Alberta
National Indigenous Languages Day celebrates with virtual celebration to honour strength and endurance of Indigenous languages and cultures
March 31, 2021, Fort Chipewyan, AB – Cree and Déne elders and language teachers celebrate National Indigenous Languages Day in a virtual celebration. The day honours the strength and endurance of Indigenous languages and cultures.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Métis Association, Mikisew Cree First Nation, in partnership with the Athabasca Tribal Council and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, are hosting the event.
“It’s important to preserve our mother tongue because it defines who we are,” said Chief Peter Powder of Mikisew Cree First Nation. “First language skills have been declining and this encourages the well-being and resilience of our rich culture and our identity.”
National Indigenous Languages Day was first celebrated on March 31, 1993. Since then, March 31st marks the day Indigenous language speakers, elders, knowledge keepers, and youth across the country live, experience, and learn in their first language.
“Language is central to identity, preservation of culture, worldview, the environment they inhabit, and expression of self-determination,” said Chief Allan Adam of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and President of Athabasca Tribal Council. “By learning and speaking an Indigenous language, you are doing your part in reclaiming and revitalizing Indigenous languages.”
Links to each virtual zoom session will be posted on the Athabasca Tribal Council Facebook. Click here to go there now.
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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