Alberta Election- Party Platforms

[Gongshow]

Good evening. Like some of you, I am undecided when it comes to Mondays election. I think I have it narrowed down to two or three parties, but am unsure.

I am a teacher (special education) at a high school in Edmonton. I am also a hunter, a fisherman, and married to an awesome lady who has given me two beautiful kids who I am very proud of. So, you can understand that I have varying concerns in this election.

The Social studies department at our high school is holding a student vote on Monday and today sent out an email with all the parties platforms.

I thought I would post them here so that readers could look them over for
themselves and maybe help one or two to make up their mind, or to ask their local candidate for more information on a topic.


I will post them in no particular order. The first one is the Wildrose Party.







Wildrose Party
Business
- Enact property rights legislation that provides more certainty to farmers and ranchers about their use of land, water and other private property.
- Review all regulations that affect agriculture to ensure they meet strict cost/benefit criteria.
- Introduce policies and programs that ensure an adequate supply, and efficient use, of water for food production.
- Reduce timber royalties. Temporarily ease regulations on timber damaged by the pine beetle.
- Revisit forestry policy and commit to consulting with industry on any changes to government policy or regulation that may affect forestry.

Children, Families and Social Supports
- Offer families a $2,000 child tax credit.
- Offer a $500 tax credit for fees spent on children’s sports, arts and cultural activities.
- Review provincial tax law to look for tax reforms that will decrease financial burdens on families with children.
- Review child care options, identify ways to increase access and reduce barriers.
- Make government child care grants more flexible in the type of child care they can be used for.
- Reform family law to improve compliance with maintenance and visitation orders.
- Review foster care system and group homes, studying safety, training, compensation and case load levels.
- Proclaim the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Amendment Act, passed in 2009.
- Review caseloads of social workers.
- Establish a dedicated Family Resource centre hotline.
- Decentralize assessment procedures for those who need help.
- Phase out regional People with Development Disabilities boards. Develop a funding formula that sees the cash follow the individual to the group caring for him or her.
- Support non-profit organizations with strong performance records funding increases that are in line with inflation and other growth pressures.
- Require all organizations that get government funding to tackle homelessness provide measurable objectives and are held accountable for hitting targets.
- Give recipients of AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) and other vulnerable Albertans stable annual funding increases in line with increased costs of living.
- Introduce a volunteerism tax credit.
- Increase the tax credit for charitable donations so that it is equal to, or more than, that of political contributions.
- Allow people on government assistance to earn more or upgrade skills without having benefits clawed back.
- Carry out regular and random audits of all licensed group homes, as well as assisted living centres and long term-care facilities.
- Ensure individuals with disabilities transition between child, adult and senior years without temporarily or permanently losing access to programs and funding.

Culture
- Implement a “generous” tax credit regime for the film industry compared to other successful North American jurisdictions.
- Promote Alberta tourism through an industry-sponsored rewards program.

Education- Eliminate mandatory school fees.
- Change education funding so per-student operational and maintenance funds go directly to the school each student attends. (They promise to account for fixed costs in smaller rural communities).
- Give school boards control over building new schools through a funding formula that gives capital funds directly to school boards.
- Set up pilot projects across the province where public, Catholic and charter schools can opt into a competency-based learning and assessment education model. Let students learn at an accelerated pace earn college and university credit while still in high school.
- Give public, charter and Catholic schools more flexibility to offer a specialized curriculum in trades, arts, music, physical education and business.
- Continue current practice of allowing a fixed percentage of regular per pupil funding to directly follow a student to a private school of the parents’ choice.
- Mandate public reporting of each school’s graduation rate and overall subject-by-subject assessment results.
- Replace provincial achievement tests with a new standardized test that evaluates student improvement and comprehension.
- Mandate that funding for special needs students follow the child to a school of the parents’ choice.

Energy
- Create and maintain royalty and tax regimes that attract and sustain investment in the energy industry.
- Consult extensively with industry and other interested parties to ensure the new policies do not harm investment climate.
- Help create new markets and reduce market barriers for natural gas in electricity generation, co-gen and transportation.
- Create a formula to share provincial energy revenues with municipalities coping with the impact of energy developments in their regions.
- Have the Alberta Utilities Commission conduct an impartial assessment of the need for new power lines after repealing Electric Statutes Amendment Act, which was formerly Bill 50.
- Reform how electricity is purchased and sold in Alberta.
- Allow businesses and individuals to sell locally-generated electricity back to the grid.
- Ensure transmission costs are properly worked into planning and delivery.
- Encourage technologies for enhanced recovery of existing conventional crude oil and natural gas supplies.
- Support energy literacy initiatives in Alberta.
- Diversify Alberta’s energy export markets, particularly in Asia.
- Resist any federal attempts to regulate Alberta’s international bitumen exports.

Environment
- Tighten and strictly enforce rules and approval mechanisms that regulate air quality, particularly around heavy industrial zones like Fort McMurray and Industrial Heartland.
- Expand use of Alberta natural gas and propane for industrial and residential electricity production and transportation. Level the royalties between coal and natural gas.
- Cancel $2 billion carbon capture and storage initiative and focus funding on expanding mass transit and commuter rail.
- Offer tax incentives, like accelerated capital cost allowance, for industry investment in environmental research, development and equipment.
- Work with industry to create a strategy to reduce the number and size of new and existing tailings ponds.
- Create an on- and off-stream fresh water storage plan.
- Review and reform water licensing system.
- Eliminate regulations that prevent developers from using conservation technologies such as grey water recycling for residential or commercial use.
- Strictly enforce regulations on effluent producing industries.
- Appoint an environment ombudsman
- Create a one-window application within Alberta’s environment department for all provincial environmental approvals.
- Work with industry to review air quality and emission standards, particularly in areas concentrated with industrial activity, such as oilsands extraction and power generation.

Finance
- Legislate a cap on annual government spending increases to the rate of inflation, plus population growth.
- Reinstate mandatory balanced budget legislation.
- Prioritize spending on front-line staff and critical core social services such as health and education.
- Bring in pay-as-you-go legislation. That means any non-budgeted expenses must be off-set by an equivalent decrease in the budget elsewhere.
- Implement a zero-based budgeting program.
- Direct 50 per cent of all cash surpluses to the Heritage Fund, with the aim of increasing the fund to $200 billion in 20 years.
- Prohibit transfer of interest earned by the Heritage Fund into general revenues until the total yearly interest earnings from the fund exceed that of the average annual provincial revenues from oil and gas.
- Lower personal and business taxes and fees.
- Establish endowments dedicated to excellence in research and education.
- Restore and maintain the most competitive tax rates in Canada for individuals and businesses.
- Introduce a Balanced Budget and Savings Act
- Offer every Albertan an energy dividend, with 20 per cent of surpluses generated by oil and gas royalties available in years when province runs a cash surplus. The party estimates each Albertan would get $300 in 2015.

Government
- Give municipalities legislated long-term funding based on a formula tied to growth of provincial tax revenues and royalties.
- Assess Alberta’s infrastructure needs, create a public list of priority infrastructure projects and maintenance. Publicly disclose any reason for adjusting that list.
- Keep provincial per-capita infrastructure spending at level consistent with Canadian average.
- Conduct a review of property taxation regime in consultation with municipalities.
- Make all votes in Legislature and caucus free votes.
- Introduce voter recall and citizen-initiative referendums legislation.
- Institute fixed dates for general elections, senate elections, the budget, legislative sessions and the speech from the throne.
- Introduce whistleblower protection for all government-paid employees and a waste buster program/website that allows the public and government to anonymously report government waste.
- Make freedom of information requests easier and more affordable.
- Roll back cabinet minister salaries by 30 per cent.
- Establish an independent pay and benefits review for all MLAs, including cabinet.
- Strengthen office of ethics commissioner and auditor general.
- Create budget transparency guidelines.
- Post all MLA expenses online.
- Guarantee open tendering and bidding process on all major, government-sanctioned procumbent and contracts.
- Increase opposition research and communications funding. Also increase opposition opportunities to propose legislative amendments in committee and increase opposition’s time in question period.
- Overhaul rules in legislative assembly to reduce partisanship and improve decorum in the house.
- Aggressively address issue of interprovincial transfer payments. Constitutionally challenge the current equalization formula or refuse to sign another equalization agreement unless it includes a transfer of tax points, a formula-driven cap on new equalization transfers from Alberta or removes natural resource revenue from the current equalization formula.
- Demand the federal government stop any initiative that seeks to put environmental regulations on Alberta industry. Oppose any federal rules that include cap-and-trade, an arbitrary emissions cap or restrictions on bitumen exports.
- Work with other provinces to reduce interprovincial trade barriers.
- Maintain a provincial securities regulator.
- Pursue taking more control over immigration from the federal government.
- Fight for the federal government to appoint only elected senators to the Senate.
- Strengthen office of the auditor general.

Health
- Abide by five key principles of Canada Health Act.
- Give Albertans the right to use public insurance at public, private or non-profit health providers.
- Model the health-care system after European systems with shorter waiting lists and higher patient satisfaction.
- Gradually decentralize delivery of health-care services.
- Overhaul health-care worker bonuses so they are only awarded to those with a direct effect on measurably improving health care.
- Remove any clause in the Alberta Health Services code of conduct that deters health care workers from speaking out.
- Establish an advisory panel of health-care professionals to meet with the Health minister at least once every two months to advise on immediate problems.
- Establish an independent health ombudsman.
- Redirect funding to health education programs that help Albertans, especially those who speak English as a second language, understand the best ways to access the health care system.
- Cut waiting times for specialists and medical procedures by opening delivery of publicly funded health services to any accredited private or non-profit health service provider.
- Fund health care so that public, private and non-profit service providers are compensated based on performance.
- Stop building health facilities until there is enough staff to open them.
- Reimburse Albertans at the in-province rate if they travel outside of the province for one of 10 major medical procedure because Alberta’s public system could not treat them within the Canadian Wait Time Alliance benchmark.
- Introduce a Protection of Public Health Care guarantee that commits the government to increase the number of publicly insured health procedures and treatments performed in Alberta until wait time benchmarks established by the Canadian Wait Time Alliance are achieved.
- Publish wait times for all publicly-insured health services at all hospitals and clinics.

Justice
- Appoint a panel of legal experts to recommend ways to speed up prosecutions against gang members and criminal organizations while increasing protection for Crown witnesses.
- Implement recommendations of the 2007 Safe Communities Task Force. That includes reporting key justice system statistics, such as the sentencing records of judges in criminal cases and increased monitoring of violent offenders.
- Form a task force to study and recommend timely access to Alberta’s justice system, including an examination of how to better streamline the rules of court and self-representation.
- Make it easier for parents and guardians under freedom of information laws to access information about students at risk.
- Reform family law to improve compliance of maintenance and visitation orders.
- Review the minor injury regulation, which caps compensation to victims of motor vehicle accidents.
- Review compensation awarded to spouse or dependent under the Fatal Accidents Act so compensation payable by a wrongdoer is increased.
- Significantly increase funding to Alberta’s Integrated Child Exploitation teams.
- Immediately proclaim the Mandatory Reporting of Child Pornography Act (Bill 202) and organize a child protection task force’ to look at best practices from around the world.
- Legislate a victims’ bill of rights.
- Create a fully integrated and compatible database and communications system to share investigative intelligence by police agencies and co-ordinate enforcement operations.
- Launch a review of how policing in Alberta is funded.
- Establish treatment jails and strengthen sentencing guidelines for individuals who are mentally ill or suffer from addictions.
- Review the ratio of probation and correction officers to offenders.
- Introduce work programs for provincial offenders.
- Expand use of electronic monitoring of dangerous offenders.
- Support early awareness programs for children on the dangers of crime, gangs, drugs and alcohol.
- Ensure that property used for criminal activities, like grow-ops, are identified on the property’s land title.
- Reduce barriers to freedom of information so information can be shared more easily between social services, schools, health professionals and police, where appropriate.
- Repeal section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Legislation, prohibiting the publication of something that is likely to expose a person or class of persons to hatred or contempt. But maintain the Criminal Code standard of banning speech that advocates acts of violence or genocide.
- Replace the Human Rights Commission with a new human rights division of Alberta’s Provincial Court and change the human rights complaint process.

Post-secondary
- Create a student loan forgiveness program that gradually forgives loans of graduates who remain in Alberta to practise a trade or profession of high need over an extended period of time.
- Limit post-secondary tuition fee increases to the rate of inflation.
- Review the Alberta student loan application process to ensure loan amounts meet students’ basic needs.
- Eliminate parental income as a factor determining final approved loan amounts.
- Invest in Internet-based learning and other technologies to open up additional post-secondary spaces.
- Allow trade students to select written or verbal exams to complete their trade certifications.
- Improve transfer of post-secondary credits between institutions.
- Expand spaces for high demand degrees, diplomas and trade certificates by allowing a substantial amount of post-secondary government funding to directly follow the student to the institution of his or her choice.
- Ensure Alberta taxpayers receive maximum value in form of royalties and other compensation for commercialized patents and other intellectual property.
- Work with federal government to expand federal and provincial tuition and related tax credits. Introduce tax incentives that promote post-secondary endowment funds.

Seniors
- Redirect more of health budget to expanding home care and assisted living. That includes increasing the use of personal care and special care homes.
- Introduce a kinship palliative care program where family members are compensated for caring for terminally ill family members.
- Cut the red tape for groups providing assisted living, long term care and palliative care.
- Conduct regular and random health, safety and care inspections of all licensed seniors facilities. Post infractions online.
- Strengthen legislation to protect seniors from financial, physical and emotional abuse.
- Scrap the seniors drug plan and maintain the current plan where seniors pay 30 per cent of each prescription up to a maximum of $25.
- Introduce a prescription drug hardship benefit that assists low income seniors in need of expensive prescriptions.
- Introduce a program that lets seniors defer property taxes against the equity in their homes.
- Withdraw from the Canadian Pension Plan and create an Alberta Pension Plan.







This going to take me a while. bear with me.

[Gongshow]

Alberta Liberal
Business
- Require energy efficiency labelling for new homes
- Mandate builder warranties of three years on labour and materials, five years on building and 10 years on structure.

Children & Familes
- Create a play-based Alberta preschool curriculum run by qualified, trained staff.
- Fund a $100-million expansion of government subsidized early childhood education.
- Change maternity/parental leave by halving required employment period before leave to 26 weeks.
- Increase settlement funding for immigrants.
- Create a phone service staffed with translators to connect newcomers with
government services.
- Increase ESL funding to schools and inject an additional $20 million/year in adult ESL straining.
- Spend $55 million over five years to build 300 affordable housing units for those in need of longer term psychiatric care. Add $10 million na year to operate those facilities and offer increased community support.

Culture
- Create a Heritage Fund endowment to finance amateur sport.
- Double, then triple, funding the Alberta Endowment of the Arts.
- Create a visual and performing arts Heritage Fund endowment.

Education
- End school fees.
- Introduce a provincial school lunch program, rolled out initially in areas of greatest need.
- Create a $500 tax credit for teachers.
- Build new schools and redevelop old schools to house community services such as medical centres and libraries.
- Stop funding private schools.

Energy
- Increase powers of the market surveillance administrator
- Allow utilities to buy power up to one year in advance, up from current 45 day restriction.
- Increase penalties for violating electricity industry rules.
- Eliminate provincial cabinet’s ability to approve major power lines without public input.
- Fund a Centre for Energy Innovation.

Environment
- Phase in a carbon tax based on actual emissions, rather than intensity. Phase in the change over four years.
- Direct half of carbon-tax revenue to companies that make improvements to reduce emissions, and half to green transportation projects.
- Introduce independent environmental monitoring of industry.
- End the provincially funded carbon capture program.

Finance
- Raise the income tax rate on those earning more than $100,000. Those earning between $100,001-$150,000 pay 13 per cent; earnings of $150,0001 to $200,000 pay 15 per cent; anyone earning $200,000 or more pays $17 per cent.
- Raise the base corporate income tax rate of 10 per cent to 12 per cent. The small business rate remains the same.

Government
- Create a municipal heritage fund in 2014, adding at least $1.5 billion per year. Distribute 75 per cent of interest to municipal governments and 25 per cent to neighbourhood associations and community leagues.
- Draft city charters for Edmonton and Calgary, giving them more power.
- Reduce the number of MLAs.
- Simplify MLAs’ pay structure.
- Cap MLA transition allowances at eight years of service.
- Introduce recall legislation for MLAs.
- Change the labour code so Albertans’ jobs are protected if they take an unpaid leave to run as an MLA.
- Introduce a preferential ballot in provincial elections, something Liberals describe as an “instant run-off election.”
- Make government expense documents searchable online and change freedom of information rules so Albertans can submit five free information requests per year.
- Set fixed election dates.
- Disband the government’s public affairs bureau and cut spending on communications in half.
- Cut the number of government ministries.

Health
- Within two years of the election, guarantee non-emergency surgeries within six months and emergency room treatment within six hours.
- Call a public inquiry into health care, including a forensic audit and inquiry into health care spending and management.
- Get every Albertan a family doctor and wellness team
- Reinstate elected local health boards, and create strong accountability measures for administrators and providers. Divide boards into two major zones and five regions, sharing centralized functions like bookkeeping and specialized surgeries.
- Resurrect AADAC, the Cancer Board and the Mental Health Board.
- Offer incentives for medical professionals to enter generalist fields like family medicine and to relocate to rural communities. Fund incentives through proposed $100 million line item directed at new health and wellness initiatives.
- Expand medical programs into regional colleges and integrate medical training into smaller communities.
- Increase the ratio of residencies to medical school graduates.
- Spend $105 million over 5 years on community mental health and addictions treatment. Develop a new mental health strategy to free up acute care beds in psychiatric units.
- Collaborate with aboriginal groups to create culturally-specific mental health and addictions strategy.

Post-secondary
- Cap undergraduate tuition and decrease all tuitions by $250 per year.
- Create a post-secondary endowment fund aimed at decreasing and ultimately eliminate tuition by 2025.
- Forgive five per cent (or $1,000) of student debt for each year a student stays and works in Alberta.
- Stop tying student loan eligibility to parental income.
- Expand distance education.

Seniors
- Double home-care funding to $808 million per year.
- Add $180 million a year to build new non-profit, long term care beds to ensure adequate supply of affordable spaces.
- Strengthen standards for long-term care. Require registered nurses on-site and guarantee standards of care.
- Create an independent provincial advocate for seniors with the ability to compel a public inquiry. Fund the office with a $10 million budget.

[Neil Waugh]

You've got too much time on your hands, son.
Just read a few of Rocky7's posts and that should set you straight.

[Gongshow]

Progressive Conservatives
Business
- Provide an additional $2 million in funding for Agricultural Society Initiatives to support leadership development for young people in agriculture, farm safety programs and other ongoing efforts connected to youth in agriculture.
- The seven regional Agricultural Societies will each receive $142,850. Ten per cent of that must be directly used for agricultural youth leadership development, scholarships or other training activities.
- Alberta’s 284 local Agricultural Societies in good standing will see $2,500 each for youth leadership or farm safety.
- Spend $24 million to expand Alberta’s presence internationally to improve market access for Alberta products.
- Fund operation of new research greenhouse facilities in Brooks for $750,000.
- Extend high speed broadband in remote and rural Alberta.
- Establish the Next Generation Advisory Council to bring rural leaders together and set a vision for province’s agricultural future.
- Create an endowment for Agriculture, Forestry and Bio-Sciences research within the Heritage Fund.

Children & Families
- Increase maximum monthly support to Albertans who receive Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped benefits by $400 per month to $1,588 as of April 1.
- Double employment income exemption for AISH recipients from $400 to $800 per month for individuals, and from $975 to $1,950 for people with partners or dependent children as of April 1.
- Spend $110 million to decrease homelessness in Alberta.
- Create an interagency council that will provide outreach support services, housing for 1,800 homeless and more than 3,100 shelter spaces.
- Double funding to amateur sports organizations to $20 million.
- Introduce a Children’s Physical Activity Tax credit of up to $500 a year per child.
- Develop a five-year plan to eliminate child poverty and a 10-year plan to reduce poverty.

Education
- Create an inclusive education system that creates “engaged thinkers and ethical citizens, with an entrepreneurial spirit.”
- Support online tool called “My Child’s Learning: A Parent Resource” to provide non-jargony information about what their child is learning and how their child might be assessed for every subject and grade.
- Open doors to 14 new K-12 schools in September, allowing 10,000 more children to attend school in their neighbourhood.
- Spend $200 million on student financial assistance, including Alberta’s student debt management programs, scholarships, bursaries and grants.
- Spend $25 million to increase support for scientific research through expanded tax credit.
- Build 50 new schools over the next four years.
- Modernize 70 existing schools over next four years.
- Introduce a teacher tax credit of up to $500 a year.

Energy
- Invest $150 million annually for 20 years in Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority 2 (AOSTRA 2), dedicated to science and technology initiatives in the oilsands. Industry to match government spending.

Environment
- Launch a three-year, $11-million plan of increased monitoring of air, water, land and biodiversity in the oilsands
- Make data from the new monitoring program publicly available.
- Spend $540 million in three years on Green TRIP funding for public transit.

Finance
- The 2012 budget passed in mid-March is a key part of the party’s election platform.
- Increase spending on families, communities, education and support for vulnerable Albertans.
- No tax increases and no new taxes of any kind within the next three years.
- Introduce a balanced budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

Government
- Require PC MLAs to repay all money received from the committee that has not met since 2008 or lose place in caucus.
- Move to suspend transition allowances paid to retiring MLAs.
- Craft city charters for Edmonton and Calgary specific to each city’s circumstances.
- Commit to implementing recommendations of independent MLA pay review.

Health
- Improve access to the health system by establishing 140 family care clinics across the province in next three years. Clinics to be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Allow Albertans to have prescriptions renewed at local pharmacies as of July 1st.
- Reduce the price government pays for generic prescription drugs, allowing Albertans to save on their expenses and the province to save $85 million.
- Help pharmacies in remote communities expand services and adjust to lower generic drug prices with help of $5.3 million in grants available in 2012/2013 budget. This is part of a new three-year, $15.9-million Remote Pharmacy Access Grant.
- Work toward full implementation of new compensation framework for pharmacists.
- Expand access to locally available medical training with more student spaces and pilot projects, such as student courses at the University of Lethbridge to support the education of more doctors and rural physicians.
- Expand, and make permanent, the Rural Integrated Community Clerkship Program, which allows medical residents to complete a nine month rotation as part of a rural family medicine team.
- Introduce “Fast-Track” emergency rooms to reduce wait times.
- Provide tuition refunds for students graduating in family medicine who commit to working in rural communities for 10 years.
- Develop pilot projects to deliver real-time, virtual or distance-delivery health care through existing technologies such as SuperNet.
- Pay for insulin pumps for Albertans with Type 1 diabetes.

Justice
- Introduce a one-time grant aimed at rural, remote and Aboriginal communities through a $1-million contribution from Alberta’s Civil Forfeiture Office to fund programs aimed at reducing gang crime and violence.
- Hire 90 new RCMP officers and 55 new sheriffs across the province in 2013-2014.

Post-Secondary
- Create a student loan forgiveness program that gradually forgives loans of graduates who remain in Alberta to practise a trade or profession of high need over an extended period of time.
- Limit post-secondary tuition fee increases to the rate of inflation.
- Review the Alberta student loan application process to ensure loan amounts meet students’ basic needs.
- Eliminate parental income as a factor determining final approved loan amounts.
- Invest in Internet-based learning and other technologies to open up additional post-secondary spaces.
- Allow trade students to select written or verbal exams to complete their trade certifications.
- Improve transfer of post-secondary credits between institutions.
- Expand spaces for high demand degrees, diplomas and trade certificates by allowing a substantial amount of post-secondary government funding to directly follow the student to the institution of his or her choice.
- Ensure Alberta taxpayers receive maximum value in form of royalties and other compensation for commercialized patents and other intellectual property.
- Work with federal government to expand federal and provincial tuition and related tax credits. Introduce tax incentives that promote post-secondary endowment funds.
- Expand post-secondary facilities through new three-year $650 million capital plan, including projects at NAIT, Norquest College, University of Calgary, Lethbridge College and Mount Royal University.

Seniors
- Introduce property tax deferral policy before 2013 property tax season to help seniors who own their own homes pay property taxes through a home-equity loan. The government would pay the property tax on behalf of the senior, who would repay the loan, plus interest, when they sell their home.
- Spend $25 million in each of next three years for Affordable Supportive Living Initiative for seniors’ housing.
- Introduce a $500 Seniors’ Activity tax credit for Albertans over the age of 65.
- Introduce property tax deferral policy before 2013 property tax season to help seniors who own their own homes pay property taxes through a home-equity loan. The government would pay the property tax on behalf of the senior, who would repay the loan, plus interest, when they sell their home.
- Spend $25 million in each of next three years for Affordable Supportive Living Initiative for seniors’ housing.

Other
- Continue to offer facilitation and consultation services to non-profit/volunteer sector.
- Continue financial support of community programs and grants such as the Community Spirit Program the Community Initiatives Program and the Community Facility Enhancement Program.
- Enhance Alberta libraries’ digital licenses.
- Provide a one-time $790,000 grant to The Alberta Library and Alberta Public Library Electronic Network to help provide cutting edge technology. That includes Mango, language software to help new Canadians learn English, French and other languages.
- Continue support of Edmonton’s Federal Building renovation and construction of Centennial Plaza.
- Spend $16.5 billion on public infrastructure over next three years, including $2.8 billion from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, $540 million on Green TRIP program and $2.3 billion in municipal transportation and water infrastructure grants.

[Gongshow]

Alberta NDP
Business
- Bring in a different royalty rate that gives companies that upgrade in Alberta a break.
- Cut small business taxes by a third, saving them a collective $165 million per year.

Children & Families
- Fund more child care spaces to help meet demand.
- Work toward capping daily child care costs at $25 per child or $9 for after-school care.

Culture
- Increase funding for the Foundation for the Arts to $90 million in four years.
- Enact Status of the Artist legislation.
- Make art a requirement from Kindergarten to Grade 12, with necessary support for teachers, equipment and supplies.

Education
- Stop school closures in mature neighbourhoods by revisiting funding formulas. Back projects that fill unused school space.
- Prohibit instructional school fees.
- Introduce voluntary full-day kindergarten in more school districts.
- Phase in a targeted school lunch program for elementary students.
- Work to further implement recommendations of the Learning Commission to reduce class size in Grades 1-9.

Energy
- Rewrite the Alberta Utility Commission’s mandate so it focuses on consumer protection and defence of the public good.
- Regulate electricity rates to maintain stable prices that are as low as possible.
- Remove cabinet power to approve utility projects. Examine all projects through full public hearings.
- Make power corporations pay for transmission lines. Subject all transmission infrastructure projects to transparent, regulatory approval.
- Encourage local power generation to cut need for power lines.
- Introduce a new Renewable Development Fund, with associated research centre, to make Alberta a leader in energy efficiency and renewable energy generation.
- Develop a different royalty system on bitumen and upgraded products that encourages value-added in Alberta.
- Require all new oilsands developments to have plans for upgrading in Alberta.

Environment
- Prevent expansion of water markets. Base water allocation on ecology and human need.
- Review hydraulic fracturing through an independent scientific panel.
- Set science-based deadlines for cleanup of existing tailings pond at company expense.
- Reallocate remaining $400 million in carbon capture and sequestration fund to other projects with more immediate impact.
- Increase Green TRIP funding by 50 per cent, or $100 million.
- Encourage greener homes through $5,000 interest-free loans, available to up to 80,000 homeowners.
- Double monitoring and enforcement of environmental laws.
- Expand Alberta’s network of parks and protected areas aiming for target of 12 per cent of province as conserved land.
- Establish the Castle Special Place as a protected wild land park.

Finance
- Stop the practice of withdrawing $1 billion per year out of Heritage fund. Strive to have $100 billion in Heritage Fund by 2050.
- Charge the 1.6 per cent of Albertans making more than $200,000 more taxes..
- Raise corporate taxes by two per cent.
- Increase oil sands royalties by an average of $1.90 per barrel.
Government
- Set up a system of proportional representation.
- Ban corporate and union donations to political parties.
- Reduce funding to the Public Affairs Bureau and ensure that it is a non-partisan source of information about government operations.
- Set limits on election campaign spending.

Health
- Improve emergency room wait times.
- Create a new Alberta Pharmaceutical Savings Agency to bulk-buy drugs and lower health system costs.
- Cover basic dental costs for children under 18.
- Hire hundreds of doctors over the next four years.
- Protect publicly funded, publicly delivered health care.

Justice
- Hire 900 new neighbourhood police officers over the next several years to bring Alberta up to national average.
- Expand the Human Rights Commission’s authority and jurisdiction.

Post-Secondary
- Immediately freeze tuition and cut fees by 10 per cent starting in fall of 2012.
- Forgive up to $1,000 per year in student loans for graduates living in Alberta until loads are paid off.
- Increase funding to universities to compensate for tuition reductions and non-instructional fee cuts.

Seniors
- Improve wait lists for seniors’ beds through: 1,500 new long-term care beds, expanded mental health care and $100 million more in spending on home care for 100,000 Albertans. Maintain the cap on seniors living costs.
- Cap seniors’ drug costs at $25 per month.

Other
- Offer free camping in all provincial campgrounds
- Oppose provincial funding for a new NHL arena in Edmonton
- Build a $50 million New Beginnings Community Fund to support collaborative projects that benefit the whole community.

[Gongshow]

Alberta Party
Business
- Offer new startups a zero per cent small business tax rate for the first three years.
- Encourage the creation of startup business incubators.
- Reduce trade and mobility barriers between the province.
- Create a venture capital innovation fund to be managed by the Alberta Investment Management Corp.
- Encourage the production of value-added goods in Alberta.
- Reduce labour shortages by working with the federal government to increase regional immigration.
- Work with groups, including the gas industry, to expand the market for natural gas products.
- Work to ensure rural homes and businesses have access to broadband Internet.
- Extend the Rural Alberta Development Fund beyond its 2014 expiry date.
- Work with the federal government to address labour shortages via recruitment and retention of new Canadians as permanent residents of Alberta.

Children & Family
- Launch a review within six months of all social programs, looking at strengths and weaknesses.
- Launch a poverty reduction strategy
- Create an affordable housing strategy.

Culture
- Foster a creative workforce by proper funding of post-secondary institutions and the arts and cultural sectors, as described in the party’s creative industries policy.
- Bolster the film and television industry by revamping production incentives to make Alberta more competitive.
- Consult with music industry to enhance music business in Alberta.
- Establish a fund that allows Alberta artists to showcase their work outside the province.
- Inventory all arts infrastructure throughout the province.
- Inventory all Creative Industries to see how they contribute to province’s economy.
- Immediately increase arts funding by 20 per cent and commit to predictable increases.
- Establish a more sustainable arts funding model, with three year funding commitments to arts and culture organizations.
- Examine alternative ways to invest in the Creative Industry, including tax credits, incentives and interest-free loans.
- Establish a fund to help smaller communities access the best art in Alberta.
- Commit to fully funding and supporting the Alberta Multi-Media Development fund.
- Support rural community initiatives such as Active Creative Engaged Communities and efforts led by the Alberta Rural Development Network.
- Develop a provincial arts strategy.
- Provide hands-off funding for artists, moving away from formula-based funding to peer-assessed funding.
- Reduce administrative restrictions for arts organizations.
- Ensure accountability measures exist so funds are used appropriately.
- Re-examine and relax the regulations on how gaming revenues are spent by the arts organizations that receive them.
- Offer more artistic opportunities in Alberta’s K-12 schools.
- Create a fund dedicated to training aspiring professional artists.
- Ensure artists have access to new and emerging technologies.
- Build on Edmonton being named the Cultural Capital of Canada in 2007 and Calgary receiving that title in 2012.

Education
- Improve Alberta’s high school completion rate so that it is the best in Canada within 10 years.
- Work with First Nation communities and federal government to significantly increase high school completion rates among First Nations communities.
- Make all-day kindergarten available in all school districts.
- Support programs that help children in poverty get a healthy meal at school.
- Restore funding for special programs that help children with learning difficulties.
- Fund education for all adults, regardless of age, who want to earn a high school diploma.
- Pass Bill 201, the Early Childhood Learning and Child Care Act, which co-ordinates government services and programs related to early childhood development.
- Introduce rules that make it easier for the public to participate in decisions about local schools.
- Make it easier for municipalities, school boards and community groups to share in construction and operation of new schools.
- Make schools community hubs and provide operational funds that allow use of school facilities outside of school hours by community groups.
- Develop a cross-ministry strategy to ensure school curriculum reflects the importance of creative development - socially and economically.
- Develop new ways to assess students which recognizes and rewards creative development.

Energy
- Create an integrated energy and environmental policy so industry has clear direction on development activities.
- Ensure industry and Albertans are always consulted when developing policies and accompanying regulations.
- Diversify energy products and markets.
- Take a leading role in the research and development of new sources of renewable energy.
- Provide incentives to industry and business that foster innovation in the manufacturing of equipment, services and training necessary to support the oil and gas industry.
- Conduct a strategic assessment to determine an appropriate level of secondary production for non-renewable resources.
- Seek trade, export and growth opportunities in secondary manufacturing and processing in the petrochemical sector, as well as in products sourced from oil and natural gas feedstocks.
- Support the development of a pipeline corridor and west coast liquid and natural gas facility, while ensuring that the social and environmental issues associated with the project are appropriately addressed.
- Ensure Albertan’s interests are always upheld in the development of any national energy strategy.
- Partner with industry to seek new applications of energy technologies outside of energy sector.
- Work to bring more supporting industries, including the financial sector, into the province.
- Introduce a gradually increasing carbon price to encourage low-carbon innovation and a greener energy.
- Introduce a lower Green House Gas reporting threshold so more Specified Gas Emitters are covered.
- Continue to enhance a “tech fund” and offer rebates to companies that outperform their carbon performance benchmarks.
- Work to develop better transparency, communication and consultation between landowners, local citizens and energy development companies.
- Set clear rules for the development of wind power and other energy resources on crown land to define where development is appropriate.
- Commission a thorough geothermal survey of Alberta.
- Set a target and develop a strategy to upgrade the energy efficiency of half of all commercial and industrial buildings in Alberta over the next 10 years. Create a similar strategy to support half of all homeowners in Alberta to do the same.
- Establish a production incentive for low-impact and distributed electricity generation. Fund incentive through existing tools such as the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation.
- Repeal the Electric Statutes Amendment Act (Bill 50) which allows cabinet to approve new transmission lines without consultation.
- Modernize the transmission grid by developing a provincewide model that is more efficient and better suited to transmitting sustainable electricity sources.
- Dedicate a portion of non-renewable resource revenues to energy innovation and new technology ventures.
Environment
- Work to identify, establish and improve a provincial inventory of wetlands to ensure highly valuable wetlands are protected. Protect the most significant wetlands through purchase, conservation easements and other regulated mechanisms. Compensate landowners for such measures.
- Work with and support municipalities and wetland agencies. Support and encourage agricultural producers willing to protect and conserve wetlands.
- Establish a “net growth of wetlands” or “no net loss” mandate that recognizes ecological and regional differences in wetlands.
- Legislate conservation objectives that offer protection for water sources and a water management plans for all major watersheds.
- Promote and encourage groundwater management plans.
- Develop a water risk management framework that guides planning and implementation of water management decisions and crafts strategies to respond to droughts, floods and disasters.
- Develop a water management system that supports the growth of economy, encourages conservation, and ensures that conserved water benefits the environment.
- Create incentives for industry and households to reduce water consumption.
- Build stronger partnerships between landowners, industry and land users to protect source water and upstream catch basins.
- Work with industry to reduce industries’ use of water. Promote conservation that addresses the use of brackish water, eliminates tailings ponds and promotes treatment and recycling.
- Work with municipalities to develop opportunities to use grey water in households.
- Ensure planning for reclamation is ongoing for life of a project by creating a more streamlined and transparent reclamation certification process and increasing financial bonds.
- Address the backlog of industrial sites in need of reclamation by introducing regulated timelines for abandonment and reclamation of oil and gas wells. Include the flexibility to grant extensions in exceptional cases where licensee can provide economic or technical justification.
- Recognize the diversity of seven regional areas identified for land use planning. Commit to prioritizing the four headwater regional plans. Include thresholds, targets and limits on resource values within all seven regional areas.
- Contribute a small portion of royalty revenues to creating and maintaining protected areas. Expand existing parks and recreational areas to include regions that represent habitat unique to Alberta.
- Establish a system in which operators register a caveat on the title for lands that contain oil and gas facilities to ensure potential buyers area aware of facilities.
- Create a long-term plan to reduce commercial and personal vehicle emissions.
- Offer cities incentives to support alternative forms of transportation such as public transit, bicycle infrastructure and high speed rail.
- Develop local and regional air quality management objectives.
- Strengthen air quality management systems. Include more monitoring than self-reporting by emitters. Provide a transparent monitoring and information system that is timely, informative and proactive, but prioritizes enforcement. Work with industry to use the best air quality controlling and monitoring technology to prevent air pollution.
- Emphasize the importance of indoor air quality through a review and enhancement of building codes for homes, workplaces and schools.
- Ensure coal-fire electricity generation emission standards match those of natural gas and other electricity sources.
- Support a shift of electrical generation to smaller decentralized solar, wind, natural gas, distributed generation and cogeneration facilities.
- Introduce a regulatory framework and incentives to reduce per capita electrical consumption.
- Require electrical generators to meet Green House Gas emissions targets in line with international obligations by or before 2025.
- Reduce Green House Gas reporting thresholds so more major emitters are covered. Increase openness and transparency of all Green House Gas reporting under provincial legislation.
- Identify and protect green spaces.

Finance
- Save and invest a “significant portion” of one-time resource revenue.
- Increase savings in the Heritage Trust Fund and Sustainability Fund.
- Gradually cut the amount of non-renewable resource revenue used for daily operations.

Government
- Eliminate the public affairs bureau.
- Adopt the Alberta Party’s guidelines for MLAs, requiring MLAS to meet with constituents regularly.
- Increase the number of free votes in the Legislature.
- Put a 10-year limit on the premier’s term.
- Legislate a fixed election date.
- Eliminate the tax-exempt portion of MLA salaries.
- Introduce a more transparent compensation system for MLAs.
- Lower limits on election spending by candidates and parties.
- Require full disclosure of campaign donations prior to election day.
- Significantly expand advance polls in elections.
- Create an independent committee to set MLA salaries.
- Lengthen the cooling off period for former MLAs and senior government officials becoming private sector lobbyists.
- Increase funding and independence of officers of the Legislature, such as the auditor general and ethics commissioner.
- Create whistleblower legislation that protects employees who disclose illegal, unsafe or unethical practices.
- Recognize municipalities as an equal order of government.
- Gradually eliminate the education property tax so municipalities can have exclusive access to property taxes.
- Look for alternatives to property taxes to fund municipalities.
- Create city charters for Calgary and Edmonton.
- Create a Premier’s council on local government to study the needs of small and mid-sized municipalities.
- Reform campaign finance laws for municipal elections with stricter donation and spending limits and mandatory donation disclosure prior to the election.
- Set up an innovation in municipal government program to offer money and support for municipalities working on citizen engagement projects.
- Extend the terms of municipal politicians from three to four years.

Health
- Hold a public inquiry into all aspects of the health system.
- Appoint an independent health auditor to report directly to the public about the state of the health system and make suggestions.
- Expand primary health networks to all Albertans.
- Create and implement a five-year plan to increase the number of family doctors, particularly in rural communities.
- Support cities and towns in building recreation facilities.
- Improve enforcement of workplace safety laws.
- Create a plan to convince Albertans to live healthier lives.
- Draft and implement a five-year plan to cut emergency room waiting times.
- Develop a provincewide mental health strategy that makes mental health a priority.
- Increase spending on long-term care facilities and home care.

Post-Secondary
- Review the student finance system to reduce financial barriers for students and ensure it can serve adult students.
- Introduce a tax credit to offset a portion of students’ housing costs.
- Expand industry-based job training and apprenticeship programs in specific industries with a shortage of trained workers.
- Provide a five-year budget cycle for post-secondary education funding to ensure certainty for universities, colleges and technical institutes.

Seniors
- Provide quality, public home care
- Ensure long-term care facilities are available that allow couples to stay together.
- Impose a moratorium on converting long-term care facilities into assisted living facilities until a comprehensive seniors’ housing plan is created.
- Create advisory councils in all seniors’ facilities.
- Appoint an independent seniors advocate who reports to the Legislature.

[pikergolf]

Thanks for that!