[belsarius]

I don't understand how people correlate the size of government debt with the health of the economy. How does cutting 150,000 jobs to balance the budget help businesses? These are consumers who drive the economy and create jobs. Wage spending is about 20B and the NDP have kept that number basically steady since they took over, no cuts but no real additions either. The increases in the budgets relate almost entirely to economic stimulus to encourage growth and business.

I am not arguing that the additional costs will make an impact but in response to the question of how much, I would guess it's closer to 10% than 50%. Minimum wage hikes are proven to have a negligible effect on employment, corporate tax rates have no correlation to economic growth. The carbon tax absolutely is the biggest deterrent and most damaging short term policy, but in the longer run it helps give Alberta the social license it's been lacking.

They can cut, cut, cut, and balance the budget, but that doesn't mean one business will invest, in fact the loss of the government spending will have a negative effect on the GDP pushing the recession lower. I don't want to pass on a huge debt to future Albertans at all, and there should cuts, but an infrastructure debt is just as bad as a monetary debt. I am much happier watching the NDP trim the fat off of $500,000 salaries from agencies than cutting teachers and nurses.