Opposition, others weigh in on Prentice’s pre-budget speech

Liberal leader David Swann gave a sort of rebuttal to Premier Jim Prentice’s televised address.

You might ask why, because the Wildrose is the official opposition, but they declined, saying it was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Swann, who didn’t have a chance to hear what Prentice had said before him, rattled off a number of liberal policies.

“Albertans are also telling us they believe in equal pay for work of equal value…far too many people in this province are getting short-changed in their paycheques…it’s not right and we’re going to fight to change this. There are also those that may need medical help to start a family and cannot afford the high cocts of fertility treatment.”

Swann also seems to love referencing ‘Martha and Henry’ who Ralph Klein used to identify ‘regular Albertans’ during his time as premier.

He mentioned them several times during his 15 minute speech to say they are now retired but their children and grandkids are now the ‘regular Albertan’ and they hold a wide range of political beliefs.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says Prentice did admit some key facts during his address tonight but doesn’t think a health levy is the way to go.

Senior policy analyst Amber Ruddy says the idea of a premium is not something businesses would look forward to if it was introduced in the same way that we used to have.

“If the governement is recognizing things like corporate taxes are going to have a huge impact, they should be able to recognize that taking money out of the economy for health care premiums is essentially going to make tough economic times even tougher…now is not the time to introduce new taxes onto Albertans.”

Ruddy says the key point has to be on cutting spending, as well as renegotiating public sector wages but we’ll really have to wait until the budget is unveiled to see what Prentice’s plans are.

Meantime the leader of the Wildrose Party is not impressed with the televised address.

Heather Forsyth tells 660News in order to pass judgement on the Premier’s 10 year economic plan Albertans need more details and those details won’t be revealed until budget day.

Forsyth calls the address nothing more than an expanded election speech suggesting we’re headed to the polls very soon.

“They’re having campaign school on the weekend, they’ve been told to get campaign offices, everybody’s in full campaign mode so it’s going to be shortly, very quickly.”

Forsyth says the P.C.’s have rolled out many economic plans over the years, adding none of them have worked and this one will likely also end up being a failure.

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