Alberta
Traffic offenses down by 26% this holiday season
Jan. 7, 2021
Alberta RCMP work to keep roadways safe throughout the holidays
Edmonton – This holiday season, Alberta RCMP conducted enforcement initiatives focussed on promoting traffic safety. Between Dec. 24, 2020 and Jan. 3, 2021, RCMP issued a total of 2,374 traffic tickets across the province.
Overall, 872 individuals were ticketed for speeding, 55 motorists were caught distracted driving, and 130 impaired drivers were removed from the roads. Of the 130 impaired drivers, 16 were Criminal Code Impaired by Alcohol and four were Criminal Code Impaired by Drugs. Another 1,333 motorists received tickets for traffic safety violations including careless driving, driving with a prohibited or suspended license, moving offences, and more.
Notable traffic stops:
- In St. Albert, an impaired male was found passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle while in traffic. The individual was arrested and had a blood alcohol concentration of 240 mg.
- In Grande Prairie, an impaired male was arrested and had a blood alcohol concentration of 260 mg.
- Near Cochrane, an impaired female crashed into a snow plow and had a blood alcohol concentration of 220 mg.
- Two commercial drivers, while working, were arrested and charged with impaired driving.
- Three impaired drivers were found to have children in their vehicles ranging in age from two to five-years-old.
In total, Alberta RCMP recorded 26% less roadway offences compared to last year.
Thanks to the work of RCMP, Albertans were able to safely celebrate the holidays both on and off the roads. For more traffic safety information, follow us on Facebook @RCMPinAlberta and Twitter @RCMPAlberta.
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Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
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