Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubicon
NDP:
philosophically they have always been an immediate 'no' for me due to their economic beliefs. I still feel this way but also know that the current situation in Alberta is largely not of their making. How they have responded to it may be questionable but to hang everything on them is not right in my opinion. Notley as a leader is probably the most statesman-like of them all and she has earned my respect overall. And while I am not an overall fan of their spending I do favor their moving forward on funding for may of our infrastructure projects.
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Just some random musings...
I think a lot of people, including myself don't realize how big of a problem our province has with oil prices and how much of this is driven by international policies and foreign politics.
We have a tendency to blame the government for bad economic times regardless of whoever is in power. A coworker sent me this to highlight the issue to me.
The other thing is with spending. On a personal philosophical level, I, like you, struggle with this perception that the NDP spends frivolously because they go over revenue spending, which doesn't align with how I spend money in tough times. But if we look at a the last budget, it was at $54.9B on revenue of $44.9B, that's only a roughly 10% increase, or $5B, over pre oil price crash levels under the PC government in 2014 but also includes big budget capital items like:
- $1B in grants and loans for bitumen upgrading facilities so we can get more money for Alberta oil
- $0.5B for petrochemical facilities for plastics, fiber and electronics facilities so we can use our oil resources differently
- $0.5B for Petrochemical feedstock infrastructure to capture more natural gas for manufacturing facilities.
- $4B increase in healthcare over the 2014 levels to pay for and staff a Calgary cancer centre and hospital in Edmonton and increase hospital beds
That's already $6B right there which covers almost all of the budget increase for the year under the NDP vs. the 2014 PC budget.
To some of the people who are like you not a fan of NDP spending, ask this question to yourself before you vote. I'll will be myself...
Did the NDP make the right decision to spend on these attempts at economic diversification projects for Alberta when they did?
Did the NDP make the right decision to spend for a new hospital and cancer centre when they did?
or should the budget have instead been cut to make up for the revenue shortfall?
What economic impact would budget cuts instead of these projects have had and how would it impact longer term jobs?
What economic impact did the projects have and how does it impact longer term jobs?
Did the NDP overspend in light of the capital items and how would other parties have dealt with the same situation?
https://www.alberta.ca/budget-highlights.aspx
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/e7a2...ete-volume.pdf