Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has indicated his United Conservative government will unveil details next week about additional support to help people cope with high inflation. Earlier this week, when Finance Minister Jason Nixon announced a $3.9 billion surplus at the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year that ends March 31, Nixon said one of the goals was to look at further ways to help Albertans to overcome the current extent of the price rise. The province already cut its share of the gas tax earlier this spring, and $150 in electricity rebates will soon be rolling in to cushion the impact of inflation. On Saturday, while answering a question about inflation from a caller on his statewide radio show on CHQR and CHED, Kenney said there would be an announcement of more support, which he believed would come this week. He did not specify what the measures might be, and a spokesman did not immediately respond when emailed for details. Kenney told his radio audience that there are many explanations for high inflation, including federal monetary policy and large federal deficits, as well as energy shortages linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Anyone who says there’s only one simple explanation is confused,” Kenney said. “I think most of the experts are hoping, or predicting, that this will start to show up next year, but we’re probably in for a few more months of high inflation.” Kenney said he agreed with federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre’s claim that the Bank of Canada was fueling inflation by, as Kenney put it, “printing tens and tens of billions of dollars of new fiat currency.” Poilievre has threatened to fire Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem if elected prime minister. Alberta’s oil and gas industries have soared in recent months as global economies strengthened while pandemic measures eased and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global energy supplies. Nixon said another plan for the windfall is to create the province’s $18.7 billion savings nest egg – the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. Shannon Phillips, finance critic for the Opposition NDP, said after the windfall announcement that the government is failing to deliver on promised funding for a range of public services, from education to ambulance response. Kenney said Saturday that the surplus would not have occurred if his administration had not “exercised restraint in spending.” “One of the problems in modern Alberta is when we have an oil boom, we watch our spending and spend whatever comes in. And then when our revenue drops, taxpayers are left holding the debt bag,” he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 2, 2022.
