{"id":148769,"date":"2018-01-25T03:21:11","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T08:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=148769"},"modified":"2025-01-14T21:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T02:46:59","slug":"alberta-party-leaders-discuss-viability-of-sales-tax-in-first-leadership-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/25\/alberta-party-leaders-discuss-viability-of-sales-tax-in-first-leadership-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta Party leaders discuss viability of sales tax in first leadership debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leadership<\/a>
Leadership candidates Stephen Mandel and Rick Fraser, both members of the former Progressive Conservative government, questioned going down the sales tax road. (Photo By Alberta Party – http:\/\/www.albertaparty.ca\/media_logos, Public Domain)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON\u2014 The Alberta Party’s leadership candidates squared off on money in their first debate, with candidate Kara Levis saying it’s time to explore a provincial sales tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s time to lay everything on the table,\u201d Levis told more than 300 people at the debate on the University of Alberta campus Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really like to see us start to consider ? a value added point of sale tax,\u201d she said. \u201cThat’s a source of revenue that we really haven’t been able to talk about, and none of our opponents have had the courage to talk about that in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s what’s going to make the Alberta Party stand out in the 2019 election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levis, a Calgary energy lawyer, said a stable base of revenue is needed, particularly for day-to-day program spending, as Alberta works to diversify the economy and get off the what she called the resource revenue roller-coaster.<\/p>\n

Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP government is borrowing billions of dollars to fund capital projects and program spending as the economy rebounds from low oil prices.<\/p>\n

Leadership candidates Stephen Mandel and Rick Fraser, both members of the former Progressive Conservative government, questioned going down the sales tax road.<\/p>\n

Mandel, the former mayor of Edmonton, said any governing party can’t go to Albertans for more money until it gets its fiscal house in order and improves its spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. 1 is to sit back and look at what we’re spending and show how we can balance our chequebook,\u201d said Mandel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t believe we should be looking at mandating more taxes to the public. It’s not a popular issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandel also said he would put any sales tax to a referendum.<\/p>\n

Fraser, a recent United Conservative Party legislature member who crossed the floor to the Alberta Party, said the focus has to be on growing revenue, but not with a sales tax.<\/p>\n

buy bimatoprost online newleafcounselinggroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/bimatoprost.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s about growing the top line ? and not always moving to taxes,\u201d said Fraser.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we continue to just focus on taxes and not think about growing the revenue, the province is going to be in big, big trouble down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sales tax has been a controversial topic in Alberta for decades.<\/p>\n

The Progressive Conservatives never brought in a sales tax, and Notley has said from her first days as premier she will not bring one in either.<\/p>\n

Economists meeting late last year with Finance Minister Joe Ceci reiterated that a sales tax is an economically sound source of revenue, but Notley has said it would be disastrous to impose one on Alberta’s economy, which remains fragile despite signs of growth.<\/p>\n

Opposition United Conservative party leader Jason Kenney has stressed he wants low tax regimes to aid working families and deliver incentives to entrepreneurs to grow the economy.<\/p>\n

Kenney has promised to repeal Notley’s carbon tax, on home and business heating bills and gas at the pumps.<\/p>\n

Fraser and Mandel also criticized the carbon tax Wednesday, saying it hurts small business and is fundamentally unfair given that middle and low-income earners get rebates to offset the cost of the levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertain people pay and other people don’t. I think that sends the wrong message,\u201d said Mandel.<\/p>\n

Kenny’s party is also debating whether to bring back the 10 per cent flat tax on income, which was scrapped by Notley’s NDP in 2015.<\/p>\n

All three Alberta party candidates said the NDP’s new progressive system is fair and workable.<\/p>\n

The next debate is in Calgary on Feb.<\/p>\n

buy topamax online newleafcounselinggroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/topamax.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

8.<\/p>\n

The leader is be to be chosen Feb.<\/p>\n

buy zoloft online newleafcounselinggroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/zoloft.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON\u2014 The Alberta Party’s leadership candidates squared off on money in their first debate, with candidate Kara Levis saying it’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":148772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[44691,42624,44692],"class_list":["post-148769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","tag-alberta-partys-leadership-candidates","tag-kara-levis","tag-viability-of-sales-tax","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284415,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148769\/revisions\/284415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}