The future is looking brighter for Albertans
By Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2022.
Nathan Neudorf – UCP MLA for Lethbridge East
Despite the snow, I can sense spring in the air. It’s a welcome change of season – and I’m not just referring to the weather.
I don’t think I was the only one who appreciated Minister Toews budget speech, it was like the first warm spring day after a long winter. Toews articulately encapsulated the why behind the what in every initiative undertaken and every principle used in the formation of Budget 2022.
While it is a huge relief to have a balanced budget, the discipline of fiscal restraint can still be felt in several areas. However, we are creating a stronger, freer Alberta; for businesses, for families and for our future as a province. This will benefit us for years to come. There is still work ahead and additional investments needed, but with the steps taken to increase revenue from a more diversified economy, the future looks bright.
I’m not even going to try and tone down my excitement. Last year, Alberta broke its venture capital record for the third year in a row. Billions of dollars in private investment are pouring into our province in the agriculture and agri-food industry, the petrochemical and hydrogen economy, as well as the technology and aviation sectors, just to name a few.
By cutting down unnecessary regulations, we’ve freed up Alberta businesses to, quite simply, do business.
All told, the removal of regulatory requirements has saved Albertans, businesses and government the staggering total of $1.2 billion.
In Budget 2021, the net debt-to-GDP ratio was estimated to be 24.5 per cent. Now, with an improving fiscal picture, it’s forecasted to be 18.3 per cent at the end of this fiscal year, one of the lowest in Canada. It’s also important to note that the Province’s income at the eight per cent corporate tax rate was $400,000 more last year than it was under the previous administration’s 12 per cent rate.
We’re working hard to create an Alberta that not only Albertans will want to live in – but an Alberta that will also draw newcomers. New families, new businesses, new opportunities for our province. And it’s working – after recent federal redistribution changes, Alberta will be gaining three new seats in the House of Commons, (Ontario and BC will also gain one additional seat each.) Something new is happening in Alberta – and people are being drawn to it.
We’re not only seeing population growth, we’re seeing incredible investment growth. The numbers speak for themselves – Amazon Web Services picked Calgary as location for the creation of a new computing hub, representing a $4.3 billion dollar investment. Canfor, one of the world’s largest producers of sustainable lumber, pulp and paper moved substantial capacity from BC to Alberta. Canfor purchased three Alberta mills while shutting down four in BC, explicitly stating that their decision was due to our province’s business friendly regulatory environment.
Infoysy and Mphasis are adding thousands of tech jobs in the province. RBC is creating a tech hub in Calgary with 300 seats; EY chose Calgary for its Canadian Finance Center of Excellence creating 200 positions. We had a record year in film and television. Lynx Air, Canada’s newest low-cost airline, will join Flair and WestJet as Alberta based airlines and Dow Chemical has announced the world’s first net zero ethylene cracker to be built in Edmonton’s industrial heartland.
There have been five hydrogen project announcements including Northern Petrochemical’s $2.5 billion project in the MD of Greenview. Bunge is working to build a $650 million dollar canola crushing plant near Lamont, and Fortune Minerals is investing $250 million dollars for a refinery near Edmonton, citing the province’s competitive tax rate as a key reason for choosing Alberta. And the list goes on…
Step by step, we are creating the best environment for investment in our entire nation. In January of this year, while Canada lost 200,000 jobs, Alberta gained over 7,000. This is an addition to the 130,000 jobs gained in 2021 – putting our province 33,000 jobs ahead of where it was before the pandemic. We’ve not only recovered our losses, we are moving forward.
Contrary to some accusations, our government isn’t just “giving a tax break to big business.” Everyday Albertans pay less in overall taxes than any other province, with low personal income tax and no provincial sales tax, payroll tax or health care premiums. We also have the highest basic personal exemption amount among provinces, allowing individuals to earn more before they have to pay any provincial personal income tax, with 40 per cent of Albertans not paying any provincial income tax. Budget 2022 includes new investment in apprenticeship programs and a focus on expanded enrollment in key areas where Alberta has shortages of skilled labour. Approximately 7,000 jobs will be created in high technology, finance, agriculture sciences, health and aviation.
We are also making a groundbreaking investment at the University of Calgary to expand the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. This $59 million dollar investment will address a critical emerging shortage of large-animal veterinarians in rural Alberta.
Budget 2022 also reflects record high investment in healthcare. Besides making critical investments to expand our healthcare capacity, we continue to pursue both international and domestic physician recruitment opportunities.
In January of this year, the United Nurses of Alberta membership voted 87 per cent in favour of a new collective agreement that, in the words of UNA president Heather Smith, “… will benefit our members and [is] fair to the people of Alberta.”
Another exciting aspect of Budget 2022 is our continued investment in clean, ethical Alberta energy. We have been firm on the point that protection of the environment and the development of our natural resources, can and do go hand in hand. Alberta is a global leader in emerging energy and emissions reduction technologies, evidenced by ongoing investment in carbon capture and storage, and a $40 million dollar investment in a Clean Hydrogen Center of Excellence.
With a global oil demand expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2022, Alberta is the ethical choice. We are a world leader in sustainable and responsible resource development, with the highest ESG performance among oil-producing countries worldwide.
But again, we come back to the why. Why do all these dollars matter? It’s because for every dollar of investment, we are building into a stronger, healthier Alberta. With every flourishing business, we add to our slate of stable, well-paying jobs. We’re not just attracting investment, we’re attracting families.
As Minister Toews put it so well, “Behind every number and principle is the life of an Albertan…behind every dollar we don’t add to our deficit stand our grandchildren.” Budget 2022 builds into the quality of life for every single Albertan. The incredible people that make up this province are the reason we’re able to lead the country – and it’s the reason I continue to work hard in my job as an MLA, for Lethbridge. I love Alberta and I love the people that make our province and our city what they are. Here’s to a balanced budget, to spring around the corner – and the brighter days ahead!
22-21
Well, the future isn’t looking too bright for Jason Kenney, let alone the UCP, et al, and none too soon.
The short version: we’re riding another wave of high oil and gas prices.
Funny, I thought Nathan was the Secretary of Water – but not a word. Still no committment to protect our water from toxic pollution by open pit coal mining; still wanting to expand irrigation by some 200,000 acres without enough water in the rivers; still no concern over diminishing health of the rivers and riparian areas further challenged by a climate emergency.
You really need to focus on the important things rather than get yourself immersed in needless babble!
Yes Nathan things are looking great indeed! Alberta is back where we belong…In the black! As long as we can keep the economy wrecking, job-killing business-busting, freedom-hating, social-wrecking socialists on the side-lines we will have a chance to bring Alberta back to its former glory!
Yes, make Alberta great again (by praying for high oil and gas prices). Maybe the UCP government can give the corporate elite another handout – maybe secure some more Board Memberships and executive positions for when they are out of work next year.
And what would your plan be for making Alberta great again???
You need only to look at our Eastern neighbor to realize what a NDP government can do to a province!
I suppose that if you think sitting on oil and gas deposits makes us great, your worldview makes sense. I’m more inclined to measure greatness by what a government does with the money: promote inclusion, maintain social services for all, protect and restore the environment we live in, promote education, hire police who know who the bad guys are …
Do we not have that NOW? We do need money to pay for all that! Or do we fall back on the socialists fantasy of “Utopia” I would rather fall back on our own natural resources-extract and produce them in a responsible way without being swayed by every radical group that tells me “save the planet.’
If we ‘need money’ then a great people would work and innovate for it, they would share wealth to achieve common goals that create a foundation for further innovation. They would would work to preserve for themselves and their progeny a livable planet by stabilizing the climate (or at least stop destabilizing it by wastefully burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and plowing extant grasslands).
The only Utopia is to believe that if we just close our eyes, and cling to business-as-usual, that everything will be okay.
When in human history has any civilization done what you have described? Please give me one example-only one! One thing that is consistent with humans is our nature, good or bad we do not have the impetus to change.
i would say the examples of such societies are in the thousands, although that is just a ballpark estimate by me. i refer to a great many aboriginal societies the world over and throughout the ages. it is difficult for many to imagine such a reality, as we have been insidiously groomed into “free” market economy, and its egregious markers of success (self service, greed, fame, unlimited wants…ego stuff), via the social conditioning of mass media and govts of all party names that push neo-liberal values.
make no mistake: the ussr, china (now an autocracy) were never communist – the distribution of wealth in those lands entirely unequal. cuba might have had a chance to be a “modern” day beacon for how an egalitarian society might be run, but what was lacking were democratic principles (yes, it is possible to have a socialist economy with a democracy with plenty of room for individuality). moreover, as always happens since at least the past 100 years, is that when a state goes “socialist” the “free” world – led by the usa – sanctions, disrupts, agitates, and helps to undermine the will of the peoples therein…all on behalf of the multinationals and the oligarchs.
I have often told my Young-Adult children “If you want to know the future for humans just look at the past.”
I am always amazed and astonished how the Left-Wingers have this grand dream of “Utopia.” A dream that has been dreamt thousands of times before over thousands of years I am sure. Reality always seems to reveal a different narrative.
“Free” market economy? Not perfect but still the best we have going!
If you remember years ago all the adds on T.V. for those poor hungry starving children in Africa and other locations around the world and why we don’t see them as much. Well apparently the over all poverty around the world has shrunk by fifty percent. If I remember correctly it was between the years 2000 and 2010. Guess what was the motivating factor in that drop? Capitalism! Yes that dirty swear-word of the Left was responsible for putting food in children’s stomachs. You will never hear that on any mainstream media outlet!
If by ‘capitalism’ you mean social programs provided by the UN …
https://www.sos-usa.org/about-us/where-we-work/africa/hunger-in-africa
The reality is that organized civilization will not endure under the hegemony of capital. Even now, only the favoured fifth of humanity benefits – the rest suffer. It’s time to be realistic and transition our economy to benefit everybody and protect and restore environmental integrity. Boomer illusions, johnny57, are failing us now.
i believe you are overlooking the fact that so much of africa has been systematically undermined by capitalists. their wealth has been stolen by multinationals, and their rogue mining practices have left adverse environmental footprints that will remain disastrous for generations. moreover, the peoples have been further adversely impacted due to loss of culture, and the horrors of unsafe and impoverished working conditions. this, of course, is a hallmark of capitalism in reality, and has not been limited to the african continent. the same hardcore, capitalist approaches have served to undermine latin america in much the same way.
i feel the capitalism to which you refer is a utopian dream. on paper, there is much that supports adam smith’s take; in reality, it has authored the demise of far too much flora, fauna, water…and now, it is all so unsustainable that the worst is still to come. sophie’s reply to you is on the mark.
Stabilizing the climate. At what point in the planets history has the climate been stable. The planet is not static. Stabilize it where ? Good luck Greta.
no, the climate is not stable per se. however, we have a significant impact – how is it possible one can believe we can rip apart the natural structures that provide the basis for health and balance and still expect the systems to function “normally?” pull a few things out of your car engine, or your computer, and see how that works out for ya all.
Apparently, Mr. Neudorf, in his ersatz enthusiasm, is not aware of the fact that his entire op-ed is a logical fallacy known as emotional appeal. I wonder if he realizes that in implementing this approach he has publicly demonstrated a naivety bordering on dishonesty, as far as logical arguments go, in a rather obvious attempt to manipulate opinion as opposed to presenting a sober assessment of the actual experience of great number of Albertans as a direct result of this so called “balanced budget”.
Shame!
“Brighter days ahead”. Perhaps, in your opinion Mr Neudorf, but perhaps a reference to Ukraine and the needless suffering on an independent nation inflicted by Putin and his minions, would be in order. How can you possibly speak of a “welcome change of season” when thousands are being killed on both sides and the rapid escalations leading to potential nuclear war? Yes you represent Lethbridge East and are entitled to sing the praises of your government despite many unanswered questions, especially concerning the environment and the overreaching impact of Bill 4.
Spare a thought for the human carnage in Ukraine as you look forward to sunny days ahead! And spare a thought too of the potential darker, much darker days ahead. The world is a big place of which Alberta is but a small , albeit currently safe part of this rapidly deteriorating international situation.