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Alberta

Writ drops for Alberta provincial election on May 29

Published

1 year ago

5 minute read

United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith, centre, speaks at a campaign launch rally in Calgary, on Saturday, April 29, 2023. Smith is expected to call a provincial election during an announcement later this morning in Calgary. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Calgary

Writs issued for the 2023 Provincial General Election

Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, Glen Resler, confirms that Writs were issued today to administer elections across Alberta. The 31st Provincial General Election will be held on May 29, 2023.

Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, Glen Resler, confirms that Writs were issued today to administer elections across Alberta.  The 31st Provincial General Election will be held on May 29, 2023.

“We are excited to welcome Albertans back to the polls this month,” said Resler. “Returning Officers have been appointed, and we are in the process of recruiting and training nearly 20,000 Election Officers to conduct voting in the 87 electoral divisions across the province.”

Voter Eligibility

Canadian citizens who reside in Alberta and are at least 18 years of age or older on Election Day are eligible to vote in the Provincial General Election.

Voter Registration

Electors may register to vote online at www.voterlink.ab.ca until May 17, 2023, by contacting Elections Alberta or their local returning office before 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 20.

Electors can also register to vote at any advance voting location in Alberta or at their assigned voting place on Election Day.

Electors who are already registered to vote at their current address do not need to register again.

Voter Identification

To vote in the 2023 Provincial General Election, electors are required to prove their identity and current address.  There are several ways to do this, including:

  • Providing one piece of Government-issued photo ID, including the voter’s full name, current address, and a photo.
  • Providing two pieces of ID, both containing the voter’s full name and one that lists their current physical address.
  • Having another registered elector with identification that resides in their voting area vouch for them.
  • Having an authorized signatory complete an attestation form.

More than 50 different types of identification have been authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer to be used as identification to vote.

Key Timelines

Electors have 28 days to vote by Special Ballot beginning today.  Special Ballots may be completed in the returning office, picked up by a designate of the elector, or mailed to the elector anywhere in the world.  Applications can be submitted online on the Elections Alberta website.

Candidate nominations are now open and end on May 11, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.

Advance voting begins on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, and ends on Saturday, May 27, 2023.

Election Day is Monday, May 29, 2023.  All voting places will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Unofficial results will be available after voting closes on Election Day.

Official results will be announced on June 8, 2023, at 10:00 a.m.

Returning Offices

Returning offices in all electoral divisions open today across Alberta. Returning offices are open on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on Voting Days from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Returning Office addresses and contact information can be found at: https://elections.ab.ca/current-election-information/returning-offices/

New for 2023, Satellite Offices are also being opened in six geographically large electoral divisions to provide more service options for electors.  These include:

  • 54 – Cardston-Siksika
  • 55 – Central Peace-Notley
  • 59 – Drumheller-Stettler
  • 60 – Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche
  • 77 – Peace River
  • 80 – Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre

Satellite Offices are open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and on Voting Days from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

For any questions or concerns regarding the provincial election, visit www.elections.ab.ca, call 1-877-422-VOTE, or email [email protected].

Information for media will be available throughout the election period at https://www.elections.ab.ca/resources/media/, including:

  • Information sheets on topics such as Registering to Vote, Voter Identification, Accessible Voting and Tabulators and Voter Assist Terminals.
  • Photo and video assets.
  • Processes for accessing a voting place on voting days.

Elections Alberta is an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta responsible for administering provincial elections, by-elections, and referenda.

Related Topics:

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans

Published on May 2, 2024

By

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:

Spencer Gudewill
Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
and
Tegan Hill
Associate Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

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Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.
We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.
For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.
Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.
Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.
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