Recommendation to Ralph Klein, re: Fiscal Policy

Ralph,

Obviously, Alberta has a lot of money flowing in right now, and with projections that oil prices will stay in the $40+ range for years to come, will likely be flowing in for a good long time.

Unfortunately, your government doesn't have a clue what to do with the money... here are my recommendations:

1. Reduce corporate taxes to <7%.>
2. Increase the personal tax exemption from ~$20,000 to $50,000. This way many lower income Albertans would not have to pay income taxes to the province at all.
3. Alternatively, abolish both corporate and personal income taxes. Create a provincial sales tax of 3% and harmonize it with the GST. This would give a net 10% sales tax (still lower than other provinces), and would replace income tax revenues.
4. Eliminate health care premiums. These are minor and sadly regressive tax on the poor.
5. Twin the highway to Fort McMurray and upgrade the rail infrastructure to make it easier to construct the future oil sands projects. We need more and better ways to get material from outside Alberta to the oil sands. In particular the railway should make it possible to bring heavy loads from both the Saskatchewan border and the Montana border.
6. Take a chance on more private medical provision, and allow private medical insurance for non-emergency services. It is sad to me that I can spend my money to get surgery in India or Thailand but I would have to wait in line in Alberta.
7. Put surplus money into the Heritage Fund and invest it. Create an investment board similar to the CPPIB so that we can grow the fund outside of just putting government revenues in.
8. Do NOT send out cheques to the public. This is a waste of money and is inflationary because people will just spend it.
9. Increase or remove the threshold for "rebates" on energy bills. Albertan's should not get a significant price reduction over what other people in North America pay. We already get the benefit of the oil industry through low taxes.

The Technical Bard