Dear friends,
Finance Minister, the Honourable Travis Toews tabled his budget on Thursday.
As many of us know, you can not develop a budget unless you first develop a plan.
Minister Toews and the UCP are working tirelessly to create jobs, make life better for Albertans and stand up for Alberta.
Budget 2020 shows a commitment of $6.9 billion dedicated for infrastructure, which when coupled with the Job Creation Tax Cut to make us the lowest tax burden on job creators in Canada, the Red Tape Reduction measures being implemented to remove regulatory burdens on Alberta businesses, plans to revitalize and sustain our key industries of oil and gas, agriculture, forestry and tourism, and innovative strategies to modernize our economy, will help spur job creation and the 2.5 per cent economic growth currently being forecast.
Our plan to make life better for Albertans shows budget 2020 keeping our platform commitment of maintaining or increasing Education and Healthcare funding comparative to the 2019 levels.
This year school boards across the province will see a slight increase in funding to $8.3 billion. Our new education funding model provides more flexibility for school boards but also ensures more accountability so more education funding reaches the classrooms where it belongs.
Our Healthcare budget has increased to $20.6 billion and includes $140 million dedicated to our mental health and addictions strategy and our continued focused response to the opioid crisis. While we are following through on our promise to maintain healthcare spending, despite it being the most expensive per capita health care system in our country, the government is focused on finding cost savings and efficiencies within the healthcare system so the savings can be provided to the frontlines of healthcare, where the resources belong, to produce the best possible outcomes that Albertans should expect.
Investing $3.9 billion in Community and Social Services, $1.6 billion in Children鈥檚 Services and $637 million for Seniors and Housing, will ensure that essential services are still provided for those who need it most and to ensure that Alberta continues to be the best province to live and work in. Our government will still be working to simplify and streamline services and programs to find efficiencies where possible.
As always, if you have any questions on the budget, or the decisions our government is making, please do not hesitate to contact my office at [email protected].
Martin Long
West Yellowhead
