Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney has indicated his United Conservative government will reveal 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 fiscal year 2021-22 ending March 31, Nixon said one of the targets would be through the current stretch of rising prices. Albertan had to investigate more ways to help.
The province already cut its share of the gasoline tax this spring and $150 in electricity rebates will soon flow to cushion the effects of inflation.
on Saturday, while answering a question about inflation given to him by a caller on his provincial phone-in radio show CHQR And stitchedKenny said there would be an announcement regarding more support, which he believed would come this week.
He did not elaborate on what the measures might be, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond when emailed for details.
Kenny told his radio listeners that there are several explanations for the high inflation, including federal monetary policy and large federal deficits, as well as a lack of energy associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Anyone who says that there is just one simple explanation is phibing,” Kenny said.
“I think most experts expect, or project, it to start next year, but we’re probably in for a few more months of high inflation.”
Kenny said he agreed with federal Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poiliver’s claim that the Bank of Canada was fueling inflation by, as Kenny put it, “printing tens and tens of billions of dollars of new fiat currency.”
Poilivre has threatened to sack Bank of Canada governor Tiff McCalem if he is elected prime minister.
Alberta’s bread-and-butter oil and natural gas industries have soared in recent months as global economies boomed, while pandemic measures eased and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted energy supplies around the world .
Another plan for windfall gains is to build up the province’s $18.7 billion savings nest egg — the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, Nixon said.
Shannon Phillips, finance critic of the opposition NDP, said after the unexpected announcement that the government had failed to deliver on promised funding for a range of public services, from education to ambulance response.
Kenney said on Saturday that there would not have been a surplus if his government had “not restrained spending”.
“One of the problems in modern Alberta is that when we have an oil boom, we tend to track our spending and spend what comes in. And then when our revenues drop, debt to taxpayers.” The bag is held with him and released.”
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