EDMONTON, AB: The NDP should drop their plan to provide political parties with millions of dollars in taxpayer funded rebates during a time of massive deficits and economic uncertainty, the Wildrose Official Opposition said.
Today, NDP Edmonton-Ellerslie MLA Rod Loyola introduced a motion in the Ethics and Accountability Committee that would rebate political parties and candidates who receive 10 per cent of votes cast a 50 per cent reimbursement of campaign expenditures.
Wildrose House Leader Nathan Cooper said when over 100,000 full time jobs have vanished in the past year alone, the last thing Albertans expect is for MLAs to find new ways to use taxpayer money in order to fund campaign spending.
“The very last concern of people in my riding and across Alberta is how to further use tax dollars to finance political parties and election campaigns,” Cooper said. “This is absolutely the wrong time for MLAs to be having the debate. Albertans are hurting and are looking for ways for MLAs to put their best interests first. This just shows how increasingly out of touch this NDP government is becoming with working families across the province.”
Wildrose MLAs have led the charge in ending union and corporate donations and providing solutions to modify donation limits.
“Albertans gave this legislature a clear mandate to get big money out of politics, but not rush through new changes that ask taxpayers to foot a bigger bill each election at the same time the government is running a record deficit,” Cooper said.