Chamber of Commerce says the Alberta advantage is broken
Posted Feb 26, 2015 12:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After speaking with the business community, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce is calling on Premier Jim Prentice to establish a citizen commission to help redefine a new Alberta advantage.
There are three principles to help recalibrate the province’s approach.
Chamber CEO Adam Legge says the first principle is easy: the government needs to get back to fiscal responsibility, which reflects inflation, population and economic growth.
Legge also wants to make sure we’re getting good value, noting we spend more on education, health care and social services than any other province but are middle of the road for service.
Thirdly, he wants to retool the revenue model.
“It’s clear that the revenue model that Alberta has is far too reliant on commodity revenues which are very volatile,” he said.
He said that would help the province from saying yes to schools or hospitals one year, then back-tracking six months later.
Legge cautioned we can’t make cuts to those areas because they help grow the province.
