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Originally Posted by Cowboy89
8% vs. 12% was more about keeping what we have than filling the office towers. The companies I identified and more could be at risk of leaving if we're not competitive.
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No, I'm sorry. This is simply not true. You might honestly remember it differently, but this is revisionist history -- Kenney himself repeatedly argued it would create 55,000 jobs and grow the economy by $13B. In fact, he called it the centre piece of his platform and specifically called this out as new business investment.
Five seconds of googling found me three articles from three different publications with Kenney himself saying these things and slapping back at anyone who disagreed (notably Nenshi and Trevor Tombe but I also remember many folks on this forum arguing against it):
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United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney called the announcement “the centre piece of our job creation strategy designed to get Alberta back to work.”
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The new premier argues the corporate tax cut would grow the Alberta economy and create 55,000 jobs.
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But lowering the rate even sooner would give Alberta, “by far, the most attractive environment for new business investment in Canada and amongst the lowest rates in all of North America,” Kenney said.
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Kenney said. "And we need to get that advantage back in order to see investment and new companies locating back in Alberta.
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Unfortunately, it didn't do any of this. The only things this policy did were reduce government revenue and pad annual reports for already profitable corporations. You can't move the goal post now and say "well we didn't lose companies that would have moved" when Kenney himself said the goal was to spur new investment.
Given that didn't happen, I don't see how slashing corporate taxes can be viewed as anything but another UCP failure (and an expensive one at that). Good for business owners like Murray Edwards but no help to regular Albertans.
https://www.reddeeradvocate.com/news...ation-tax-cut/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...nshi-1.5134438
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ic-reboot-plan
Edit: Let's see what Notley said at the time. Oh ya, she called it reckless and said the revenue could have been used to fund two major hospitals or 224 new elementary schools. If we'd started on those projects four years ago we might have been in a better spot with shovels in the ground and projects coming to completion to help the current healthcare crisis.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...tion-1.5081413
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/pol...-rachel-notley