I feel I must respond to Tony Gull’s letter, (Your Views, St. Albert Gazette, Dec. 5). If Tony Gull thinks the flat tax, put in by the Alberta PCs, was so good, how come no other province or territory in Canada put one in place? How come the federal government did not put a flat tax in place?
The answer is really simple. Flat taxes drain a lot of money from government coffers, on an annual basis. Billions of dollars are lost from it. That revenue could be used for other important things, like infrastructure maintenance.
Alberta has a staggering infrastructure repair bill that is around $25 billion, according to certain reports. Is this a coincidence? No.
It also debunks the “paid in full” baloney that Ralph Klein tried to feed us. Klein and his sidekick, Stockwell Day, thought it was a good idea to put in a flat tax. With the flat tax, like the other bad policies from Klein and the Alberta PCs, (which I explained further down in this letter), we could not decide if we wanted them.
They were forced upon us. The Alberta PCs, at that time, were getting bad advice from neoliberal organizations like the Fraser Institute. The flat tax was one of them, and deregulation of electricity, which has cost Albertans well over $30 billion, was another.
Privatization of liquor stores in Alberta was yet another big mistake by Klein and the Alberta PCs. So was privatizing registries and driver training. Communities have complained about having more liquor stores in their neighbourhood, because of the problems they have experienced. How did having increased identity-related crime help anyone in Alberta?
Driver training schools popped up like dandelions in Alberta, and people were easily given driver’s licences by trainers with questionable credentials. This has made an increase in bad drivers in Alberta. There were warnings about the risks of these things, but they were ignored by Klein and the Alberta PCs.
Also, Stockwell Day had some foolish ideas of his own, like reducing the time MLAs sit in the Alberta legislature. Albertans also had to pay for Day’s pricey legal bills.
This is quite a contrast from when Peter Lougheed was in power. He would have opposed these things, if they were suggested to him.
Jason Kenney thinks it’s a good idea to return to the flat tax failure, bring in more austerity, (as if the previous round of that from Klein and the Alberta PCs did not do enough long-term damage), and wants to have more privatization of essential services in Alberta. With reduced revenue caused by a slump in oil prices, which started four years ago, (and have not gone up to the high levels they were before that time), this will compound problems and not save Alberta any money.
Please be careful with who you choose to support in the next provincial election. If you do not think carefully, the consequences will be bad for Alberta. That is not a chance worth taking.
Dwayne Wladyka, Edmonton
