St. Albert’s NDP MLAs found a lot to like in the recent speech from the throne.
But the Wildrose MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock wasn’t as impressed.
St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud didn’t find the contents of the speech, delivered by Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell on Tuesday afternoon, particularly surprising.
But she did find some aspects particularly hopeful, especially when it comes to the $34-billion provincial capital plan and its possible spinoffs for St. Albert.
“I’m really hopeful. So we’re always pushing for obviously park and ride and transportation, and of course Ray Gibbon, twinning Ray Gibbon,” Renaud said.
The hefty capital plan can take advantage of the slowdown in the construction industry in the wake of Alberta’s recent economic woes. Renaud said it can help keep people working.
She’s looking forward to hearing more about the new Alberta Child Benefit Plan, which the speech indicated would give benefits to low-income families.
There are also some programs aimed at diversifying the economy, including giving Alberta Treasury Branches $1.5-billion to support lending to small and medium businesses, a direction to Alberta Investment Management Corporation to earmark dollars for Alberta companies and the Alberta Petrochemicals Diversification Program.
Renaud was pleased the speech highlighted those plans, and is hoping that St. Albert entrepreneurs can take advantage of some of the initiatives.
Those economic diversification initiatives were what pleased Spruce Grove-St. Albert MLA Trevor Horne as well.
“My entire constituency is fairly diverse, so there’s a lot of economic initiatives that I think will really have an impact, everything from diversifying our energy markets to continuing to make sure that entrepreneurs have access to capital and to really support new businesses,” Horne said.
He also was happy to see what he called a good commitment to maintaining front line services including education and health care.
“Thus far I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback,” Horne said. He said a lot of good initiatives “were hinted at in there.”
Wildrose MLA Glenn van Dijken, who represents Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, was not as impressed, calling the speech “a lot of words.”
“It shows us the government’s willing to essentially choose their ideology over some common sense,” he said. He said the Wildrose’s concerns are that they see measures being implemented that they believe will have negative impacts on business, like the carbon tax plan, minimum wage increases or “their unwillingness to move to where we would have a competitive small business tax.”
“We would like to see where there’s some indication that the government recognizes the hurt that is in the economy right now,” van Dijken said. “I see a lot of talk but we’ve had a lot of talk for 10 months now and not a lot of action.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse said the provincial budget will have bigger implications for municipalities than the throne speech, like whether or not the Municipal Sustainability Initiative funds will continue.
He said Premier Rachel Notley was asked about those funds continuing during a speech in front of the province’s mayors on Wednesday.
“One of the mayors stood up yesterday and asked her very clearly if it was, and she wouldn’t answer it,” he said.
There is a large provincial capital plan, but without eyes on the budget it could spell bad news for municipalities, he said.
“Those billions of dollars may mean that there’s a reduction in money coming to municipalities and there may be an increase to the money going to hospitals or schools,” Crouse said.
