Canadian Taxpayers Federation reacts to provincial budget

The Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the budget that was released on Tuesday looks good from a taxpayer’s perspective. Kim Sims says we are seeing a lot of guard rails and emergency breaks being put onto future budgets. Sims explains how this new budget will help in the long run.  

“By us paying down the debt, that means we’re not spending billions of dollars every year on debt interest charges. So people will call it debt servicing costs. In normal people talk, it’s an interest charge. The government has to pay interest, too. And the government doesn’t have money. We have money. It’s the taxpayers who are spending that money. And so in the long term, that means that we’re going to be on a much more stable financial footing. To give you an idea, just a couple of months ago, that is why Moody’s, that International Monetary Organization, gave Alberta a credit rating upgrade because we’re paying down the debt and we’ve got low taxes.”

The province was able to pay down $13 billion worth of debt.