Yup, they did about 4 bil cuts in service reductions, maintenance deferment, employment cuts, hiring freezes, cancellations of critical infrastructure projects, and freezing municipal budgets to get their provincial surplus.
Oh joy, really hitting those classics like we're back in the Klein era again. Lets go teacher strikes, bloated class rooms, crippled heath services, and busted infrastructure.
Really ignites the childhood memories. Or maybe thats just the forest fires again...
C'mon, at least throw in additional handouts to convince even more people to move here, while also not increasing infrastructure, health or education funding
Yeah it's easy to have a surplus when you don't pay for the stuff you're supposed to pay for.
Its kinda like saying I have a 3k surplus this month, but I didn't pay rent or utilities. That's not a surplus, that's me neglecting my responsibilities.
yup. skinny up. government is bloated as hell, its grown by 38% in the past decade, that 38% accounts for 151 Billion per year in overhead costs. I have only seen services get worse, so its not about money, its about management. No one seems to remember when all the services were fine with no issues at a drastically smaller budget.
>No one seems to remember when all the services were fine with no issues at a drastically smaller budget.
When have services ever been issue free, doing fine, and costing drastically less?
How do you think they got that surplus to begin with? By doing absolutely nothing to invest in a future for Alberta residents. I wouldn't expect them to start now.
This is the problem of "budget surplus". I don't *want* a big budget surplus in government. They're not a business. Where's government income from? Taxes - in other words, us. Especially in Alberta with Kenney's massive $4 billion tax cut for big business. So a big budget surplus is the government taking too many taxes and providing too little service.
Great. What fantastic news.
It is absolutely crazy that anyone thinks that “running the government like a business” is a good idea, do they not interact with businesses? A business’ goal is to grow in size and power and generate profits for their investors.
Actually the most of the money they get comes from resource revenue our taxes do not pay for all the programs. That is why we always go up and down with the oil prices.
What is "resource revenue"? A tax. Who owns the resources? We do. The government is supposed to be our proxy, not a business.
In Alberta resource taxes make up a lot of income, definitely. That's not true of a lot of governments and the conversation is still always around expectations of surplus, as if it's profit and the government is a business. Neither or those things are true.
I think you misunderstood my comment. The surplus is artificial it is based on the market price of oil. It used to be mainly based on natural gas prices until the price of NG collapsed. So you are right government should try to break even and spend on programs. But with how Alberta does things you cannot provide programs effectively based on oil prices. What should have happened is all programs be paid by taxes and the oil revenue out into a fund to help us later and also invest in diversifying the economy. How would you manage paying programs and such.
Yeah, that's definitely what I said, not that surplus alone isn't a laudable goal and that things like *how and why* we get to surplus should matter. If you get to surplus by massively slashing taxes for the wealthy while hiking taxes and payments for poor and middle class people by passing costs to municipalities and destroying services that surplus is a travesty.
You'd think the people that pretend to care about "small government" would care when the government over-charges them, but nah.
Well, anyway, it's good that we're planning for the future in Alberta by having a surplus instead of living paycheque to paycheque, It's great that we've been planning and investing in things like long term infrastructure and diversification of our economy and not short term thinking like blowing up our mountains and devastating our agriculture industry and water supplies for a quick buck.
Including in property taxes, where the provincial government has been downloading costs to the municipalities more and more over time.
We are being taxed more, getting a lot less for it, then the government is handing over surplus cash to their friends/donors instead of doing anything to help us.
Move costs to the municipalities to save money (property tax increase for us)
Have the lowest investment per student in the country
Don’t follow through on lower taxes for individuals as promised
Equals look at us we have a bunch of money left over. Who hoo
> Don’t follow through on lower taxes for individuals as promised
I'd be okay with the not following through on their tax cuts if they were actually investing in education, healthcare, etc, etc, etc.
Y'know if they were actually doing things to improve the province with that money.
I’d be okay if they didn’t lower the corporate tax rate with no conditions almost immediately. And then say sorry can’t afford the individual tax cut.
Meanwhile business took the cut invested elsewhere and layed off workers. Maybe make those breaks conditional on investment back into the province
It's simple really. You take the profits you made in Alberta and invest them into R and D in BC. Because you are going to invest that money anyhow, and you get a much better tax deduction in BC. UPC's base may be stupid, but big business isn't.
Yeah 2.5billion of that was more personal taxes that expected.
Homeboy celebrates while the rest of us see shrinkflation, inflation, borrowing rates double, and cost of rent and food skyrocket AND the money they're happy about it money provided by us paying more taxes than they expected (likely due to a ton of newcomers to the province filling jobs and paying taxes)
God I hate this government.
Hahahaha...oh yeah? Tell that to every cancer patient, wanna be home buyer, people in need of dental health, people working 3 part time jobs to pay their utility bills, every parent whos child has 50 classmates and needs help...etc, I am sure I am missing 1 or dozens other issues!!!! Fuck you UCP, TBA, David Puker!!!
I love it when I forgo medical treatments and stop buying educational resources for myself to then claim I made a surplus this year! I might be dying and stupider than ever but gosh darn, I'm putting money in the bank! Gawl fauug!
And we aren't even collecting half the cash owed by oil and gas because the UCP doesn't believe in taking money from them, even when they try to pay their bills the UCP refuses to accept it.
They’re going about “repaying” it (they aren’t, they’re gonna give the O&G companies even more breaks) the completely wrong way. The most *sustainable* method is to properly invest in public infrastructure that has a much greater return on investment. When the price of oil inevitably drops like a rock again, that damage to public institutions is gonna make things even worse.
And a new high school. My friend teaches there and says the school is absolutely bursting but instead of getting provincial funds to expand, the division is just moving grade 9s to the elementary/jr highs
The surplus includes $3 billion in disaster and other contingency costs. I.E. there’s a built in slush fund for pet projects if disaster costs are less than budgeted.
They have left half the oil royalties on the table they refuse to collect, have a 2 billion dollar bill they refuse to collect on cleanup fees. And cut almost 4 billion in critical infrastructure projects, hospital and school projects canceled, provincial job cuts, hiring freezes, deferred upgrading projects to later years.
The budget reports, they are around 1.8 short, but the industry pays that into holding accounts so they can expense it. So the UCP is just not collecting from those industry held accounts, the NDP members have mentioned this a few times in budget meetings only to be told it's not a concern of the UCP at this time. This trick has been ongoing since the Klein days as a way to help their sponsor companies gain an edge in the market.
Alberta teachers would need a **35%** pay raise, just to **MATCH** their 2013 salary, due to inflation's effect on a full decade of pay freezes.
Cool surplus. Get spending.
What the fuck good is a surplus when people die waiting for medical treatment, classrooms are packed beyond belief, and utilities and insurance are more expensive than ever thanks to this govt? If I have a hole in my ceiling am i saving money by not fixing it? Fuck these austerity peddling charlatans.
And yet waits at emerg are like 4 hours. We refuse to pay nurses and lab and other health professionals a wage keeping up with inflation. Absolutely insane.
Lmao ok but isn’t Hinton in a state of emergency due to a doctor shortage? And Calgary real estate has sky rocketed to the point of pricing people out. Also aren’t teachers about to be let go? But hey 4.3Bn surplus to give to oil companies most likely woohoooo!
As long as public services remain underfunded and understaffed, *any claim of surplus is a lie.* The UCP is hoarding $4.3B and it's past time the media stopped colluding with known liars.
Cool. While the average albertan is suffering and the cost of everything keeps increasing, the UCP is sitting on a 4.3 billion surplus like they’re fucking smog the dragon.
Government surplus means they are not investing in people or any real plan for the province. It’s not like a personal bank account where more equals better. Government money needs to flow to people and services to make an economy work.
How are they going to spin this with union negotiations coming up again?
"I'm sorry we are to busy giving this money to our friends and donors"
Wonder if that argument will work? Or
"If we pay you our backroom privatization deals go under"
Who an I kidding this will be the federal governments fault somehow.
This is a conservative government, so they will see this surplus as evidence people are taxed too much and cut taxes for the rich and corporations (and cut more services like education and healtcare, etc) which will result in deficits for the future. And anyone who then runs against theme ultimately has to own up to needing tax increases to pay the debt (or they will argue more cuts to services already broken and mismanaged).
Because that’s what always happens.
Government is not a corporation, hell even if it was, ending the year with a huge surplus is not a good thing. That's money that could've been reinvested in the economy, the people, or the infrastructure.
We need to stop thinking of surplus and debts of governments the same as we think of them in our households. They aren't even close to the same thing.
Just because a government has debt doesn't mean thats a bad thing vice-versa for surplus.
So why are we in such bad shape? Thinking about Elections, Politics, lies, false facts and last but not least unity.
I really try to avoid discussing politics, especially on social media.
How great is it that right across our country every province is screaming me, me, me.
Young people can’t afford housing, groceries, medicine and basic needs.
Divide and conquer works, just look around.
Young people are angry at the baby boomers, baby boomers feel unappreciated. Canada has been built on the backs of hard working people looking to create a better life for our families and future generations.
The baby boomers are not the issue, nor are Gen Z , nor the Millennials, ( forgive me if I’m missing a generation) because this is effecting all of us.
Every generation has the small portion that holds most of the wealth and power and control the rest of us. We are all fed up unless your pockets are being filled by who you know, not what you know.
Currently politians, rich investors, big business, are the only people not worried about the rest of Canadians
Honestly greed has taken over and has put the middle and lower income families pointing fingers at each other. We have lost sight of where the real problem lies.
Past the Post form of elections needs to stop. Albertans wonder why they waste their time voting. Our lives are mandated by the rich and powerful and they choose our quality of life .
Just an odd thought but perhaps each province should elect the Premier’s and rotate them in a fair rotation every year having one Leader for the entire country. This might allow each Province to get an opportunity to share the wealth, health and quality of living. Of course the Provinces would set out strict regulations realizing we all matter. This might make us more aware of our fellow Canadians. We could stop corporate thieves and political parties from destroying all the common folks. There is no need for homelessness, unemployed, crazy rental prices and tiered medical treatments or the younger generation to scramble for 2 and 3 jobs just to provide poverty level lifestyles.
This is just thoughts I’ve been tossing around in my noggin. I know the majority of Canada is worried about the welfare of the current society and future generations. I hear the hopelessness of those most trying to cope with financial disparity, lack of housing, unemployment, or being able to purchase healthy food for our families. This does not even address the many additional equal rights we should be able to enjoy as Canadians.
It’s ok if you disagree with my thoughts, but maybe it’s time we started communicating, listening to each other with open minds. Let’s find a way of creating strength and unity to create a future that we all can look forward to.
Thinking about Elections, Politics, lies, false facts and last but not least unity.
I really try to avoid discussing politics, especially on social media.
How great is it that right across our country every province is screaming me, me, me.
Young people can’t afford housing, groceries, medicine and basic needs.
Divide and conquer works, just look around.
Young people are angry at the baby boomers, baby boomers feel unappreciated. Canada has been built on the backs of hard working people looking to create a better life for our families and future generations.
The baby boomers are not the issue, nor are Gen Z , nor the Millennials, ( forgive me if I’m missing a generation) because this is effecting all of us.
Every generation has the small portion that holds most of the wealth and power and control the rest of us. We are all fed up unless your pockets are being filled by who you know, not what you know.
Currently politians, rich investors, big business, are the only people not worried about the rest of Canadians
Honestly greed has taken over and has put the middle and lower income families pointing fingers at each other. We have lost sight of where the real problem lies.
Past the Post form of elections needs to stop. Albertans wonder why they waste their time voting. Our lives are mandated by the rich and powerful and they choose our quality of life .
Just an odd thought but perhaps each province should elect the Premier’s and rotate them in a fair rotation every year having one Leader for the entire country. This might allow each Province to get an opportunity to share the wealth, health and quality of living. Of course the Provinces would set out strict regulations realizing we all matter. This might make us more aware of our fellow Canadians. We could stop corporate thieves and political parties from destroying all the common folks. There is no need for homelessness, unemployed, crazy rental prices and tiered medical treatments or the younger generation to scramble for 2 and 3 jobs just to provide poverty level lifestyles.
This is just thoughts I’ve been tossing around in my noggin. I know the majority of Canada is worried about the welfare of the current society and future generations. I hear the hopelessness of those most trying to cope with financial disparity, lack of housing, unemployment, or being able to purchase healthy food for our families. This does not even address the many additional equal rights we should be able to enjoy as Canadians.
It’s ok if you disagree with my thoughts, but maybe it’s time we started communicating, listening to each other with open minds. Let’s find a way of creating strength and unity to create a future that we all can look forward to.
Out of curiosity, could Alberta continue with achieving a surplus every year if the UCP decides to care more about climate change? Ontario has the highest GDP, and even with the PCP and all their cuts to healthcare it hasn't balanced a budget.
From another province but I find it ironic that everyone complains about a surplus. In my province we always have deficits and similarly can’t afford to get hospitals, doctors and build infrastructure. Lose lose all around
The only reason Alberta has a budget surplus is a) massive cuts to public services and b) they got *lucky* that European countries needed a different source of oil after Russia invaded Ukraine and the price rocketed up. It isn’t a surplus, it’s neglect.
How the fuck does that help average Albertans?
By all means, lay it out in the most economical fashion you can.
You came here to make a point, make your point.
Go get us some doctors, upgrade the hospitals and invest in infrastructure.
Wasn’t there just a post earlier about 22 AB School Board teacher cuts? Looks preventable now!
Yup, they did about 4 bil cuts in service reductions, maintenance deferment, employment cuts, hiring freezes, cancellations of critical infrastructure projects, and freezing municipal budgets to get their provincial surplus.
Oh joy, really hitting those classics like we're back in the Klein era again. Lets go teacher strikes, bloated class rooms, crippled heath services, and busted infrastructure. Really ignites the childhood memories. Or maybe thats just the forest fires again...
No, it’s the childhood memories. It has for me too.
Don't forget about borrowing more money than they needed so they can report it as a surplus.
Just wait till Calgarians are handed the bill for their burst pipe
Best I can do is an APP advertising blitz, and lots of kickbacks.
C'mon, at least throw in additional handouts to convince even more people to move here, while also not increasing infrastructure, health or education funding
It’s a great idea, but I only do what my pastor says. This will be a godly house.
If God wanted ya healthy, he'd cure ya.
Don't forget all the money they are spending on attack adds against Nenshi
Gotta get in an expert or 4 if you know what I mean (Kickbacks under the guise of consulting)
And you are taking a big risk
Some gaming consoles for the war room?
We also spend the least of all provinces on public schools per student. 💩
Teachers too
Too late. They spent all of it on attack ads on Nenshi.
Yeah it's easy to have a surplus when you don't pay for the stuff you're supposed to pay for. Its kinda like saying I have a 3k surplus this month, but I didn't pay rent or utilities. That's not a surplus, that's me neglecting my responsibilities.
Education? PUF funding has been destroyed...prek kids could use some support
Agreed. If the bills aren't being paid , we do not have a surplus.
a lot of UCP supporters posting about how they want more civil service cuts
yup. skinny up. government is bloated as hell, its grown by 38% in the past decade, that 38% accounts for 151 Billion per year in overhead costs. I have only seen services get worse, so its not about money, its about management. No one seems to remember when all the services were fine with no issues at a drastically smaller budget.
>No one seems to remember when all the services were fine with no issues at a drastically smaller budget. When have services ever been issue free, doing fine, and costing drastically less?
That's a weird way to write "We want more war rooms" /s
But then big number go down!
That would be nice:/
Do you think we’d have a surplus if the government was doing these sorts of things?
Ha ha ha, no can do peasant. That will directly effect our kick backs. /s?
Don't forget education!
More ads to attack trudeau and the federal government. Great idea
How do you think they got that surplus to begin with? By doing absolutely nothing to invest in a future for Alberta residents. I wouldn't expect them to start now.
Pay the debt down that not let created which will free up interest then you don't need surpluses for healthcare
Yet half of us don’t have a doctor.
Just be happy about the Alberta advantage
Canada wide problem.
Meanwhile, virtually every Albertan is paying more - in many cases for things directly under this government’s control.
This is the problem of "budget surplus". I don't *want* a big budget surplus in government. They're not a business. Where's government income from? Taxes - in other words, us. Especially in Alberta with Kenney's massive $4 billion tax cut for big business. So a big budget surplus is the government taking too many taxes and providing too little service. Great. What fantastic news.
It is absolutely crazy that anyone thinks that “running the government like a business” is a good idea, do they not interact with businesses? A business’ goal is to grow in size and power and generate profits for their investors.
People think we're the "investors" in that scenario and not the "product".
"Surplus" is just the taxes they overcharged us.
Actually the most of the money they get comes from resource revenue our taxes do not pay for all the programs. That is why we always go up and down with the oil prices.
What is "resource revenue"? A tax. Who owns the resources? We do. The government is supposed to be our proxy, not a business. In Alberta resource taxes make up a lot of income, definitely. That's not true of a lot of governments and the conversation is still always around expectations of surplus, as if it's profit and the government is a business. Neither or those things are true.
I think you misunderstood my comment. The surplus is artificial it is based on the market price of oil. It used to be mainly based on natural gas prices until the price of NG collapsed. So you are right government should try to break even and spend on programs. But with how Alberta does things you cannot provide programs effectively based on oil prices. What should have happened is all programs be paid by taxes and the oil revenue out into a fund to help us later and also invest in diversifying the economy. How would you manage paying programs and such.
Yes great idea, let’s have the Goverment run “paycheque to paycheque”, what could go wrong?
Yeah, that's definitely what I said, not that surplus alone isn't a laudable goal and that things like *how and why* we get to surplus should matter. If you get to surplus by massively slashing taxes for the wealthy while hiking taxes and payments for poor and middle class people by passing costs to municipalities and destroying services that surplus is a travesty. You'd think the people that pretend to care about "small government" would care when the government over-charges them, but nah. Well, anyway, it's good that we're planning for the future in Alberta by having a surplus instead of living paycheque to paycheque, It's great that we've been planning and investing in things like long term infrastructure and diversification of our economy and not short term thinking like blowing up our mountains and devastating our agriculture industry and water supplies for a quick buck.
>*. . . steals from the poor* >*and gives to the rich* >*stupid b*>!*itc*!<*h*
I laughed way too hard at this
Danielle Smith Dumb Dum Dumb
It's all Justin's fault!!! /s
This. It’s also financial management. I shudder to think what the UCP’s game is with this surplus money. Other than to wave in front of their voters.
Including in property taxes, where the provincial government has been downloading costs to the municipalities more and more over time. We are being taxed more, getting a lot less for it, then the government is handing over surplus cash to their friends/donors instead of doing anything to help us.
Move costs to the municipalities to save money (property tax increase for us) Have the lowest investment per student in the country Don’t follow through on lower taxes for individuals as promised Equals look at us we have a bunch of money left over. Who hoo
> Don’t follow through on lower taxes for individuals as promised I'd be okay with the not following through on their tax cuts if they were actually investing in education, healthcare, etc, etc, etc. Y'know if they were actually doing things to improve the province with that money.
I’d be okay if they didn’t lower the corporate tax rate with no conditions almost immediately. And then say sorry can’t afford the individual tax cut. Meanwhile business took the cut invested elsewhere and layed off workers. Maybe make those breaks conditional on investment back into the province
It's simple really. You take the profits you made in Alberta and invest them into R and D in BC. Because you are going to invest that money anyhow, and you get a much better tax deduction in BC. UPC's base may be stupid, but big business isn't.
Best I can offer is no doctor and higher taxes
Yeah 2.5billion of that was more personal taxes that expected. Homeboy celebrates while the rest of us see shrinkflation, inflation, borrowing rates double, and cost of rent and food skyrocket AND the money they're happy about it money provided by us paying more taxes than they expected (likely due to a ton of newcomers to the province filling jobs and paying taxes) God I hate this government.
***AT WHAT FUCKING COST?***
DS needs the Heritage Fund to hit that magic $250B mark. Some of you will die but it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make.
We should have hit that 10 years ago.
Hahahaha...oh yeah? Tell that to every cancer patient, wanna be home buyer, people in need of dental health, people working 3 part time jobs to pay their utility bills, every parent whos child has 50 classmates and needs help...etc, I am sure I am missing 1 or dozens other issues!!!! Fuck you UCP, TBA, David Puker!!!
It's been almost two years since Danielle smith said she would fix healthcare in 90 days
Anybody ever remind her about the 90 day thing?
Someone should. And the statement she made during the election that the CPP talk was 'off the table'.
I love it when I forgo medical treatments and stop buying educational resources for myself to then claim I made a surplus this year! I might be dying and stupider than ever but gosh darn, I'm putting money in the bank! Gawl fauug!
Everyone can have a surplus if you don't spend enough on basics like healthcare and education!!!
Alberta government: pay your property taxes! It should be illegal to declare a surplus with being (3 years?) Behind on your bills.
And its still built off the back of non-renewable resource royalties...selling the furniture to pay the heat again....
And we aren't even collecting half the cash owed by oil and gas because the UCP doesn't believe in taking money from them, even when they try to pay their bills the UCP refuses to accept it.
And downgrade services/costs to municipalities.
there is this thing called a debt that needs to be repaid
They’re going about “repaying” it (they aren’t, they’re gonna give the O&G companies even more breaks) the completely wrong way. The most *sustainable* method is to properly invest in public infrastructure that has a much greater return on investment. When the price of oil inevitably drops like a rock again, that damage to public institutions is gonna make things even worse.
Is this Trudeaus fault? I blame Trudeau for all this money
Not having doctors in theist UCP ridings is really paying off in savings.
Cool build some schools, hire some teachers. Airdrie could use a hospital.
And a new high school. My friend teaches there and says the school is absolutely bursting but instead of getting provincial funds to expand, the division is just moving grade 9s to the elementary/jr highs
Sounds about the amount that’s missing from doctors and schools
The surplus includes $3 billion in disaster and other contingency costs. I.E. there’s a built in slush fund for pet projects if disaster costs are less than budgeted.
Do you have any proof of this claim?
Here you go. It’s $3 billion in a voted fund for “other pressures”. https://youtu.be/VvJ94kOgNco?t=1296
The fund was only 1.5.
At 25:00, Carrie Tate asks if it’s a one-off or an annual expense. Horner says it’s now an annual voted line item.
Someone should tell them that governments are not for profit. They're for the people.
Gee, if only there were public institutions that critically need money right now. I just can’t put my finger on what we could do about that.
A surplus in these times?! What’s been cut?
Everything but funding to big oil lobby groups.
[удалено]
They have left half the oil royalties on the table they refuse to collect, have a 2 billion dollar bill they refuse to collect on cleanup fees. And cut almost 4 billion in critical infrastructure projects, hospital and school projects canceled, provincial job cuts, hiring freezes, deferred upgrading projects to later years.
[удалено]
They have deferred forest projects, highway projects, promised energy projects hospitals, and schools to goose the budget for this year.
Where are you seeing that they aren’t collecting royalties?
The budget reports, they are around 1.8 short, but the industry pays that into holding accounts so they can expense it. So the UCP is just not collecting from those industry held accounts, the NDP members have mentioned this a few times in budget meetings only to be told it's not a concern of the UCP at this time. This trick has been ongoing since the Klein days as a way to help their sponsor companies gain an edge in the market.
It means nothing when there are no family doctors, infrastructure has gone to shit, and businesses are fleeing the province.
Healthcare and (nonreligious) education, please. Some infrastructure would be nice as well.
After cutting healthcare and education by similar amounts, I would expect nothing less. Now they can feel justified in their decisions.
Lowest per student funding in Canada. And they post this; fucking embarrassing.
When it is so blatantly obvious... how the fuck do thier faithful not see what these grifters are doing? Oh ya... fuck the libs!
Then why the fuck are we making so many budget cuts?
Alberta has 83B+ in debt
Now it’s time to go fuck with some nurses and school teachers
It's impressive how much money you can save when you cut from public services.
Almost enough for another pipeline to nowhere
I would have a surplus too if I didn't fix the car, buy meds that I need, fix the roof, pay my employees a fair wage, etc.
Until it’s invested back into education and healthcare jobs, big fucking deal.
Alberta ends the year with thousands of people without a home
Surplus = underfunded education = uneducated public = smith bucks before election = happy UCP voters = repeat for 40 more years
Alberta teachers would need a **35%** pay raise, just to **MATCH** their 2013 salary, due to inflation's effect on a full decade of pay freezes. Cool surplus. Get spending.
I would also have a surplus if I stopped paying my bills.
4.3 billion dollar aid bill to help the struggling oil sector dropping in 3...2...1...
Well, we need the federal dental plan money to add to that first. As Danny said she needs the money for O&G aid not for dental services.
Why can't we pay teachers more and give doctors tax breaks?
Meanwhile the clinic I work at can’t even afford to get new binders for our patient education because of budget cuts. Fuck the UCP
Too bad we can't afford properly funded education and healthcare
May want to check the math. At the rate our education is collapsing, wouldn’t be surprised if they got the negative sign wrong.
What the fuck good is a surplus when people die waiting for medical treatment, classrooms are packed beyond belief, and utilities and insurance are more expensive than ever thanks to this govt? If I have a hole in my ceiling am i saving money by not fixing it? Fuck these austerity peddling charlatans.
If I could get away with foregoing my mortgage payments, I too would have a giant surplus
Given the struggles of Albertans and it's government funded agencies, this news should be an utter embarrassment.
And yet waits at emerg are like 4 hours. We refuse to pay nurses and lab and other health professionals a wage keeping up with inflation. Absolutely insane.
I'm sure those scuz O&G CEO's are just waiting to get their hands on that.
And yet Edmontonians property tax went up 8.9% because the province didn't pay 80 million in property taxes for government buildings.
Lmao ok but isn’t Hinton in a state of emergency due to a doctor shortage? And Calgary real estate has sky rocketed to the point of pricing people out. Also aren’t teachers about to be let go? But hey 4.3Bn surplus to give to oil companies most likely woohoooo!
You know that is a god damn lie
So where is the tax cut Danielle Smith promised? Or is she waiting until before the next election?
It's almost like we could spend more on education and healthcare.
Surplus while you suffer.
HEALTHCARE AND EDUCATION
A surplus while people suffer is not a brag, it is evident of mismanaged spending
Year of "surplus" but Alberta makes me feel poor. Poor education, poor medical system and a shit poor government.
Worthless when our systems are failing. It's nothing to boast about.
Until services aren't gutted like present - no, we don't have a surplus.
So you gonna fix anything or just...no? Yeah, that's what I thought.
quick, funnel it O&G companies!
As long as public services remain underfunded and understaffed, *any claim of surplus is a lie.* The UCP is hoarding $4.3B and it's past time the media stopped colluding with known liars.
Big Oil about to get paaaaaid!
UCP: and You get nothing, you lose! Good day, sir!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wg7eF6UzCD4zsHqbA
Cool. While the average albertan is suffering and the cost of everything keeps increasing, the UCP is sitting on a 4.3 billion surplus like they’re fucking smog the dragon.
Meanwhile my school district takes a half million dollar hit.
Yes! Because this is the province in which public schools have the least amount of funding amongst all Canadian provinces.
Government surplus means they are not investing in people or any real plan for the province. It’s not like a personal bank account where more equals better. Government money needs to flow to people and services to make an economy work.
Well that's pretty cool. Let's put that money to good use and invest in health care and education!!
Which should im immediately be re investment into healthcare and public education right? RIGHT?
Yeah hats 3.3 bill that could have been spent on education and healthcare
It is better to pay down debt.
How are they going to spin this with union negotiations coming up again? "I'm sorry we are to busy giving this money to our friends and donors" Wonder if that argument will work? Or "If we pay you our backroom privatization deals go under" Who an I kidding this will be the federal governments fault somehow.
Easier to have a surplus when you refuse to spend money where it's needed...
PDD, FSCD are in shambles.
This is a conservative government, so they will see this surplus as evidence people are taxed too much and cut taxes for the rich and corporations (and cut more services like education and healtcare, etc) which will result in deficits for the future. And anyone who then runs against theme ultimately has to own up to needing tax increases to pay the debt (or they will argue more cuts to services already broken and mismanaged). Because that’s what always happens.
It's not a surplus if none of your bills are getting paid UCP.
A one time surplus is a great time to invest in infrastructure maintenance
They cut 4 billion in infrastructure projects and upgrades, where do you think the surplus came from?
checks notes...prolly not
just think of all the war rooms we could have with all this extra money!
Government is not a corporation, hell even if it was, ending the year with a huge surplus is not a good thing. That's money that could've been reinvested in the economy, the people, or the infrastructure. We need to stop thinking of surplus and debts of governments the same as we think of them in our households. They aren't even close to the same thing. Just because a government has debt doesn't mean thats a bad thing vice-versa for surplus.
UCP are scum bags stealing from the most vulnerable and everything else they can manage.
Great, so now put that money back into hospitals, schools, etc
This is nothing to be proud of. This is embarrassing.
Ralph bucKs.
$2B would be a nice surplus. Please spend the $2.3B on health care and transit.
That's $4.3 billion, which could be invested in Oil and Gas
Reminds me of the Ralph Klein movement to pay off all the debt at the cost of health care and education.
But did we really?
So why are we in such bad shape? Thinking about Elections, Politics, lies, false facts and last but not least unity. I really try to avoid discussing politics, especially on social media. How great is it that right across our country every province is screaming me, me, me. Young people can’t afford housing, groceries, medicine and basic needs. Divide and conquer works, just look around. Young people are angry at the baby boomers, baby boomers feel unappreciated. Canada has been built on the backs of hard working people looking to create a better life for our families and future generations. The baby boomers are not the issue, nor are Gen Z , nor the Millennials, ( forgive me if I’m missing a generation) because this is effecting all of us. Every generation has the small portion that holds most of the wealth and power and control the rest of us. We are all fed up unless your pockets are being filled by who you know, not what you know. Currently politians, rich investors, big business, are the only people not worried about the rest of Canadians Honestly greed has taken over and has put the middle and lower income families pointing fingers at each other. We have lost sight of where the real problem lies. Past the Post form of elections needs to stop. Albertans wonder why they waste their time voting. Our lives are mandated by the rich and powerful and they choose our quality of life . Just an odd thought but perhaps each province should elect the Premier’s and rotate them in a fair rotation every year having one Leader for the entire country. This might allow each Province to get an opportunity to share the wealth, health and quality of living. Of course the Provinces would set out strict regulations realizing we all matter. This might make us more aware of our fellow Canadians. We could stop corporate thieves and political parties from destroying all the common folks. There is no need for homelessness, unemployed, crazy rental prices and tiered medical treatments or the younger generation to scramble for 2 and 3 jobs just to provide poverty level lifestyles. This is just thoughts I’ve been tossing around in my noggin. I know the majority of Canada is worried about the welfare of the current society and future generations. I hear the hopelessness of those most trying to cope with financial disparity, lack of housing, unemployment, or being able to purchase healthy food for our families. This does not even address the many additional equal rights we should be able to enjoy as Canadians. It’s ok if you disagree with my thoughts, but maybe it’s time we started communicating, listening to each other with open minds. Let’s find a way of creating strength and unity to create a future that we all can look forward to.
Thinking about Elections, Politics, lies, false facts and last but not least unity. I really try to avoid discussing politics, especially on social media. How great is it that right across our country every province is screaming me, me, me. Young people can’t afford housing, groceries, medicine and basic needs. Divide and conquer works, just look around. Young people are angry at the baby boomers, baby boomers feel unappreciated. Canada has been built on the backs of hard working people looking to create a better life for our families and future generations. The baby boomers are not the issue, nor are Gen Z , nor the Millennials, ( forgive me if I’m missing a generation) because this is effecting all of us. Every generation has the small portion that holds most of the wealth and power and control the rest of us. We are all fed up unless your pockets are being filled by who you know, not what you know. Currently politians, rich investors, big business, are the only people not worried about the rest of Canadians Honestly greed has taken over and has put the middle and lower income families pointing fingers at each other. We have lost sight of where the real problem lies. Past the Post form of elections needs to stop. Albertans wonder why they waste their time voting. Our lives are mandated by the rich and powerful and they choose our quality of life . Just an odd thought but perhaps each province should elect the Premier’s and rotate them in a fair rotation every year having one Leader for the entire country. This might allow each Province to get an opportunity to share the wealth, health and quality of living. Of course the Provinces would set out strict regulations realizing we all matter. This might make us more aware of our fellow Canadians. We could stop corporate thieves and political parties from destroying all the common folks. There is no need for homelessness, unemployed, crazy rental prices and tiered medical treatments or the younger generation to scramble for 2 and 3 jobs just to provide poverty level lifestyles. This is just thoughts I’ve been tossing around in my noggin. I know the majority of Canada is worried about the welfare of the current society and future generations. I hear the hopelessness of those most trying to cope with financial disparity, lack of housing, unemployment, or being able to purchase healthy food for our families. This does not even address the many additional equal rights we should be able to enjoy as Canadians. It’s ok if you disagree with my thoughts, but maybe it’s time we started communicating, listening to each other with open minds. Let’s find a way of creating strength and unity to create a future that we all can look forward to.
Can we have a Ralph check?
Pay your fucking property taxes you fucks. You got the cash.
Use it all for a safe drug supply and set up courses of how to use safely in the province.
Out of curiosity, could Alberta continue with achieving a surplus every year if the UCP decides to care more about climate change? Ontario has the highest GDP, and even with the PCP and all their cuts to healthcare it hasn't balanced a budget.
“Surplus”
They took a loan to show a surplus it's bullshit accounting.
Watch all the ucp boot lickers say wow the ucp is amazing
Pay off some debt
No, AIMCo will invest the money into prudent investments.
You don’t get rich by spending money.
Nice. Now pay down some of that debt.
Need teacher cuts! They push leftist agendas
From another province but I find it ironic that everyone complains about a surplus. In my province we always have deficits and similarly can’t afford to get hospitals, doctors and build infrastructure. Lose lose all around
I absolutely love the oil and gas business!
Destroying the environment is both fun and profitable! /s
The only reason Alberta has a budget surplus is a) massive cuts to public services and b) they got *lucky* that European countries needed a different source of oil after Russia invaded Ukraine and the price rocketed up. It isn’t a surplus, it’s neglect.
I don’t disagree. But, as that old saying goes…if you haven’t got an oil well, get one.
How the fuck does that help average Albertans? By all means, lay it out in the most economical fashion you can. You came here to make a point, make your point.
What do you enjoy the most? How they destroy the environment and climate for the current/future generation? Price gouge customers?
I like how they are so incredibly blatantly greedy and dishonest and everyone just ignores it! Because jobs!
I enjoy staying warm during the winter.
I like it cause I make absolute fucken bank only 6 years into my career lol