Empowering Albertans to take control of their finances
By Lethbridge Herald on May 11, 2024.
AT THE LEGISLATURE
Nathan Neudorf – UCP MLA for Lethbridge East
It is no secret that the cost of living is hitting Albertans hard. I hear from constituents every day who are struggling with inflation, unaffordable housing, food insecurity, and other consequences that come with the high cost of living.
This is putting more pressure on social programs, not-for-profits, and food banks, who are trying to keep up with the increasing demand for their help.
Our government knows that affordability remains a top concern for Albertans. When the Premier appointed me as the Minister of Affordability and Utilities, she tasked me with several initiatives that primarily involved making life more affordable for Albertans.
And as we are continually being asked to stretch our dollars just a little bit more, I want to reiterate my commitment to making it happen.
Part of my work to ensure Albertans are confident in their finances is to empower them to make the best decisions with their hard-earned money.
This is why we have launched the Affordable Advice for Life webpage, which provides Albertans with tools to take control of their finances.
The webpage has tips and resources to assist Albertans from all walks of life – from low-income seniors, to students, to families – who have been impacted by inflation and the high cost of living.
Affordable Advice for Life provides free, evidence-based information on topics such as financial literacy, debt management, saving tips, and preparing for a life event.
It even has resources for students – from K to 12, all the way to post-secondary – ensuring that even from a young age Albertans can take control of their financial future.
Think of the kinds of financial skills you wish you had learned in school – how to bundle insurance, how to secure a mortgage – and you will likely find it on this page in a way that is easy to understand and more importantly, sustainable to implement into your everyday life.
Alberta is full of resilient, hardworking people who deserve to have the tools to make the best decisions with their money that will set up them and their family for the future.
The Affordable Advice for Life webpage is a place where Albertans can confidently access information to aid them in making informed purchase decisions and support their personal financial goals.
This webpage is only part of the government’s ongoing efforts to address the affordability concerns of Albertans.
Our low-tax environment, combined with our government’s ongoing red tape reduction and affordability measures have helped stabilize costs and kept prices comparatively low.
I will continue to work across ministries to build on existing affordability measures to keep this province affordable now and for years to come.
Alberta continues to be a leader in affordability policy in Canada, empowering Albertans to take a vested interest in their financial empowerment.
To learn more on how you can better protect yourself against high costs of living, you can head to http://www.alberta.ca/affordability.
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Oh, good. A website. That should help.
i expect the development of said website helped some very close to the ucp. they may not be any better at stretching their dollar, but they will have a good fistful with which to stretch their purchasing power.
hmm, i wonder if the website suggests coupon clipping and buying non-brandname tins? can’t wait to find out!
Our government knows that affordability remains a top concern? What? Seriously? How much more tone deaf is this Smith/Parker UCP/TBA government going to get?
How about the UCP removing the cap on electricity rates? Albertans pay the 2nd highest electricity rates in the country. How about bringing back the cap?
How about the UCP removing the cap on insurance rates? How about reinstating the cap?
How about refunding municipalities so our property taxes don’t keep going up?
How about doing more fair taxation so that we can have a more equal and restful society with less expensive crime and ill health rates? This can be done by implementing a more progressive income tax system and establishing a wealth tax on luxury goods.
Enough is Enough!
Democracy Not Autocracy!
and each election we keep endorsing and further entrenching the latter.
I quickly perused the site that the our great leader Neudorf recommended. A true bit of cowflop this site in so far as anything new from the UCP. This material which is “evidence based” has been available in one guise or another for many moons, often as articles presented as you scan your social media and even open your computer daily. I had to laugh particularly when I saw the second bit of advice regarding timeless money tips was to start to save money through TFSAs and RRSPS which of course are federal government initiatives from long ago !!! Odd… the UCP almost daily chant and drive home the idea that we should not participate in any intrusive and dreadful federal government programs. I had a discussion with a young women working at a local hardware store about six months ago. She explained that she would love to start to save money, once she started getting more hours at either of her two part-time jobs… that neither would ever give her more than a minimal number of shifts per week (to avoid paying her any benefits). Meanwhile she could barely afford fresh food let alone her diabetes medication. She had no vehicle to drive in, so relying upon public transportation was limited to the jobs she could apply for, let alone considering overnight shift work, as there was no transportation to or from those jobs because of the location of these plants… and as a woman it was too frightening to walk about in the dark in industrial areas, and that buses didn’t run late at night even if she considered the long walks to a bus stop. So Neudorf’s idea of UCP empowerment is LAUGHABLE. This twit is out of touch with the everyday reality of so many these days… “Shop at a thrift shop” !?!?!? is that the concern and empowerment you are so busy and hard at work to come up with Nathan Neudorf ? — Appalling bit of brainwashing rhetoric here. Cons/UCP ensured that the corporations could reap millions in profits, while the masses currently struggle to purchase bare necessities, then Neudorf brags about his contributions. Wow, simply WOW !
It’s no surprise that the Utilities Minister left out some of the best affordability solutions on his website for partisan reasons. While touting his government’s history of fossil fuel subsidies, he fails to tell Albertans about the long-term savings they can enjoy by installing solar panels and/or heat pumps when they build or renovate a home. This in spite of Alberta having one of the best solar energy resources in all of North America. It’s clear some natural resources will never be developed under this provincial government.
Good catch; an astute observation and remark Lethson. The wilful and astounding ignorance of the UCP to the globally growing renewable resources technology is partisanship at its worst.