The 2011 provincial budget and Alberta's future were the two featured topics of Ed Stelmach's speech during this year's Premier's Dinner.
Stelmach addressed the sold-out crowd of more than 240 people during the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Progressive Conservative Association fundraiser at the Carstairs Community Hall March 31.
“This is a very tight budget,” Stelmach said.
“Even though it is an increase of 4.7 per cent, it is tight.
“School boards will probably have to dig a little deeper into the reserves at least for this year.”
However, Stelmach said his operations and government are balanced.
“The deficit is in the amount of money that we are investing in infrastructure,” Stelmach added.
“But a deficit in this province is not debt. Every other province that registered a deficit is a debt, because they don't have the blessings of our cash reserve.
“Nobody anticipated one of the worst recessions in our lifetime … So, we are using that cash reserve to build infrastructure and I submit to you that we are going to continue to build that infrastructure.”
Stelmach said he will not put the province back in the same position that it was in a number of years ago when it was competing with the private sector at 25 to 35 per cent interest rates, trying to catch up on its infrastructure.
“I suggest to everyone, let's continue building the infrastructure, let's complete the roads and schools and of course the health facilities that are necessary and there will be a focus on continuing care.”
Stelmach said Alberta is an aging population, something that needs to be planned for.
“I'm not saying that they will be a cost to society,” he said of Alberta's seniors.
“What I am saying is that most of them will be out of the workforce. How do you replace that talent, that education, that experience? These are all pressures that we are going to see.
“That's why, with the youth here today, we have to encourage them for their input and to be part of the planning — because they are going to be the ones who carry on their shoulders these changes that we are going to see in our society.”
With that said, Stelmach said the Alberta economy is growing.
“We have generated the most jobs here in Alberta, compared to anywhere in Canada and we are going to continue to do that,” Stelmach said.
“I submit to you again that our fiscal policies are right for the times.”
Stelmach then moved on to comments made earlier that day by NDP Party Jack Layton saying he would cut oilsands subsidies.
“In Edmonton, he never criticized the oil patch,” he said.
However, during a stop in Montreal, Layton said he'd take cash from the oilsands and redistribute it to clean power initiatives.
“When he got to Quebec today, he sure gave us a blast,” Stelmach added.
“Too bad he never said that when he was here.
“Alberta is a major contributor to the economy. If you take out Alberta's economy, and I'm not saying this out of disrespect to anybody, who pays the bill?”
Stemach's speech also commented on the province's need to reach to international markets.
“The market in the U.S. is much too small,” he said.
“It cannot support us anymore. It cannot support our standard of living. That's why we have to reach out to India, China, Korea, South America, populations of a billion people or more.”
Stelmach said at least 100 million people in the countries of India and China will move up the socio-economic ladder, into the middle class.
Stelmach continued with comments on landowner rights and the controversial issue of powerline placement.
“I've got to get this off my chest,” Stelmach said. “We got into this debate in the province about landowner rights. How this government, my government is taking over landowner rights.”
Stelmach spoke about how his grandparents who immigrated from the Ukraine were taken advantage of in a land-ownership issue.
“When someone tries to preach to me that I don't care about landowner rights or my government, do you know what we went through as immigrants? … Any person that gets up anywhere in this province and says that my government is giving away landowner rights, send them to me.”
On powerlines, Stelmach said the issue of transmission isn't just an Albertan issue, it's a Canadian, American and European issue.
“We talked about if it's absolutely necessary or not and compensation for landowners,” Stelmach said of a meeting he held with an assortment of Carstairs residents earlier in the day.
“We are going to listen very closely to landowners to make sure compensation is fair and reasonable.”
