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Government promises results based budgeting

New bill to be introduced next week

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The first bill into the legislature next week will aim to create a new standard for writing the government’s $40 billion budget in the future.

The results based budgeting act, Bill 1, will be introduced next week and the government is promising it will create a complete review of all government services and programs.

Local MLA and treasury board president Doug Horner said the idea is to make sure all of the government’s spending is aimed at meeting the needs of Albertans.

“We want to look at the programs and we will start it at zero and say first of all what is the objective of the program and are we meeting that objective.”

The act will establish that over the next three years the government will review all services and programs. The process is also called zero-based budgeting, but Horner said the aim is not to find areas that can be cut, but to make sure the program is achieving what the government wanted.

“We may find out that we haven’t put out the resources behind the program to achieve the result.”

At the same time he said if there is spending that isn’t achieving results the government is looking for, then there will be a chance to redirect the money.

Horner said putting it into law ensures the government does it over the next three years, with a process for consulting the Albertans. He said he hopes the process will become ingrained into budgeting after that.

“The idea is to be able to take the appropriate amount of time, bring in outside experts if required and talk to Albertans about what their expectations are for the service.”

He insisted it would be about making sure government is achieving what it set out to do, as opposed to simply trying to hit a targeted number.

“It is time we started budgeting for the outcome and not the dollar value.”

Opposition unimpressed

Opposition leaders were unconvinced with the new approach. NDP leader Brian Mason said his fear is there is a bigger agenda behind it.

“It basically completely disassembles a whole department and puts it together in a different way and given the stated intent of Premier Redford to privatize government services I am afraid it will be used to do that.”

During the Progressive Conservative leadership race, Premier Alison Redford said as leader she would look at areas and examine if they could be privatized or given to the not-for-profit sector.

Mason said cabinet should be reviewing government spending frequently, but not solely with a view to what can be cut.

“We think that there is a real concern that this process is being introduced to facilitate more privatization of services.”

Liberal leader Raj Sherman said his party has had policies calling for this kind of practice since 1993 and he ran on the idea during the party’s leadership last summer.

“It is about time, after 18 years, that the government, well we are glad they are stealing this idea from the Liberals.”

Sherman said the government should go even further calling for a forensic audit of Alberta Health Services.

“Let’s take a look at Alberta Health Services and see where the money went.”

He said the government that has built all these programs and departments shouldn’t be trusted to review them and he called for Albertans to give his party the chance.

“Now isn’t the time to talk about it. We are way beyond the due date, these guys are late to the party.”