Reality check: Wildrose says it would put a stop to PC spending binge

Today, in response to the detailed Wildrose plan to balance the budget without raising taxes, Jim Prentice was adamant about the need to bring in the largest tax increase in Alberta history on the back of Alberta families.

“You can’t balance the budget in three years without raising revenue.”

What Prentice means to say is the same old PC party can’t balance the budget without raising taxes because they refuse to tackle the waste, entitlement and cronyism in their government.

Prentice also resorted to baseless fear mongering about the Wildrose savings:

“They’ve put out generalities but who are they proposing to cut? They talk about infrastructure, what are they proposing to cut?”

Wildrose put an entire page of itemized savings in its plan, and it is clear that it does not affect any front-line workers. It includes shrinking the bloated manager ranks in government, capping executive pay, and cutting the money spent on AHS consultants in half.

The Wildrose capital plan is larger than any comparable province, and does not propose “cutting” any projects other than Carbon Capture and Storage. At worst, lower priority items will be delayed a year, but that is nothing our communities are not used to after 44 years of politicized PC capital plans. The difference is that a Wildrose government would be up front with objective criteria.

The detailed Wildrose plan shows exactly where and how a Wildrose government would eliminate $2.2 to $3.5 billion in wasteful spending to get our spending in line with 2017 revenues.