etc.

As far as I know, there are no cuts to the healthcare at all. There are some small cuts to the AISH group that I think could’ve been avoided.
I do however think that he needs to get rid of all the “new hires” that NDP created in their beaurocratic government. that was I believe over 5000 jobs...

It is very doubtful that the NDP would have improved anything other than increasing the size of the debt. They spent more on health and hired more workers but wait times increased. They spent a fortune on education but class sizes remained too large. At some point government MUST look at reducing spending to what is sustainable. And quite honestly the government should be able to cut spending by 10% and still provide the same level of services by becoming more efficient.

That's alot of value for $4B!! :bad_boys_20:

Part of something that was forwarded to me by someone working for AHS:

1100 positions added annually? It means - 4400 jobs in 4 years? I’m not in medical fields but I think that is a redicuosly high numbers.
As for the new and now thank God dead super lab- I can give you an insider information. Have a friend who works for Dynalife and they are doing all the lab work for Alberta now with ( I don’t remember the exact numbers so this is just for the illustration purposes) 10 doctors and 20 technicians. The new super lab was suppose to do the same job but with something like 40 doctors and 200 technician... and run by the government., not a private company... How is that for efficiency, eh?

I spent 10 days in one hospital last year and many follow up and rehab visits at another facility. It didn’t appear that anyone there was overworked. The staff at both facilities appeared to have plenty of time for coffee breaks and gossip time centered around their personal affairs. Staff didn’t seem pressured at all.

Before they start cutting lower and middle class people in Alberta I would like them to cut the transfer payments to Quebec. At least give them their payment in gas and oil.

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What I think about this government is that it is terrible. The budget has literally nothing to offer anyone, other than the shareholders of corporations, many of whom don't even live here. The cuts to services are brutal and unnecessary, and the way they're dealing with the public sector workers is insulting beyond comprehension. And before anyone says "well we have to deal with the deficit, get our fiscal house in order, blah blah blah:" The deficit is 2.2 BILLION DOLLARS MORE than the last NPD one! And all this while actually increasing the taxes that regular people will pay, by separating the levels of taxation from inflation, and also by decreasing funding for municipalities, which will lead to major increases in property taxes. And yet many are saying they're doing a great job. Kenney is a scumbag shill for corporate interests, and it is plainly obvious. What will it take for people to see that? Maybe the massive sell-off of crown land that's coming will do it, but probably not.

You can't keep spending more money than you are taking in. Plain and simple.
As deficits grow, you are paying more money in interest. Pretty soon as the deficit grows, taxes only end up paying the vig and not the principal.

Either taxes go up further to pay for the reckless spending or you make cuts. Plain and simple.

I find the people that dont understand this and dont care about government deficits are the ones who can't personally manage their finances and are living off credit themselves.

Is this a response to my post? If so, yes, I agree with you. So, if I may ask, what, for you, is the appeal of a budget which raises taxes for you personally, and ALSO makes the deficit bigger??

Strong words, you must have a better way.
Your plan for fiscal responsibility and a return to balanced budgets would be?????

By the way, is the deficit higher because of reckless spending or declining revenues from the oil industry and an economy in general that's been in the toilet since the NDP (not NPD) took office?

With the present state of Alberta’s economy and the fact it’s going to be an up hill battle to get things accomplished with the results ofThe Federal election it’s not going to be an easy task to be Alberta’s premier.

What do you do rack up debt and hope things improve before debt gets out of control. Or do cut back spending and expenses while you search for a light at the end of the tunnel? Either choice as a premier you will **** off part of the population

Too early to judge how successful Kenny will be bad premier but I can see why he is taking the steps he has

AGAIN: He's racking up debt faster than the previous government. Please explain to me how this is supposed to be an improvement.