Many Albertans will receive financial relief from the provincial government amid the ongoing inflation and affordability crisis, Premier Danielle Smith announced Tuesday night.
During a televised address, Smith revealed his government’s plans to provide a payment of $600 over the next six months for every child under 18 from lower-income families.
The threshold for child benefit is that the family earns less than $180,000 a year.
He said those payments will also be made to seniors and people receiving Social Security Income benefits for the severely disabled and people with developmental disabilities.
Smith also reiterated his government’s plan to re-index the benefits for the elderly and AISH beneficiaries which the United Conservatives de-indexed in 2019.
READ MORE: Alberta premier issues mandate letters to ministers emphasizing inflation, ‘affordability crisis’
He also announced that Alberta will not collect its gas tax for the next six months and will increase the amount of rebates that Alberta households and small businesses already receive on their electricity bills to an amount “that amounts to to an additional $200 per household.”
Story continues below ad
Smith accused the federal government of causing inflation through government spending and attacking Alberta’s economy and said Alberta’s fiscal situation is in a position where the government is able to provide financial assistance to citizens who need it.
“These are just the first steps and there is much more to do,” he said.
In a statement released after Smith’s speech, Opposition Leader Rachel Notley accused Smith’s United Conservative government of contributing to the affordability crisis and said the UCP is trying to address the problem by “reversing their own bad decisions.”
4:10 “We’re not buying it”: Rachel Notley responds to Prime Minister Smith’s televised address
“We’re not buying it. And neither are you,” Notley said, adding that if her New Democrats win the spring election, her party will “permanently reverse the UCP’s cuts to Child and Family Benefit , the benefit for the elderly, income support and the AISH”.
trending now
trending now
Story continues below ad
“And we will go further. We take action on the things you don’t have the option to pay for, like groceries, utilities, insurance, gas, tuition and housing.”
Smith gives some insight into his plans once lawmakers return to the legislature
MLAs will return to the Alberta legislature on November 29 for the new legislative session. In her speech Tuesday, Smith accused the federal government of infringing on what she called Alberta’s constitutional right to develop and export its resources and to make decisions about how to deliver services in the political realms of things like health care and education and also criticized equality. payments
He said he expects his controversial sovereignty act, which he has suggested would allow Alberta not to adhere to any federal policy the provincial government doesn’t believe is in its best interest, to be introduced next week.
READ MORE: First Nations leaders oppose Alberta premier’s sovereignty act
Smith became prime minister when he won the UCP leadership contest last month. The next provincial elections will take place on May 29.
Without going into detail, Smith said he has spoken with Health Minister Jason Copping about implementing reforms to the health care system, noting that he believes spending more money on the system is not necessarily the answer to improving it.
Story continues below ad
“We have too many managers and consultants,” he said. “Albertans are waiting too long for emergency treatment.”
He said his government’s priorities for health care reform are reducing emergency room wait times, improving ambulance response times and reducing wait times for surgeries “by using specialist surgical centers and underutilized rural hospitals and operating theaters that are sitting there empty.” .”
READ MORE: Alberta NDP calls on Premier Danielle Smith to come clean on health care user fees
The NDP has asked Smith to voice his support for public health care in light of his writing a policy paper last year before re-entering politics in which he suggested the province no longer could afford to pay for universal social programs paid for entirely by taxpayers. He came up with the idea of health spending accounts to get citizens used to helping pay for their own health care.
Over the weekend, Smith tweeted that she is “committed to public health care.”
More to come…
–From archives by Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.