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Notley defends spending hike in upcoming budget

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Premier Rachel Notley is defending plans to hike provincial spending by nearly three per cent in the upcoming budget as the NDP government pledges it will slowly decrease expenditures to eventually balance Alberta’s books. 

The government is already projecting a shortfall of more than $10 billion in the budget that will be released April 14.

Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci — who were in Grande Prairie for pre-budget consultations — reiterated Thursday the government intends to increase spending in the budget by the rate of inflation plus population growth, which works out to about 2.8 per cent.

Notley told reporters that with the economy “going through the single biggest shock it’s probably experienced in several decades” because of low oil prices, now is not the time to throttle back spending further. 

She said the government is instead taking a “predictable” and “stable” approach to spending.

“It’s fundamental to the values we’ve been talking about since we were elected,” said Notley.

“There’s different ways to respond to this and a knee-jerk drawback in funds, just … so we can say we’re responding, without thinking about the real consequences, is not helpful.” 

Ceci said at the third quarter fiscal update in February the NDP government would not meet its commitment to return to surplus by 2019.

He came under fire this week from opposition parties for repeating those comments and for not bringing forward a timetable for a return to balanced budgets.

Ceci said Thursday the government will bring down the rate of spending increases over time to bring it under inflation plus population growth.

“The growth of expenses going forward is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. So we’re getting our expenses under control,” he said. 

“We’ll have smaller deficits going forward … we’ll get (to balance) but it is difficult to identify an exact date. I don’t think that’s possible.”  

jwood@postmedia.com


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