Rachel Notley visits Lethbridge for budget town hall

Rachel Notley stopped in Lethbridge on Tuesday evening as the leader of Alberta’s Official Opposition continued the NDP caucus’ budget town hall tour of the province.

Premier Jason Kenney announced Monday that his government will release its first budget on Oct. 24, which is just three days after the federal election and nearly one month after the blue ribbon panel released its budget recommendations in the form of the MacKinnon report.

Lethbridge was the fourth stop on a tour that’s already seen town halls be held in Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Red Deer. Roughly 70 citizens showed up to have their voices heard on fiscal concerns in Lethbridge.

“Folks are concerned about fundamental elements of the quality of life that they were promised would be protected,” Notley said on Tuesday.

“Here’s the thing, Jason Kenney said he doesn’t need to consult because he already consulted in the election,” she said. “When you start to diverge from your election promises, then you need to consult.

“He’s already talking about breaking many of the promises he made during the election, so he should be out here talking to Albertans before he does that.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He's already talking about breaking many of the promises he made during the election, so he should be out here talking to Albertans before he does that."

But Kenney reiterated Monday in his announcement that the biggest promise he made during the election campaign was to balance the budget and get the province out of the more than $62 billion of debt it currently sits in.

“A central part of that platform was to stop the dive into debt,” Kenney said, “which risks our future, which will drive up taxes, which will increase interest costs and which will jeopardize public services.”

Public services were front of mind Tuesday night, with a large portion of the speakers from the audience being teachers and health sector employees; many of them concerned that education and health care will take life-changing hits in the new budget.

“In this community, we depend on senior services,” said Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips, who also acts as the Opposition’s finance critic.

“In this community, we depend on post-secondary education,” she said. “We have a lot of young families who are looking at larger classrooms this year.”

But Kenney confirmed Monday that the budget won’t target front-line health or education services. Instead, he said his government will look to find efficiencies.

“We will be challenging our municipalities and school boards and hospital administrators to reduce administrative costs,” Kenney said, “and to get more bang for the taxpayer’s buck.”

Kenney has been criticized by some for how long his government has taken to release the budget, but he emphasized that he realizes the pressure associated with the first go.

“We will be judged by this,” he said.

“Barring some global financial catastrophe, if we do not balance the budget by the next election, I would expect many Albertans to hold us to account.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Barring some global financial catastrophe, if we do not balance the budget by the next election, I would expect many Albertans to hold us to account."

But for Notley, the judging has already commenced.

“Jason Kenney has created a massive hole in the budget by creating a $4.5-billion corporate tax cut to profitable corporations, without checking to see if the numbers added up,” she said.

Notley and the Opposition will ultimately have to wait until Oct. 24 to see what decisions Kenney’s team has made with the budget.