Alberta’s Revenue Crisis (April 2011)

AFL Revenue Policy Paper presented to AFL 47th Constitutional Convention, April 28 to May 1, 2011

Alberta’s relatively low revenues from natural resources and taxes dampens our expectations of what government can accomplish, and the result is that Alberta actually spends less – far less – than it ought to on public services. Any clear-eyed examination of public spending (taking into account population growth and inflation) shows that Alberta’s spending on services is flat or dropping. Alberta does not have a spending problem; we have a revenue problem. If we have any spending problem at all, it is that we do not the right amount. Alberta lags behind the rest of the country and the rest of the industrialized world on a variety of key social indicators – demonstrating that our investments in social and environmental infrastructure are falling further and further behind.