Budget Time

This week the Stelmach Government announced the new budget. It is safe to say that they have gotten a mixed review, albeit Ed publicly claims they have it right once again. The part which is scary is that the very same claim was made when the NRF was implemented which has indisputably cost us tens of thousands of jobs.
Every day jobs are being lost in our province, we have already exceeded the amount of job losses Iris Evans announced by 100%. They based their budget on gas prices which we will surely not see this year, which will make the first deficit we have faced in many years, way more than predicted since the natural gas accounts for an enormous part of our provincial income. Our government also announced it will increase the education tax, eliminate funding for chiropractic care, eliminate the natural gas rebate, apply a sin tax, as well as mentioned they will definitely increase taxes if they feel it is necessary. Any other business has to run within it's means, not having the option to just collect more if they need. Every day directors of banks and large public companies are being challenged on the fact they are taking huge wages and bonuses while the companies are being bailed out. Consider our government a huge business, which we as taxpayers have been providing money to. Compare the Alberta Government to AIG in the US. Even though the province is losing money at an alarming rate, they saw fit for a 35% increase in wage last year as well as paying out 40 Million in bonus to senior bureaucrats this year. Can you imagine doing all of this while eliminating benefits to the very people that pad their wallets.
The CFO (Iris Evans) would be wise to look at the reality of the numbers she puts out whether it is employment, taxes, or simply the commodity prices that provide the revenues for our province. If these are the numbers they are using for a budget we should all be concerned and prepare for increased taxes, as they will have to bring in enough income to cover the costs of business. Unfortunately we as Albertans are the only customers they have!!!