Alberta
Alberta Environment Minister Schulz preparing for impending drought
Taking action on drought in Alberta
“Alberta has five stages in its water management plan. Ranging from Stage 1, which is a minor drought to Stage 5, which is a province-wide emergency. We are currently in Stage 4.”
Water is one of Alberta’s most precious resources. We all use it, consume it, and rely on it.
Most of the water that Albertans use to drink, grow crops, run our businesses and sustain our environment comes from rain and melting snow. The last three years have brought droughts and water shortages in various parts of our province, including most of Southern Alberta this summer.
The world is also experiencing El Niño, a global phenomenon occurring for the first time in seven years. It’s causing less snow and rain, along with higher temperatures, around the world this winter. Recent forecasts indicate that there is a 62 percent chance that the unusually warm and dry conditions that we have experienced could continue until June 2024.
Alberta has five stages in its water management plan. Ranging from Stage 1, which is a minor drought to Stage 5, which is a province-wide emergency. We are currently in Stage 4.
Our government is now preparing for the possibility of a serious drought next year. The good news is
that Alberta is up to the challenge. This province has navigated droughts before and has a long, proud
history of coming together during tough times.
Officials in the department of Environment and Protected Areas have stood up a Drought Command Team and work is underway to finalize a Drought Emergency Plan.
Meetings have been held with communities, farmers, businesses and others to prepare. Many have
already taken action to implement conservation measures and adapt to reduced water levels. Our
government has announced up to $165 million in federal-provincial drought relief for livestock
producers. And, this summer and fall, Calgary, Medicine Hat and other communities adopted voluntary and mandatory restrictions on water use to help Alberta’s stressed river basins.
I commend the collective actions taken so far by so many people throughout Alberta.
Over the coming months, we will be carefully monitoring snowpack, rainfall, river levels and actual water use to develop our early warning capacity. We will use this information and scientific modelling to assess the risk of drought next year. We have launched alberta.ca/drought to keep all Albertans updated as we take these steps.
Together with our partners, we are doing everything we can to be fully prepared for whatever next year brings. An advisory panel of experts to help provide advice will be formed in the months ahead. And we are preparing for the future, looking at what long-term infrastructure is needed to help manage water supplies for future generations.
We cannot make it rain or snow, but all of us have a role to play. Conserving water can help your
community, as well as Albertans downstream from you. In the coming months, we will all have to pull
together to secure our province’s water supply. It is a challenge that I am confident Albertans will meet.
Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas
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
Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
-
Education2 days ago
Support a young reader through the Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign
-
Business2 days ago
WEF panelist suggests COVID response accustomed people to the idea of CBDCs
-
illegal immigration2 days ago
Flight Docs Reveal Which Cities Are Receiving Migrants Under Biden’s Parole Program
-
Fraser Institute2 days ago
Canada can solve its productivity ‘emergency’—we just need politicians on board
-
Environment2 days ago
Journalism Misrepresent Climate Science
-
International2 days ago
NYPD storms protest-occupied Columbia building, several arrested
-
illegal immigration2 days ago
Oklahoma Just Became The Latest State To Take Immigration Enforcement Into Its Own Hands
-
Economy2 days ago
Today’s federal government—massive spending growth and epic betting