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"The most fiscally responsible goddam government [Alberta's] had in the last ten years was the NDP."
Am listening to #TheLineCa podcast ( @6618555 ); they're discussing the recent referendum questions from Premier Smith. Their take on it is that the government of #Alberta is about to announce a massive deficit (due to high spending and oil prices falling back to normal levels), and these questions are meant to distract the public.
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Is it true that Alberta's per capita government spending is unsustainably high given current revenues? They imposed a contract on teachers in 2025, and I hear complaints about the Alberta health care system. Where's the money going?
(I should look into this, but not at the moment.)
*Update:* I'm told some of the money is going into infrastructure. Sweet, sweet infrastructure.
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@mpjgregoire In health, where I have direct experience, they have embarked on the process of dismantling one of the most efficiently run health agencies in the country (Alberta Health Services) and replacing it with multiple new bureaucracies. Where we had one health minister, one health department, and one major health authority we now have four health ministers, four departments, four+ agencies (depending on how you count), four boards, and multiple new groups of middle managers staking their turf. I can’t imagine any way that this saves money.
To their credit I do know that over the last few years they have also been hiring a lot of nurses, which is a cost but a cost that is needed.
They also hamstrung themselves by running a successful multi-year campaign to encourage migration to the province which has added strain to already underfunded services.
