The breakfast may have been bacon and eggs, but Dale Nally was also on the grill at the St. Albert Rotary Club last Friday morning.
The St. Albert-Morinville MLA and Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction faced some pointed questions from St. Albert Rotarians last Friday about the province’s consultation on the proposed Alberta Pension Plan (APP).
Nally came to provide an update on the provincial government’s key priorities and his own ministry, which he took on when Danielle Smith became premier last October.
The work is “a lot of fun,” Nally said, noting that he is in charge of the province’s fourth largest revenue stream at Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC).
It’s no surprise with AGLC is on his plate with red tape reduction, he indicated. “There’s a lot of rules we don’t need,” he said, pointing specifically to the fact that groups such as veterans are not able to raise funds for their own use.
Nally touted the province’s $2.4-billion forecast surplus for the 2023-24 budget year, based on oil at $79 per barrel – “I’ll let you decide for yourself if that 2.4 looks like it might be closer to 3 billion or more,” he said – and consistent increases in job growth and net migration from other provinces.
The “Alberta is Calling” ad campaign is working – “Doug Ford hates them” – and so is the reduction of corporate income tax from 12 per cent to eight, resulting in an increase in gross corporate tax revenue, Nally said.
Nally also pointed to the fact that the government has stopped using interest revenue from the Heritage Fund for government operations, saying that if the Fund’s proceeds had been fully reinvested from the beginning it would be worth $300 billion today rather than $22 billion.
“It’s too late for us, but it’s not too late for our kids.”
He also said that Dow is looking at Alberta for the world’s first net-zero ethane cracker, used in the creation of polypropylene, which would be the largest private sector investment in the province in the past 15 years if it comes, with some 7,000 construction jobs between 2024 and 2030.
Nally pointed to his local advocacy work behind the scenes to replace X-ray machines at the Morinville Clinic — “When the health minister sees me coming, she knows I’m going to bring up that X-ray machine” — and for new high schools in St. Albert and Legal.
As for Service Alberta, Nally said the backlog in land title processing has dropped from 84 business days to 22, towards the goal of 10 to 15 days — and that the ministry is spending $100 million to upgrade registry services, especially the motor vehicle registry, whose software is approaching end-of-life. The update will also allow unlimited new specialty plates, where the current system can only handle one more, Nally said.
AGLC is also reviewing individual liquor markups to ensure they are fair and equitable, rather than being changed at the premier’s level as they have been in the past (though not, he said, under Smith), and reducing over-regulation in the “struggling” cannabis industry, Nally said.
Several Rotarians questioned Nally on the government’s recent release of a report, online survey and consultations on a possible APP, asking why the government was making it a priority and why the online survey doesn’t ask Albertans if they support the concept of breaking away from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
“I wouldn’t say it’s a government priority,” Nally said. “We didn’t campaign on an APP; we campaigned on releasing the report.”
Nally said he hadn’t done the online survey himself yet, but that the engagement plan led by former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning would confirm Albertans’ appetite for an APP before a referendum would be called.
“I don’t know if there will be a referendum,” he said.
“If there isn’t enough support for a referendum there won’t be one.”
Nally pointed out that when campaigning for re-election this spring, he said he hadn’t read the report by Lifeworks and therefore had no opinion on the APP plan.
He said he has now read it and finds it “compelling,” and defended the report that indicates Alberta could be entitled to claim more than half the assets of the CPP to set up its own plan.
“I’m not an actuary but that sounds good to me,” he said.
“I would encourage you to keep an open mind and to read the report,” he said. “I think if all Albertans would read the report they’d find it compelling.”
