User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Alberta provincial budget, 2019

The 2019 Alberta budget, known as the A plan for jobs and the economy, is the budget for the province of Alberta for fiscal year 2019. It was presented to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for its first reading on October 24, 2019 by Travis Toews, the Minister of Finance of Alberta of the Government of Alberta, and received Royal Assent on xxxx.

Presentation
The 2019 Alberta budget, known as the A plan for jobs and the economy, is the budget for the province of Alberta for fiscal year 2019. It was presented to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for its first reading on October 24, 2019 by Travis Toews, the Minister of Finance of Alberta and President of the Treasury Board of the Government of Alberta, and received Royal Assent on xxxx. The first reading of the budget bill was presented to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta by United Conservative Party (UCP) representative XXX on XXX.

Debate in legislature and Royal Assent
After x debate sessions in the legislature from xxx a motion to arrange proceedings was taken, and the final xxx reading of the bill

It was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs by Order of the House on 5 June 2013, which considered the bill until 11 June, when it returned an amended bill which was ordered for third reading and carried on division.

The bill was granted Royal Assent by xxx, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, who signed it into law on xxx.

As a result of the passage of the xxxx,

Overview
On October 24, 2019 Minister Toews announced the UCP's first provincial budget. The National Post said that it fulfilled their "promise of slight austerity" with "cuts to spending programs and the elimination of hundreds of bureaucracy jobs". The Post said that these and the corporate tax cuts "were the key planks of a four-year plan to bring the budget into balance." The goal is to reduce government spending by $4-billion over four years, and to balance the budget by 2022-2023.

The 2019-20 budget will "run a deficit of $8.7 billion" which is approximately "$2-billion higher than in 2018-19."

Revenues
Revenues for fiscal year 2019-2020 are expected to be $50 billion, a 0.4 percent increase compared to the Alberta provincial budget, 2018. This included a reduction in corporate income tax revenues of x.x percent, an increase of 5.7 percent in personal income tax revenues The government also borrowed $xx.x billion, of which xx percent was from domestic sources.

At the end of FY2018-2019 total revenue was $49.6 billion, which was "$2.3 billion higher than in 2017-18, and an increase of $1.7 billion from budget."

Expenditures
Assumptions for the budget include economic growth in real gross domestic product for the province of x.x percent in 2019, as well as the Canadian dollar exchange rate with respect to the United States dollar to be xx.x. Total program spending was $54,548 million in 2018 and $54,612 million in 2019.

The total expenditures which includes total program spending, debt servicing costs and pension provisions, were $56,335 million in 2018 with a forecast of $58,720 million in spending in 2019.

Program spending decreased for Advanced Education, Agriculture and Forestry, Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, Education, Environment and Parks, Indigenous Relations, Seniors and Housing, Service Alberta, and the Treasury Board and Finance.

Healthcare and social assistance
According to the budget, "Current, generous levels for Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), the Alberta Seniors Benefit, Income Support and Special Needs Assistance programs will be maintained. Indexation will be paused but benefits will not be rolled back or cut." The budget says that, "AISH recipients currently receive $1,685 a month in basic benefits which is $430 per month more than the next highest province." However, the budget reversed the "Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH)’s tie to inflation." The decision to de-index disability benefits met with outrage, according to The Star with many people "vocal about their disdain" for the decision, including Arlene Dickinson, formerly with the Dragon Den's.

Advanced education
The budget forecast a growth in revenue of $181 million over the next 3 years, as the province ends the freeze in tuition fees in 2020-21 and allows the fees to increase to "up to 7 per cent per year for the next three years." This is in response to recommendations of the Janice MacKinnon's August 2019 "Report and Recommendations: Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta's Finances". In August 2019, Janice MacKinnon's task force submitted the report commissioned by Premier Kenney, "Report and Recommendations: Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta's Finances". mandated by Premier Kenney to "figure out how to balance the provincial books without raising taxes." McKinnon, who was Saskatchewan's finance minister, found that "Alberta spends more per person on its public sector, and compensates its teachers, doctors and other workers more generously, than other major provinces." The panel recommended that the post-secondary tuition freeze be lifted, and suggested "various measures to slash health-care costs and government-wide program reviews." The Post said that the changes in post-secondary education were "significant" with a 12-per-cent funding cut and a reduction in "government grants to post-secondary institutions". Together that represents a $1.9 billion in cuts in post-secondary education. Post-secondary institutions will be allowed to increase tuition.

Budget omnibus bills
On October 28, the Minister Toews introduced Bill 20, an omnibus bill which included a clause through which the government of Alberta could withdraw the $1.53-billion grant it had promised for Calgary's Green Line "with just 90 days' notice and without cause."

Minister Toews introduced a second omnibus bill, Bill 21, on October 28, as part of his budget that allows the provincial government to "cancel its master agreement with doctors if the two sides can't negotiate a new deal." In an October 30 open letter to all members of the Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Christine Molnar, AMA director, said that the "bill effectively gives government the power of pre-approval to cancel any physician services agreement without recourse. This is a violation of the sanctity of contracts." The bill would also give the government control over where new doctors can work starting in March 2022, in order to provide better service to rural areas.

Total debt
"On March 31, 2019, Alberta had $85.9 billion in total debt outstanding."