OP-ED: Alberta must fight the debt

"The Alberta government must stop wasting money and adding to the debt. Alberta is set to have a debt of $82.9 billion by next year."

Author: Kris Sims

The Alberta government must stop wasting money and adding to the debt.

Alberta is set to have a debt of $82.9 billion by next year.

That’s a bit better than the estimate reported a few months ago, but it’s also a bit worse than the estimated debt of $82.7 billion that was reported in the budget.

The bottom line is that debt is caused by wasteful spending.

Debt interest payments will cost taxpayers close to $3 billion this year.

That’s a yearly invoice that must be paid by taxpayers. That $3 billion could build three hospitals, buy 6,000 houses or cover the annual income tax bill of about 812,000 Albertans.

Alberta has rules requiring half of surpluses to be put down on to the debt and laws restraining spending increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth.

Those are good measures.

Yet, the government is still spending too much money and adding to the debt.

The government is forecasting that it is going to increase the debt to $90.1 billion in 2027 and $98.4 billion in 2028.

The debt was $62.6 billion in 2019.

If the projection for 2028 happens, the government will have increased the debt by more than 57 per cent in less than a decade.

If Premier Danielle Smith wants to recreate the day when former premier Ralph Klein held aloft the “paid in full” sign for the debt, she must get Finance Minister Nate Horner to go through his budget with a chainsaw.

There are three branches of wasteful spending to cut: spending on nonsense, overpaid bureaucrats and corporate welfare.

First, Horner should stop handing taxpayers money to people under the guise of “arts funding.”

Few would choose to hand someone $15,000 so they could fly to South Korea to video-tape themselves flopping around on a lawn chair. But the government did that via the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

A different person got a grant of $14,466 for “palm navigation research.” The art shows a photo of a palm of a hand with ink on it and an explanation of how it looks like a map of Iraq.

Taxpayers paid $2.7 million for personal arts projects in 2023-24. In 2024-25, taxpayers paid $5.2 million, a 91 percent increase.

Taxpayers have spent more than $31 million on arts grants for individuals since 2015.

The government should scrap this program.

Second, Horner should cut the cost of bureaucracy.

Alberta Health Services is stuffed full of managers managing managers.

AHS has 320 directors and executive directors on the sunshine list, costing taxpayers more than $57 million in 2024.

Only compensation that is more than $159,833 is reported for AHS. In Saskatchewan, salaries at the Saskatchewan Health Authority of $50,000 or more are reported.

Horner should cut the number of managers at AHS in half and cut the sunshine list threshold down to $123,838, the salary of an MLA. This would save taxpayers at least $28 million and make the government more transparent.

Lastly, the government must stop doling out corporate welfare.

Spending $330 million of taxpayers’ money to help build an NHL arena in Calgary is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Spending $183 million of taxpayers’ money to build a plaza for the Edmonton Oilers, a hockey club with a billionaire owner is also a terrible waste of money.

The government spent $31 billion on corporate welfare from 2007 to 2021, according to the Fraser Institute. The handouts need to stop.

Alberta’s debt is headed in the wrong direction.

Taxpayers should be alarmed that the government is planning to make the debt break the $90 billion mark in 2027, because taxpayers are paying the debt interest bill of $3 billion per year.

The government must stop wasteful spending and stop adding to the debt.

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation