WATCH ABOVE: The Prentice government is under fire from the opposition for spending $13,000 on four new televisions. Tom Vernon explains.
EDMONTON — The Alberta government is coming under fire for spending $13,000 on four 80-inch televisions.
“The premier just blew through $13,000 on new 80-inch TVs at the end of March Madness,” said Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw. “There must be an aura of entitlement within the premier’s office to think this would be acceptable to Albertans while at the same time they’re raising taxes.”
The province says the new screens are needed because ministers hold a lot of video conferences. The government currently has older equipment, 65-inch television screens, but the premier says they no longer work.
“We had repeated attempts through October and November to try to do it with the existing video equipment that was there and it wouldn’t work; it kept crashing and we kept having meetings that we would have to reschedule,” said Premier Jim Prentice.
Prentice insists the $13,000 purchase will save the government money in the long run.
“We sold the government airplanes and we don’t fly people around, we’re trying to avoid even driving to move all the ministers in cabinet from Edmonton to Calgary or vice versa for a meeting,” said Prentice.
“The cost of these video screens will be paid for in basically the money that’s saved on a couple of cabinet meetings because we’re trying to fly people around a lot less.”
READ MORE: Alberta sells 3 of 4 government planes
However, the Wildrose says it wants Albertans to remember the purchase comes as their taxes are on the way up.
“I think Albertans would be at least somewhat understandable for tax increases if they knew their government wasn’t blowing thousands of dollars every day on wasteful expenses,” said Saskiw.
Two of the new screens will be installed inside meeting rooms in the Federal Building; the others will go into the cabinet rooms in the legislature and the McDougall Centre in Calgary.
With files from Tom Vernon, Global News.
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