A sparse audience of Calgary business leaders listened Monday as Alberta Liberal Leader Nancy MacBeth described her long range social and fiscal agenda.
“We’ve been blessed with resources to relieve our debt burden, but it would be foolish to believe that our resource wealth will always be there,” said MacBeth, on the stump at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
MacBeth said her 10-year Alberta Agenda for “growth, prosperity and a secure future” includes:
* Becoming a leading exporter of resource technology, including wind and solar power, agriculture, forestry and mining;
* A focus on medical research, and targeting lower teen pregnancy rates, suicides and fewer deaths from preventable injuries;
* A goal of 95 per cent of high school graduates moving on to post-secondary education undeterred by need;
* Developing a transportation infrastructure to handle growth;
* A sound environmental plan;
* Increased focus on tourism;
* Reinvesting 40 per cent of the surplus to build up the Heritage Fund;
* A prosperous economy which includes a thriving cultural industry.
“Our resources have given us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plot a destiny that no other province can even begin to ponder,” MacBeth told an audience of about 40 people.
“We cannot afford to squander this now, as the current government is squandering $17 billion on utility subsidies.”
Earlier Monday in Edmonton, MacBeth pledged to pay down the debt within three years with money saved by halting the electricity deregulation plan.
She also promised to lower the tax burden for working families, farmers and small businesses by eliminating health-care premiums, and pursuing a cost-shared gasoline tax cut program with the federal government.
“While the Alberta government enjoys a surplus, many families are falling behind, our municipalities are falling behind,” she said.
