WATCH ABOVE: With an all-but-announced spring election on the way in Alberta, premier Jim Prentice faces several challenges. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — While an official election call has yet to take place, Alberta is gearing up to head to the polls. While pundits expect the Progressive Conservatives to retain power, it won’t be without hurdles for premier Jim Prentice.
One of the biggest hurdles facing the PC party is the economy.
“I’m the first Alberta premier who’s looking at a $7 billion deficit next year, a $6 billion deficit the year after that,” Prentice told The West Block’s Tom Clark this weekend.
The premier says public sector spending will have to be reigned in, and that will likely mean cuts across the board. With existing public union contracts set to add billions to the provincial budget, labour peace won’t come so easily during the next round of negotiations.
“You can’t deal with this sort of problem we’ve created in Alberta without taking a measured approach to solve it,” said Prentice. “It’s going to take a couple of years, but we need to get the cost of our services down to something like the national average.”
WATCH: Full interview between Premier Jim Prentice and The West Block’s Tom Clark.
Speaking with public sector workers in Edmonton Sunday, it’s clear they’re frustrated.
“We still haven’t recovered from the five per cent cut in Klein’s time and now we’re talking about a nine per cent cut. This doesn’t make any sense. Our public services are starving; they’re starving for infrastructure, they’re starving for support,” said Siobhan Vipond, the secretary/treasurer with the Alberta Federation of Labour.
READ MORE: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice looks to overhaul bargaining with civil servants
Then there’s the image problem. Critics say the premier and his “look in the mirror” comments showed he and his party are out of touch with Albertans.
“He really put his foot in his mouth a couple days ago and said on live radio and said, ‘All Albertans need to look in the mirror because all Albertans are responsible for this mess, but we’re not going to touch corporations.’ So this is going to be an election issue,” said Duane Bratt, a political analyst with Mount Royal University.
READ MORE: Protesters armed with mirrors call on Prentice to reflect
Prentice has said the upcoming provincial budget will be so radical and far-reaching, Albertans will be demanding a vote to validate or reject it. The budget is set to be tabled on March 26.
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
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