EDMONTON, AB (November 30, 2018): Today’s quarterly financial update shows just how out of touch the NDP is with the reality facing Albertans.
“While the NDP claimed that access to tidewater is the focus of this fiscal update, the numbers released today rely on overly optimistic forecasts that completely disregard the emergency situation facing our energy sector,” said Drew Barnes, United Conservative Finance Critic and MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat. “If action is not immediately taken, this could mean thousands of job losses, more bankruptcies, and billions of dollars in lost government revenues.”
The NDP failed to acknowledge that 180,000 Albertans are out of work today, more than when the NDP formed government in 2015. What’s more, those unemployed today are waiting three times longer to return to work than they were just 10 years ago.
The NDP also failed acknowledge that the unprecedented oil price differential could cost the Alberta treasury over $7 billion a year, potentially ballooning our annual deficit from the current $8 billion to a staggering $15 billion.
Instead, NDP Finance Minister Joe Ceci told reporters that his government was still on track to balance the budget in 2023, without any explanation of how.
Earlier this week, Alberta’s United Conservatives detailed a plan to address the oil crisis differential in order to save Alberta jobs.
