Background
Scope and mandate
The Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances was created on May 7, 2019 by Ministerial Order issued by Finance Minister Travis Toews. The terms of reference for the panel included evaluating the province's fiscal outlook and expenses; develop a plan to balance the budget by 2022-23 without raising taxes; develop a fiscal framework that requires future balanced budgets and a plan to retire the province’s accumulated debt; evaluation of the province's budgeting, fiscal planning and public reporting processes and systems; and evaluate overall economic situation in Canada and its impact on the province. The terms of reference for the panel did not authorize the evaluation of government revenues, including mechanisms to increase revenue. The panel included chairFindings
The MacKinnon Report provided 26 recommendations to the Government of Alberta to address the delivery of services and the province's economic competitiveness.Health
In general, the MacKinnon report recommended policies to lower Alberta's per capita spending to be more comparable to other provinces, mostly in healthcare. As the report noted "Alberta’s annual expenditures would be $10.4 billion less if its per capita spending simply matched the average of spending in Canada’s three largest provinces: British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec – and we would not have a deficit." The MacKinnon Report provided four recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to health and healthcare.Education
The MacKinnon Report provided two recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to primary and secondary education.Advanced education
The MacKinnon Report provided three recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to post-secondary education.Public sector compensation
The MacKinnon Report provided three recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to public sector compensation and size.Capital spending
The MacKinnon Report provided six recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to capital spending.Program review
The MacKinnon Report provided one recommendation for the Government of Alberta's approach to program review.Economic competitiveness
The MacKinnon Report provided one recommendation for the Government of Alberta's approach to provincial economic competitiveness.Balanced budget
The MacKinnon Report provided six recommendations for the Government of Alberta's approach to delivering aAftermath
The MacKinnon report said that "implementing or raising taxes isn’t the solution"—the problem with Alberta's finances is that the provincial "government is overspending". A report by University of Calgary's School of Public Policy's economics professor, Ken McKenzie, entitled ''Altering the Tax Min in Alberta'', said that a 5% provincial sales tax (PST) —which would still be the lowest sales tax in Canada—"could generate $5 billion in revenue" for Alberta. McKenzie's report, which was released on September 5, also recommends keeping corporate tax cuts and the "progressive tax rate instead of going back to the flat rate".Criticism
A September 4 article compared the report to the rhetoric and political arguments used by Ralph Klein, who was premier of Alberta from 1992 to 2006, and who eliminated the deficit by implementing "massive cuts to government spending and services" at the "expense of hospitals, roads, light rail transit lines, and investing in better health-care services or education". Political analyst David Taras of Mount Royal University, who admired Klein's "fiscal achievements early in his career", in a 2013 article, questioned Klein's elimination of the provincial deficit in the "midst of a booming economy in 2004" when interest charges were relatively low. In January 2020, CTV News reported the Premier's Office directed the blue ribbon panel chair MacKinnon to issue an op-ed titled "If we make measured choices now, we can avoid draconian cuts later" drafted by staff in the Premier's Office to be published in the ''References
;Official Report * * *External link