• Taxpayers Federation compiles list of spending and taxation promises made by the four main political parties

EDMONTON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today released a list of each party’s election spending and taxation promises to date, along with their projected costs.

The governing PC Party is leading the pack of big spenders with nearly $3.4 billion in new spending promises. They are followed by the Alberta NDP at $1.9 billion in new spending promises, with the Alberta Liberals and Wildrose rounding out the pack with $770 million and $308 million respectively.

“It’s remarkable only two months following a provincial budget the governing party would be trotting out such major spending announcements like 50 new schools, expansions at five universities and major health care expenditures,” said CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig. “These levels of spending promises are normally reserved for opposition parties vying for electorate attention.”

While the PC’s have committed the most amount of money, the Alberta Liberals are topping the group in total number of spending promises at 37. They are followed by the NDP at 29, PC’s at 22 and Wildrose at nine.

“While the Liberals are making the most number of promises, it’s a far cry from last election when they nearly hit triple digits for sheer number of spending promises,” continued Hennig.

Unfortunately, not all spending promises have been fully costed-out by each party. The Alberta Liberals have 14 un-costed spending promises, the NDP have nine, the PC Party has five and the Wildrose have three.

“We’re sincerely hoping all parties flush out the full costs to their remaining promises. Voters have a right to know how much these promises cost before, rather than after the election,” said Hennig.

On the taxation side, the Alberta NDP are running away with the largest plans to raise taxes. In total, the NDP are promising to raise taxes by $3.6 billion, with the Liberals committing to raise taxes by $1.6 billion.

The other two parties, PC and Wildrose, are both committing to small tax reductions, in the form of new tax credits. Neither are promising higher taxes.

“While the CTF is in favour of tax relief, our preference is broad-based, rather than boutique tax cuts that attempt to curry favour with one constituency over another and increase compliance costs,” said Hennig.

“It’s probably no surprise the two parties that are struggling in the polls are the ones offering massive tax hikes, while the two parties that are fighting it out for the election win are the ones offering tax reductions,” continued Hennig. “The Liberals and NDP need to recognize that Alberta has a spending problem, not a revenue problem and that raising taxes is not the solution.”

“However, you have to give credit where credit is due. At least the Liberals and NDP are being honest about how they intend to fund their significant spending promises. The PC’s have made multi-billion dollar commitments for new spending, sworn off tax hikes, all while the province is slated to run a near billion dollar deficit this year,” said Hennig. “Something has to give. Either tax hikes are in the cards or the $3.7 billion remaining in the Sustainability Fund will be gone in very short order.”

PDF copies of the costing documents can be downloaded here:

PC Party platform costing (updated April 14)  (PC Party provided update April 12)

Wildrose platform costing (updated April 14)

Alberta Liberal platform costing (updated April 14) (Alberta Liberal provided update April 11)

Alberta NDP platform costing (updated April 23)

The CTF will be updating these costing documents throughout the election as further promises are made or costing is provided.