EDMONTON –
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney indicated the United Conservative government will unveil details next week about additional support to help people cope with high inflation.
Earlier this week, when Treasury Secretary Jason Nixon announced a $3.9 billion surplus at the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year ending March 31, Nixon said one of the goals was to explore additional ways to help of Albertans to get through the current period of rising prices.
The province already cut its share of the gas tax earlier this spring, and $150 in electricity rebates will soon be rolling in to cushion the impact of inflation.
On Saturday, while answering a question about inflation posed to him by a caller on his province-wide radio show on CHQR and CHED, Kenney said there will be an announcement about more support, which he said will come this week.
He did not specify what the measures might be, and a spokesman did not immediately respond when emailed for details.
Kenney told his radio audience that there are several explanations for high inflation, including federal monetary policy and large federal deficits, as well as energy shortages related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Anyone who says there’s only one simple explanation is lying,” Kenney said.
“I think most experts are hoping or predicting that this will start to emerge next year, but we’re probably in for a few more months of high inflation.”
Kenney said he agreed with federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre’s contention that the Bank of Canada is fueling inflation by, as Kenney put it, “printing tens and tens of billions of dollars of new fiat currency.”
Poilievre has threatened to fire Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem if elected prime minister.
Alberta’s oil and natural gas production has risen sharply in recent months as global economies have grown while pandemic measures have eased and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global energy supplies.
Nixon said another plan for the windfall is to build up the province’s $18.7 billion in savings – the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund.
Shannon Phillips, finance critic for the opposition NDP, said after the windfall was announced that the government is failing to deliver on promised funding for a range of public services, from education to ambulance response.
Kenny said on Saturday that the surplus would not have occurred if his government had not “restrained spending”.
“One of the problems in modern Alberta is that when we get an oil boom, we track our spending and spend what comes. And then when our revenue goes down, taxpayers are left holding the debt bag,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 2, 2022.
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