Rachel Notley’s government-directed spending and Jason Kenney’s market-driven policies couldn’t be further apart. So which will voters choose?
CALGARY — Jason Kenney, running to be Alberta’s next premier, is lunching on a salad at the Blackfoot Diner, a popular truck stop eatery just outside Calgary’s downtown, but offering red-meat economic policy proposals to his base in historically conservative Alberta.
Kenney, 50, and Rachel Notley, the NDP’s popular 54-year-old leader running for a second term, agree on little else. “You couldn’t ask for more diametrically opposed economic policies,” according to Duane Bratt, Mount Royal University political science professor. “The more value add that we have in Alberta, the more we hedge against the price of the feedstock commodity going down,” Notley said in an interview, adding that she believes $7 billion in credits could attract $75 billion in spending on projects.
“With all of these things that we’ve done so far, they all have a return on investment to Albertans in terms of the impact on the economy writ large and none of these things that we’ve invested in doesn’t pay for itself in terms of our own revenue,” Notley said. Debt ratings agencies downgraded the province’s ballooning debt at multiple points after successive budgets showed rising debt in a period of low oil prices.
Notley says Kenney’s promise to shred the deal is “ridiculous” and would end up costing taxpayers money and also “extend and expand” the need for oil producers in the province to curtail their production given a lack of new export pipelines. “I appreciate his ‘free markets’ angle but this is one issue where, given how much of it has been screwed up by multiple levels of government, the risk/reward merits the continued involvement of the Alberta government into 2020,” Nuttall said. “It’s not a risk worth taking.”
However, the school’s experts declined to comment for this piece over concerns they’d be seen as endorsing the party.In the course of 30 minutes at the Blackfoot Diner, Kenney was interrupted by supporters wishing him well three times — a reflection of the UCP currently polling at 51.4 per cent support in the city, close to 17 points ahead of the NDP.
“I don’t think, in the oil and gas sector anyway, it’s a particularly helpful strategy and I think a more directed, strategic approach will work better,” she said. Kenney plans to announce additional policies about speeding up regulatory approvals at the Alberta Energy Regulator later in the campaign. “I want to meet or beat Texas when it comes to timelines and approvals and I truly believe we can do that without reducing health or safety standards,” he said.
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