Discussions surrounding a possible provincial sales and carbon tax for Alberta have re-emerged in light of rising deficit spending throughout the COVID-19 pandemic..Melissa Caouette, Vice-President, Government Relations & Business Development to Canadian Strategy Group, states: “A sales tax is one of many fiscal tools available to the UCP government to stabilize its revenues.”.However, she acknowledged such a request would have to come from the grassroots and not be imposed top-down..In September, Finance Minister Travis Toews said a discussion about the PST would occur later in the UCP’s mandate..“In terms of the discussion around revenue structure, income tax structure, that will be an important discussion for Albertans in the future,” said Toews..“This is not a time to talk about raising taxes.”.Alberta is the only province in the country without a PST..Recently, Premier Jason Kenney confirmed his government would not implement a provincial sales tax in Alberta without a referendum and had no intention to ask Albertans at this time..During a zoom webinar with UCP members, Kenney emphasized a provincial sales tax was out of the question, stating: “The worst thing we could do amid this [COVID-19] crisis is to force people to pay more when they’re already going through incredible financial stress.”.“With high unemployment, with incomes down, and financial uncertainty, now is the worst time to be digging deeper into people’s pockets. I think we have no right as a government to ask people to pay more until we can demonstrate that the Alberta government is operating efficiently,” he said..However, during his time with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in the early 1990s, Kenney didn’t rule out a consumption tax as long as there were cuts in personal income taxes..“Any talk of increasing Albertans’ tax burden should be offset by an appropriate adjustment in personal income tax and should ensure Albertans will not be not worse-off than before,” said Caouette..“The tax dollars collected through a sales tax should be put towards supporting critical public goods, including education, healthcare, and infrastructure. The benefit of a sales tax is that Alberta can ensure those who do business here but pay personal or corporate tax elsewhere are supporting the fiscal stability of the province and paying their fair share,” she said..“We’ve been spending about 20 per cent more per person than the average Canadian province,” said Kenney, who acknowledged his government’s first challenge was to get its fiscal house in order..“You’ll see that in next week’s budget, where the focus will be on protecting lives and livelihoods, namely health care and jobs. We will continue to drive towards efficiency by gradually reducing expenditures, including a public sector compensation that has become higher than any other province and higher than the private sector..“Frankly, it’s not sustainable.”.Caouette praised the government for making promising strides in supporting and investing in startups and small businesses and acknowledging the need to diversify our economy while continuing to champion the oil and gas sector..With declining oil and gas royalties and investment coming to a standstill, despite rebounding commodity prices, Alberta will need to be creative to offset reduced resource revenues..Even if the province relies on other sectors to fill the fiscal hole, such as tech or film, Caouette suggests it will not offset the systemic need to stabilize revenues long-term..Dhaliwal is the Western Standard’s Edmonton reporter
