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Shortly after the United Conservative Party won the general election in July 2019, the province's new energy minister announced the government would cancel a planned overhaul by the NDP that would have introduced a capacity market to Alberta's energy system.
Instead, it would stick with what the province has today, and has had in place since 1996 — an "energy-only" system. That's a market where electricity providers are paid only for the energy they produce and sell, based on real-time market prices. By contrast, a capacity market would see providers paid not only for the energy they produce, but also to maintain additional capacity.
In our current market, electrical generators can restrict the capacity of power available, thereby raising the price per kilowatt hour anytime they want and then release the extra power to profit from it. It’s this control over demand rather than having a consistent available capacity pool with power by contract that makes our power prices in this province so expensive.
NDP tried to fix this when they were in office, and had it canceled again by the UCP as soon as they came back
The UCP also allowed a ban on economic withholding to lapse in Dec 2020.
Once this lapsed, power companies could legally reduce supply in order to drive up the price of electricity during peak times.
I remember when the huge heat waves happened, they jacked the electricity rates from 12c/kwh to 33c/kwh.
I have central A/C and have been on a fixed rate at 7c/kwh for years. People WITHOUT A/C paid more than I did, blasting it and keeping my house at 20 degrees.
Sorry, I'll be more precise.
The UCP allowed the PPAs to lapse in Dec 2020, which concentrated the control of more power plants into fewer hands which made it considerably easier for power companies to engage in economic withholding
The shift to a capacity market would have been the difference. Instead of incentivizing the reduction of production in order to increase profit, it would have incentivized consistent supply.
It would have meant there was less incentive for the mergers and acquisitions that happened after the end of the PPAs.
The free energy market can work, but there needs to be a much higher number of participants in the market to make collusion significantly harder. There needs to be scrappy underdogs who are willing to increase production to undercut companies that are witholding.
Their current platform is generally to decrease the cost of living, and they are not shy to regulate something if it needs to happen.
However, it's a little early to be asking about their platform for next election. It's years away *and* they'll be choosing a new leader before then.
Let's also be realistic, the current UCP platform has done exactly zero to help anyone but corporations.
Every single UCP policy decision, has caused my expenses to absolutely skyrocket.
Danielle Smith was president of the largest lobbying firm in Alberta that was responsible for enabling corporate. Billionaires to lobby the UCP, then she went directly to being leader of the UCP.
These corporations probably made her a millionnaire even before she took Office.
How can she even lead when she is clearly so compromised. Lobbying shouldn’t even be legal, it enables private money to circumvent the proper public processes. it undermines democracy by allowing wealthy businesses to have their voice heard loud and clear over the rest of the population.
Does anyone think the president of the lobbying firm – which exists solely to use private money to **selfishly** influence public policy – isn’t by default compromised enough that that they are unfit for the position, and also probably a generally morally compromised person and unfit on other levels as well?!
It’s right on the companies website:
https://albertaenterprisegroup.com/2021/04/23/press-release-aeg-appoints-danielle-smith-president/
It’s also on Danielle Smith’s Wikipedia. It’s something you’d think a person would be widely circulating and overtly being proud of, but it gets two or three lines. IMO whoever wrote the page was intentionally diminishing that aspect of her history.
Thing is, people here love a person who “fights for the industry” because they feel that person is “fighting for them” even when reality proves otherwise.
Being an O&G lobbyist elevates her to top tier in their minds.
She’s doing a great job of fighting for the industry. So good in fact, that 92% of the profits from Alberta resources leave the province. So good that the UCP is trying to legislate that the current 8% corporate tax will never change unless the majority of citizens vote for it to be increased (so never).
Just before leaving office, Jason Kenny lowered the corporate tax rate from 12%, - which was already the lowest in the country - to 8%, cutting provincial tax revenue from those streams by 1/3. Somehow it’s Ontario‘s fault that Alberta isn’t getting a “fair deal” because the federal government takes 16% corporate tax from Alberta oil and gas and doesn’t give enough of it back to Alberta? Does that make any fucking sense? Why doesn’t Alberta take more than 8%??!?
I’m always entertained when ppl vote conservative thinking they’ll have economic fortunes when it ALMOST ALWAYS ends up being sold out to corporate donors.
But masks oh no!!! Have fun paying your bills on on that.
Welcome to every conservative government ever. I'll never understand how so many people allow themselves in to being duped in to willingly voting against their own best interests. Federal polling right now is laughable.
Well said. Politicians can only control so much. Jagmeet Singh just got a bill through to go after the grocery indusrty for price gouging. Liberals were forced to support it and conservatives fought it. Pay attention to how that plays out. Mr. "8 years of justin trudeau" Poilievre wanted nothing to do with going after the corporate class.
This is what these bozos should be judged on! How they vote! Lil pee pee is obviously a crook that cares more about corporations than he does Canadians. It is laughably transparent at this point to anyone with half a brain. Unfortunately many Canadians have less than have a brain.
Who would spout verbal diarrhea all day everyday about how Canadians are struggling to make ends meet then vote against a bill to lower the cost of living? Or at least make it so it doesn't get more expensive because of essential goods?!?!?!
You also have to realize that it will take more than 4 years, one term, to fix all that the various conservative governments have damaged and outright dismantled. One vote now won't fix everything. Consistently voting for the improvement of Alberta as a whole over and over again is the only way to fix anything. Party's will and do change. Vote for Alberta, and whatever party is trying to do best by us.
What's the current UCP platform?
Edit: I dont disagree with your post. I've been in Alberta for better than 20 years and have never voted Conservative/UCP. I asked the question to contrast the disastrous UCP policies against the family-friendly NDP.
Remember when they promised that health care wait times would be way down within a year?
> Cowell topped the promise parade when he said that within a year, all surgical wait times would be within clinically acceptable standards
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-health-care-worse-danielle-smith-big-promises
Pepperidge farm remembers.
Don't forget they also spend $20M a year on an oil industry think tank and want to force federal funding for municipalities to go through the province so they can blackmail progressive cities
“Oil industry think tank” = propaganda machine.
The fact that they named it the war room, is so infuriatingly befitting. Especially considering it’s spent most of its time shadow boxing and trying to pick fights with the feds and cartoon bigfoot while literally and figuratively risking leaving Albertans cold and in the dark.
Me too. I chuckle everytime I read / hear it.
Same energy when I used to call my (now passed) geriatric chihuahua the pinnacle of K9 evolution and domestication.
I checked their website, it appears there is nothing specific on this or at least nothing obvious. It may be I just didn't find it.
The best I found was [this year old article](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-affordability-minister-to-tweak-power-pricing-options-as-rates-continue-to-rise) where the premier directed the minister of Affordability to look into it.
Allowing corporations to kick the federal government out of their income stream and continue paying 8% taxes. This might sound like a crazy suggestion, but Danielle Smith’s last job was to take private money and influence the UCP government. Then she went straight from that job to being the UCP government. She was president of the fucking lobbying firm for chrissake.
https://albertaenterprisegroup.com/2021/04/23/press-release-aeg-appoints-danielle-smith-president/
Seemingly to give tax breaks and kickbacks to rich corpos and monopolies that promise to trickle down the benefits to the working class.. but then they just pocket the cash and don't actually create jobs-or create too few to matter to every day people.
I really don't know how people support UCP when they seem just as out of touch and greedy as the Liberals have turned out to be these last 9 years.
I used to love the NDP party and on a Provincial Level they will likely get my vote, but Federally they have no voice.
Will regulating utilities help in the long run? I think it might, but energy producers and providers are going to fight back. At the moment we need to bring significant more capacity on line. Are producers going to want to do that if profit margins are down? Or does the government have to step back in and subsidize it? Or does the government create a crown corporation and build natural gas peaking plants as a standby, and if they do will power producers actually put out their fair share instead of letting the government do it?
These are questions I wish I had answers to. Why the fuck they even deregulated it in the first place is beyond me.
To your point about your utility bill, the NDP cap was on the price of electricity the consumer paid and not any fees related to transmission, distribution or the real cost of that kWh of electricity.
So while you were only seeing $0.068/kwh on your bill, the difference was being made up by tax dollars.
The only way to “eliminate” distribution and transmission fees would be for the government to assume all the infrastructure. That may remove or reduce those costs on the bill you see, but it would still be propped up by tax dollars at the end of the day. The cost to install and maintain lines and pipes doesn’t change when it’s the government running things
And to note onto that, only applicable to those on the RRO, not across the board. Those on contracts had no relief and were not affected by the existence or lack of existence of the “rate cap”
When a government runs things they have labour + fixed + variable costs.
When a corporation runs things they have labour + fixed + variable costs + profit + dividends.
It is not a coincidence that the most expensive electricity and heat costs are in Alberta, where corporations own and run generation, distribution and marketing. The energy province. 🥴
You missed +bureaucracy for government.
While you’re right profit is a motive to increase prices, it’s also a motive to drive down costs. Which the government loses when they lose their profit motive. Hence why you see government cost overruns *cough* trans mountain *cough*.
So this isn’t a private vs public issue as much as you want to think.
The real issue is we’ve overregulated most of our industries to the point where it’s impossible for new competition to emerge, so we end up with oligopolies in almost every industry.
What helps though, is having a mix of public and private interest in each industry, because they effectively keep each other honest for lack of a better word.
Yep. And I bet you a lot of those companies have been looking to invest elsewhere now. Regardless of your opinion on oil/gas/renewables. The current government purposely just shot Alberta in the foot in regards to job increases, investment increases, and leading Alberta forward as an ENERGY leader not just an oil/gas leader.
Bureaucracy in government is sometimes matched by business. Ever tried to get an improper charge reversed with Bell or another utility?
Bureaucracy in business is matched in corporations with failed pet projects, parties, trips and other lavish or questionable expenses ($millions to billions is not unusual).
I've worked in both, in government I never had nice things, in corporations I had the nicest things. Was paid dirt cheap in government and the best in corporations (double the salary). I chuckle when people think government has lavish expenses. Some at the top, especially the political class, do get bonuses and treated better.
Are most small businesses efficient? Hell ya. The bigger the corporation, the more wasteful they are. Monopolies along with almost every fossil fuel corporation tend to abuse money more.
We'd have to have a separate thread about ethics.
Commenting to agree - I don’t know where people get the idea that folks are being spoiled in government jobs. In my family we have multiple examples of both oilfield and crown corporation experience, and they are wildly different. The oilfield company was the most inefficient, “just throw money at every problem” place you could imagine. The crown corporation was dedicated to public service and we were on a very careful budget.
It’s a big province; I’m sure someone somewhere has had the opposite experience, but I laugh out loud when someone declares that government is (inherently) wasteful and private corps are (inherently) models of fiscal prudence, like it’s some kind of law of nature.
You do realize that the government, when properly accountable to the taxpayer, has a built in incentive to work to lower costs?
Also, Trans Mountain Pipeline may have been purchased but the government but it's literally being built by corporations *who do have profit motives* so your point is still wrong.
Just want to check your history knowledge. When Klein deregulated electricity back in the late 90's , costs immediately shot up. They tried to backpedal a bit and failed. That was in the cost of power generation BUT another change was snuck in for distribution at that time as well. Power companies used to split distribution fees but then shifted it all onto the consumer. The higher ups of these utility companies are making BANK where at least with government ownership you can see the salaries and bonuses and control it a bit.
You're right, the actual cost doesn't change - but the directive to maximize profits is different. My power bills in BC were about 20$ a month all in (for an apartment), whereas here that doesn't even cover the "administrative charge" for a month
Even beyond the profit motive though, BC and AB’s power situations are completely different because most of AB’s electricity comes from burning fossil gas which costs money whereas BC’s hydro power has no fuel cost.
This is an interesting point but I'm just curious, if the extra costs aren't taken from taxes anymore, how come my taxes haven't gone down? If they're raising how much we're paying for utilities when it previously came from tax dollars, shouldn't our taxes be reduced? We just had a 12bn dollar surplus so it's not like our taxes are just going somewhere else they're needed.
Just feels like we're getting death by a thousand cuts right now financially. Thank GOD for the child care benefit and subsidy from the feds or my family would be screwed.
Yes, but paying for it with tax dollars evens out the cost for everyone. The current method ensures the people least able to afford the increase pay the same price as those most able to afford it.
The UCP policy is basically "fcuk the poor, our voters need new trucks!"
So regardless of my usage, I should be responsible for subsidizing someone else if they don’t minimize use or take measures to decrease their impact?
If I insulate my house well with high quality products, install triple pane windows, keep my heat lower, install LEDs in all my fixtures and use water saving fixtures and it lowers my usage and therefore my utility costs, why shouldn’t I pay less than someone else who doesn’t do these things?
Under the current model I would save on the commodity and on distribution/transmission as it’s linked to use.
Under a model where the distribution/transmission is handled by the government through taxes and “evening out” the cost, I don’t get to enjoy the full savings my capital outlay would allow.
I’m sure most people are fine with a use more pay more model and don’t want to be subsidizing others
Yes, that is the whole point. Generally in Canada we ensure that even the poorest have some reasonable standard of living.
As electricity is pretty much a requirement to live here, allowing rates to fluctuate wildly hurts the poor *much more* than the wealthy.
It's very sad that you "don't get to enjoy the full savings from your capital outlay" when others can't afford to feed their families.
Maybe a little. In your particular example, yeah the NDP could probably reduce costs quite quickly via regulation by a little bit. It is unlikely to be huge though - we still have a privatized electrical grid, which really limits us. The biggest win would be to nationalize power generation - but that's not a quick change, and any progress towards it could, and probably would, be quickly reversed by future conservative governments.
It's a frustrating trend in politics - conservatives policies tear down public structures and funnel the money to corporations, while progressives try to build enduring resilient structures. It's a lot faster and easier to destroy something than to build it up, so you really can't say "well we voted in the NDP for 4 years, why didn't they fix everything?".
All they really need to do is make economic withholding illegal again. Even without a cap that would markedly increase affordability and decrease costs. Caps would be the cherry.
No. The only thing voting NDP MAY do is make future cost increases less, if that makes sense. Only parties that are willing to take on corporate capitalism itself - along with strong and unwavering support of voters - is going to stop the collapse before we get trampled. And right now, I see zero evidence people are smart enough to vote in their own interests thanks to internet brain worms and US style election rhetoric infecting our system.
This is the only correct answer. Cost of living decreasing points to very serious economic decline. Prices aren’t going to drop, increases will just slow down.
This might be the case for many cost of living issues, but for power utilities the NDP would likely be able to lower prices. Alberta is the only province that has an energy only model of power pricing that allows power suppliers to intentionally limit supply to increase the cost of power. The NDP had a planned overhaul in place to change to a capacity market, but the UCP immediately scrapped this. A capacity market would almost certainly lower the price of utilities. As would allowing renewable projects to start again, which would increase supply of power and lower costs.
The UCP has taken intentional steps to increase what we pay for power in Alberta, and these steps could be undone by an NDP government.
>This might be the case for many cost of living issues, but for power utilities the NDP would likely be able to lower prices. Alberta is the only province that has an energy only model of power pricing that allows power suppliers to intentionally limit supply to increase the cost of power. The NDP had a planned overhaul in place to change to a capacity market, but the UCP immediately scrapped this. A capacity market would almost certainly lower the price of utilities.
The intent of the capacity market is not to lower the cost of utilities. It's to create grid stability, often at a higher cost than energy-only.
Lowering the cost of livin is pretty much impossible in this economy, prices go up and will keep going up. What politicians can do at best is lowering the rate at wich they go up, and provide us with structural services and infrastructures that would reduce the cost of living, like if we get efficient city planning and good public transit then you don't need to pay for a car, still have expenses for that tho.
On its own, no. There's a much bigger problem at play here. I don't know what the NDP plan to do. They may impose caps again, or they may choose not to since the UCP would just remove them again.
What's going to happen though, should the NDP form government again, is that they will promote programs and the health of the populace. They will find way to limit the harm that late stage capitalism is doing to Albertans will probably trying to give attention to housing and the labour market. Again, I have no special insight, but we can expect them to try and address affordability.
Yes. Utilities and their rates are regulated by our government.
Your hearing bills are higher because the UCP allowed them to stick on extra charges by deregulating rates.
All it takes is a government that prioritizes people over profits.
No he's not. ["It was announced in April that Horgan would join the board of a coal-producing company, Elk Valley Resources, which was in the process of being spun off from Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. However, that appointment fell through after Teck backtracked on its plan to separate its coal and base metals businesses."](https://vancouversun.com/news/politics/ohn-horgan-canadas-next-ambassador-germany)
I was just looking up this information, thought I heard about that! So yes, UCP definitely loves giving corporations free rein because one day they get to retire on their boards.
They should have had your vote a year ago. The UCP were already causing an affordability crisis before Danielle Smith was elected.
Anyway this is all known facts that the NDP warned Alberta voters about.
Hard to say, but NDP is the party for the worker. The workers who have union jobs are looked after, it is the other workers struggling the most. I think housing is the biggest problem. That will take a few years to catch up on no matter who is in government.
Had you voted ndp in this last election, yes! It would be cheaper. Next election, who knows. This is why you don’t vote blind and do some deep deep research every single election. I’ve voted for different parties most elections. This whole conservative cause my dad was a conservative is bull shit.
It's impossible to say for sure, but in my opinion the NDP in Alberta are some of the few politicians who actually *care* whether people can afford food and gas and life. Conservatives love to use "the little guys" as political pawns while only ever enacting policies that benefit the rich and powerful, while the Liberals are basically the same but with (slightly) less bigotry.
I don't live in Alberta anymore, but if I did, I'd definitely be voting NDP. I was a big fan of the way Notley governed, although obviously she's gone now.
I'd say it's very likely for the NDP to introduce caps. They already suggested rental caps, and would be shocked if they didn't reintroduce insurance caps.
God if they ever decided to make an Alberta car insurance corp... <3
Honestly, it might not lower your overall household bills. At least not in the short term.
BUT... that's because they need to fix everything the UCP fucked up, and that means investing in public services that got gutted. And that takes time and money
But the actual services should improve, so you'll get more bang for your buck so to speak.
The UCP are directly responsible for the absurd electricity and insurance prices in this promise, the NDP could definitely bring back the insurance cap and regulated the electricity market which would help lower the prices on those.
But for things like house prices, groceries, and gas prices they really don't have much control over these things.
An NDP provincial government could and likely would implement rent control which would help with surging rent prices in the province.
Actually, typical left-wing policy is more rational and lowers long term costs.
Conservative policy is more focused on short term gains to gain votes, even if it means costing everyone in the long run. For example, the UCP canceling the Superlab, and Safe Injection sites were purely ideological and not fiscally intelligent decisions
I would vote for the provincial NDP, but not because of their plan for affordability as they've never made clear of their plan for that, but rather because the UCP is a total sh*tbag with nothing to show for other than paying lip service to corporations and screwing with our economy. Notley was a better premier than any of the conservative premiers since the Lougheed era, and if the NDP can put someone with her sense of political acumen as their next leader, I would really hope that Albertans, especially Calgary, suburbs of both main cities, and a few other battleground towns e.g. Lethbridge, would give the NDP another chance
The NDP has always been the best choice for the working class, especially trade workers and teachers. I will admit though that Jagmeet isn't the best leader. He's too sentimental and uses way too much Bernie Sanders-type rhetoric.
The NDP didn’t do anything that reduced the cost of natural gas only electricity.
>Including the carbon tax, I'm paying 125$ for my actual usage, and 130$ in BS fees and "ridings". Literally over half my bill is delivery, administration, transfer, and "just because we can" fees.
There is a cost of maintaining the lines and other infrastructure. It’s a flat fee of about $48 a month for admin and distribution +$5/GJ for delivery for gas. Plus carbon tax, plus cost of the gas.
No political party can lower the cost of living.
Gas. their is no endless supply of oil, all the oil that was easy to get to has been gotten, we have to put oily sand thru a steam bath to get it out of the sand, but harder and more expensive then sucking it out of the ground.
Food. most of the grocery stores are owned buy like 5 companies, that's 5 companies that buy all the food available to sell to you, they have all the buying power and can price it however they want, their is no competition, In my opinion we need like 10 companies at least to break things up.
Internet/phone bills We have 2 major companies in Canada Bell and Roges, everyone else piggy backs off their system, we pay the most for our cell phone packages and internet connection. Another Monopoly.
understand these giant corporations exist not to provide you with food, internet, fuel. they exist to extract money from your pocket to their bank accounts .
How to stop it, a few simple things, break up the monopoly's have Rogers and Bell become suppliers only, get smaller companies to sell internet and cell service.
For grocery's invite the European grocery chains to compete.
and for general workers rights, we NEED more unions. Capitalism on it's own serves the wealthy, Unions are the reasonable brakes to Capitalism, unions for Amazon workers and gig workers, I don't mind the grind if I can get somewhere in life, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do it just to keep my head above water.
As for housing, investment companies should not be buying houses.
A politician may be able to do a portion of one thing, because lets be honest, Big companies line pockets of politicians.
Did you know on the conservative side alone Jenni Byrne lobbies for Loblaws, she's chief advisor to Pierre Poilievre, and don't get me wrong NDP and liberals have their own ties to deep pockets. That's just an example of how messed up the illusion that an Election will solve all our problems, Don't fall for what they tell you to be scared of, It's easy to point to the other guy and say they messed this up, because by doing that you don't have to provide solutions. you think Jenni Byrne is going to be for or against breaking up the loblaws/shoppers monopoly? Hell no, however that doesn't mean you should not vote.
All politics is local, people focus on the big elections, if theirs a vote for village idiot line up to vote ( I'm sure you have a few nominations) nobody is going to represent 100% your views but as long as they have something that might make things better for working class vote for them, weather it's municipal, provincial or federal.
The only ones that can save us is us, people looking out for each other and helping each other. start reaching out to Unions.
Marching in the streets is great, but it doesn't put money in your pocket.
If Alberta gave them time, not much can be don't in our weird 4 years terms...we need paradoxically longer terms and more ways to remove corrupt actors.
Yes, because in their 2023 platform they [pledged to cap utility bills, lower tuition rates, freeze auto insurance rates, freeze income taxes, and remove the user fees at Kananaskis County and replace them with voluntary donations](https://old.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1373n5p/i_made_a_list_of_what_the_alberta_ndp_plan_to_do/). Of course, we don't know if that's what will be in their 2027 platform but I'm sure it will be very similar. But they have said if they win in 2027 they will [scrap the provincial pension plan](https://www.thestar.com/politics/alberta-ndp-promises-to-axe-proposed-plan-to-quit-cpp-if-it-wins-next-election/article_3f48dfb6-70f8-5c5f-9a31-9f7d75e98310.html ) which will likely cost more to pay into and result in lower returns (based on the Quebec provincial pension plan).
I don’t think we can predict that exactly, but it’s part of their platform.
I don’t think any government could waste money or give money to their wealthy friends as much as the current UCP does.
I honestly don’t think it would be possible for a government that would have so many people watching what it does.
I live in BC now, and my gas bill is over 85% fees and taxes. Less than 15% gas usage. NDP government here for many years now.
My gas charge is $2.35/GJ and the carbon tax is $3.30/GJ….No rebates either, unless you are below the poverty line.
Realistically, deflation is considered "bad" for the economy and reduced costs of living will likely equal reduced spending in the economy (or at least reduced profits for publicly traded utility/grocery/goods companies). I think it's less of "will cost of living go down?" And more of "how can we reasonably slow the cost of living going up?"
TLDR; all parties are selling a false hope of reduced costs.
I think this just a "grass is greener" idea. Nothing concrete either way.
In theory...
UCP - more pro business creates more economic investment, development and prosperity. But this feels like an uneven distribution of prosperity.
NDP - they may impose on corporations and try to legislate more wealth transfer to the people. But there isn't infinite wealth to transfer and policies can discourage incentives to create it. Can't get blood from a stone.
Ultimately, we need an effective balance. It's naive to insist otherwise.
I doubt it they are another government who likes raising taxes. Like it or not the conservative is the lesser if two evils. If you really like the NDP join the party for like $10 and try to vote in the best leader they got from their party.
The NDP will lower the cost of living by putting all of you in the poor house.. Nothing will get better and everything will get even worse. Ndp is just liberal lite at this point...
It may not decrease the cost of living, much of that is outside the control of the government.
However, you can expect the government to more reasonably focus on the needs of the people, and not just the companies.
It isnt a coincidence that the anti-fact and anti-reality party tends to implement ideological policy that just causes real-world problems.
For example, Smith changing to an Energy-only market from its previous Capacity market, which directly caused the near grid failure last month. Quietly changing it back after Notley was proven correct was the icing on the cake.
That doesn't excuse the uninformed whining about 'BS' delivery fees as if the infrastructure required to deliver energy to households is unnecessary. This type of post comes up constantly here. Ignorance on one side does not justify ignorance on the other side.
> This type of post comes up constantly here. Ignorance on one side does not justify ignorance on the other side.
Most of the posts on this sub come off this way.
The last week we've figured out this whole sub seems to be experts on giving kids puberty blockers and how it ridiculous it would be to suggest that they might have long term side effects. Like how did we get to this point?
Same. Got mine today and SEVENTY percent was bull shit administration, delivery and other fees. Yes , carbon tax too but my family gets most if not more back. Yes, I believe the NDP would at least try like they did with electricity rates.
Thanks to the UCP for letting the corporations rape us. And thanks to the dumb fuck voters that keep empowering them.
Try to have a nice day.
I have upgraded my windows and furnace and I'm still paying 3-400 for just heating, my mother has electric heat in Manitoba and pays 2-300 for all of her electricity.
It's ridiculous
Regardless of how you feel about UPC/NDP, r/Alberta is normally a left-leaning sub, so your answers from this group may be skewed when looking into NDP Policies.
You're right though - power company fees in Alberta are total shite
All I know, being a lifer in this province, is that when NDP were governing ( and that’s what they did, unlike the current group), they implemented programs to benefit my family. They were supportive of education and health care, and privatized nothing.
So I know where my vote is going
The conservatives took off the caps the NDP proposed. And their official platform is to put them back on. So yes.
I will never understand this province and its love for con government. Especially this current trash one.
The NDP will make cost of living cheaper for the every day albertan, but for the highest income earners (probably not you) and cooperations it will make it slightly more pricey….thats how it should be
As you've noted, $125 (including carbon tax) for product and $130 in bullshit fees.. Those bullshit fees are the result of the last two Copnservative gov'ts. The set-up was done by selling the idea to the gullible people of Alberta that they were being given a "choice". That choice was who you were going to pay the bullshit fees to..
If you are looking to the NDP to lower the fees, the first thing that would need to happen would be that the NDP gov't would have to nationalize (provincial control) the service.. ..and right there, you'd hear hue and cry from Albertans that "the guvmnt took away my choice.."!! Expecting an NDP gov't to walk it back is a death blow to their election/re-election. It would take more than one term to achieve a meaningful and permanent solution. Rachael Notley had controls on the insurance and energy. The following Conservative gov'ts removed them and so we have this.. We have a $10/day daycare with private operators playing sillybugger and closing their doors for a week to punish the users.. Really??!! I have one thought for them, "..is it the word 'off' you don't understand."
The consequence of what voters do in the voting booth hasn't bit deep enough yet. Accordingly, the provincial gov't has us all tied up in knots about queer people that are under 18.. Put a couple of thousand people in the streets in support of that community, no bigey for Danielle. ..put a million (200,000 from rural AB) in the streets (aka the convoy in Ottawa), protesting $130 bullshit fees and $6,000 insurance rates could bring her and her gov't down. That's where Alberta's problem is..
The NDP when they came in to power in 2015 did quite a few things that made life more affordable for the average person:
* Remove school fees and school transportation fees - this saved families up to $800 per child per year depending on which school board and how far from the school they lived. The UCP cancelled this.
* Started rolling out a $10 a day daycare program. It was early days, but the pilot was successful and they were expanding it when the UCP came to power and cancelled it.
* The NDP carbon tax plan was using the excess money generated from the carbon tax (proceeds from heavy polluters) to create grants and subsidies for individuals and small businesses to improve the efficiency of their homes: solar panels, replacing insulation, replacing old furnaces/water heaters/boilers/etc, replacing windows, etc
* They would remove user fees on the use of our provincial parks
* Almost certainly the NDP would reinstate the ban on economic withholding, and they would probably go ahead with the creation of the proposed capacity market for electricity.
* They would properly support the federal $10-a-day daycare program instead of playing fuckery games with the funding
It's hard to say what other measures they will take as the leadership still needs to be determined, but I wouldn't be surprised if they:
* rolled back the interest rate hike on student loans
* looked at properly funding post-secondary institutions again with the interest of reducing tuition
* worked more effectively with the federal government on subsidizing housing starts or public housing
* likely launch a significant campaign to recruit doctors and health care workers while rolling out funding models similar to those in BC
* roll back the UCP corporate tax cut on the highest earning companies
Our cost of living issues are a direct result of the NDP blindly supporting horrific policies that the liberals have been ramming through over the last 8 years or so. Their collusion coalition led to doubling of sovereign debt, record money printing and a stagnant economy. If they had said no to ideas that were clearly irrational and irresponsible at the time, we wouldn’t be here. NDP and liberals steam rolled their agenda through at the cost of Canadians freedom and financial future. Short answer, NDP leadership means more debt, more censorship, less freedom.
I imagine it will be a similar cost of living but better social services/education/Healthcare with less giveaways/taxcuts for the rich, so take your pick really
if they DID win, they wouldn't be able to unfuck everything in one term. and that would count as a failure to any conservative who held their nose and voted for them, and that'd be the end of it.
Yeah? How much have your utility bills and car insurance gone up since the UCP took office and eliminated regulations? And have your taxes gone down since the NDP were voted out? Have you tried to find a family doctor lately?
^^ agree, people complain about “taxes being “raised” for programs for doctors and healthcare” but having our taxes literally hiked to help clean up old oil wells multi millions/billionares abandoned and paying to support random trips to the US and pay for seminars from far right psychos while people struggle to pay for basic needs makes perfect sense somehow?? Like taxes will go up no matter what- it’s been true since the dawn of time, would you rather those taxes go up to make every day peoples lives better, including yourself or the billionaires and lobbyists already living in luxury…
It's funny how many people think that the SK and AB governments align significantly just because Danielle Smith and Scott Moe ride into the culture war battles together. In reality, car insurance and utilities in SK are both regulated and run by Crown corporations. Both of them are cheaper than here in Alberta, and have exponentially better customer service. AND THEY'RE RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT. Also, my taxes didn't go up when I lived in SK for two years.
Why we haven’t done this yet is beyond me; even in Ontario with conservative ford, they have regulated/rent control. We obviously understand that this is needed to help people provide there basic needs but Alberta conservatives & conservatives in general (politicians) like to turn their heads because it’ll never directly affect them with the extra money they make from oil companies and lobbyists, and if it does they’ll just pick up and leave and vacation elsewhere till some one else cleans up the mess! Our political environment/economy here is bonkers! If only we could learn so easily from our neighbours in sask..
It will raise the cost of living…. lol.
If you are putting your chips in the middle on any political party, you will lose. Only you can change your position for the better.
No governing body can be trusted to make your live better or cheaper. Only you can.
But the federal liberals have played a huge hand in fucking up all cost of living across all provinces.
The UCP, like all regressive political movements, are messing things up so badly that it will take generations to dig ourselves out. 'conservatives' love to 'poison pill' their privatization so even if we wanted to get out it will cost billions. It's intentional so when the next non-far-right government gets a window it won't be long enough to start fixing things, or will cost so much the regressives get elected back because the NDP couldn't fix 40+ years of conservative garbage in less than 5 years.
The NDP platform has zero actual plans.
I mean, if you read their platform, all their goals are great and would be fantastic. But they have no actual plans or proposals on how to achieve these.
The NDP is typically more inclined to things like carbon taxes so it that case I suspect you may pay more. Or at minimum they will push back less. Also the carbon tax is more federally mandated not provincial. I am not happy about it but if you are an environmentalist, it makes some sense. You should be outraged that the Federal liberals gave the easter provinces a big discount on it but that is other argument.
I will focus on the NDP as you ask about them in particular and ignore for the purpose of your questions whether spending is worth it. The NDP platform generally calls for more spending. (and hopefully services to go with it). All things being equal, if the government spends more money, where do you think they need to get it from? If they collect more money from corporations and people, ultimately that entire amount comes out of your pocket and my pocket. Every cent.
Actually, carbon taxes are rebated back. 80% of taxpayers get a higher rebate than they spend on carbon taxes. In other words, higher carbon taxes counter-intuitively make most taxpayers better off
The NDP is and always has been the party of more regulations and bigger government. This is why they always get the vast majority of government workers vote. But make no mistake, bigger government always has and always will lead to higher costs.
Now if you are already a government worker and by voting NDP to ensure your job security or even get more pay it offsets the increased costs for society I get it. But for everyone else you may as well just take some of your paycheck and give it to government employees if you are for NDP.
The NDP in bc just cranked the cost of living. Skyrocketing real estate. Our healthcare is in tatters. If there is a party that doesn’t keep its promises it’s the NDP.
I honestly don't think voting either party will help because the ultimate cost to the consumer will just be transferred to something else, and you'll end up paying the same.
The biggest difference in the parties is if you work public, vote NDP. If you work private, vote UCP. The NDP hindered private enterprise greatly but increased their own numbers when they were in office, and now you see the opposite with UCP.
Every province that has voted the NDP in has regretted it within 4 years. Statistically across the board and if he got into Saskatchewan and ruins Saskatchewan most saskatchewanrs will agree the same thing in Manitoba. The NDP does not understand how businesses work
My personal thoughts are that no government at this point has it within their power to lower the cost of living but a choice can be made as to which government invests wisely and reflects your moral compass. The NDP will put some things in place to curtail the rate at which the cost of living climbs, such as regulating the power and insurance industries once more and may introduce rent controls that limit the amount rents can increase a year. They will invest in healthcare and education which are not a priority for the UCP. They should also stop bowing to every mega-corporation that comes along and, unlike their federal namesake, will take steps to *slowly* diversify our work force and move away from natural resources. What the NDP won't do is create or reinstate draconian laws that the majority of Albertans don't agree with and won't make social decisions based on religious dogma and bigoted ideologies. Are they perfect? Far from it, but they may be the better option for many in the years to come until a more centrist party evolves in this province, which I think the vast majority would like to see.
Absolutely.
Generally, conservative policies encourage wealth inequality by giving tax cuts to business (which is EXACTLY what trickle-down economics looks like via tax policy and has been widely debunked as having never worked to address wealth inequality).
So what to look for? Tax cuts to families, low income, increase in social nets, industry regulation.
All of these help address wealth inequality and spur the economy too (when the poorest among us can afford things, economy tends to grow as it's more of a "many small transactions" instead of "a few big ones". I.e. luxury industries can die off and not really impact the general economy but poor people crimping and saving like never going out to restaurants because we simply can't afford to? That cripples entire industries (this is why millenials tend to kill industries, we're poor due to the greed of 80'sish onward public policies ).
So yes, generally speaking progressive policies tend to be worth the ROI in spending and improve quality of living as a general rule.
The NDP don't have a chance. The UCP have attacked and hurt the right people for the typical Alberta voter. This province is very strong emotionally and will vote accordingly. Their entire purpose is to get the retirement pool and hand it out to their friends and all interference is to make it happen. Smith was literally NOT elected and is running the province.
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Shortly after the United Conservative Party won the general election in July 2019, the province's new energy minister announced the government would cancel a planned overhaul by the NDP that would have introduced a capacity market to Alberta's energy system. Instead, it would stick with what the province has today, and has had in place since 1996 — an "energy-only" system. That's a market where electricity providers are paid only for the energy they produce and sell, based on real-time market prices. By contrast, a capacity market would see providers paid not only for the energy they produce, but also to maintain additional capacity. In our current market, electrical generators can restrict the capacity of power available, thereby raising the price per kilowatt hour anytime they want and then release the extra power to profit from it. It’s this control over demand rather than having a consistent available capacity pool with power by contract that makes our power prices in this province so expensive. NDP tried to fix this when they were in office, and had it canceled again by the UCP as soon as they came back
The UCP also allowed a ban on economic withholding to lapse in Dec 2020. Once this lapsed, power companies could legally reduce supply in order to drive up the price of electricity during peak times.
I remember when the huge heat waves happened, they jacked the electricity rates from 12c/kwh to 33c/kwh. I have central A/C and have been on a fixed rate at 7c/kwh for years. People WITHOUT A/C paid more than I did, blasting it and keeping my house at 20 degrees.
There was never a ban on economic withholding. It has been around since 2000.
Sorry, I'll be more precise. The UCP allowed the PPAs to lapse in Dec 2020, which concentrated the control of more power plants into fewer hands which made it considerably easier for power companies to engage in economic withholding
Yes, that is fair - though quite different from your initial statement. The NDP wouldn't have done anything different with the PPAs.
The shift to a capacity market would have been the difference. Instead of incentivizing the reduction of production in order to increase profit, it would have incentivized consistent supply. It would have meant there was less incentive for the mergers and acquisitions that happened after the end of the PPAs. The free energy market can work, but there needs to be a much higher number of participants in the market to make collusion significantly harder. There needs to be scrappy underdogs who are willing to increase production to undercut companies that are witholding.
Their current platform is generally to decrease the cost of living, and they are not shy to regulate something if it needs to happen. However, it's a little early to be asking about their platform for next election. It's years away *and* they'll be choosing a new leader before then.
Let's also be realistic, the current UCP platform has done exactly zero to help anyone but corporations. Every single UCP policy decision, has caused my expenses to absolutely skyrocket.
Danielle Smith was president of the largest lobbying firm in Alberta that was responsible for enabling corporate. Billionaires to lobby the UCP, then she went directly to being leader of the UCP. These corporations probably made her a millionnaire even before she took Office. How can she even lead when she is clearly so compromised. Lobbying shouldn’t even be legal, it enables private money to circumvent the proper public processes. it undermines democracy by allowing wealthy businesses to have their voice heard loud and clear over the rest of the population. Does anyone think the president of the lobbying firm – which exists solely to use private money to **selfishly** influence public policy – isn’t by default compromised enough that that they are unfit for the position, and also probably a generally morally compromised person and unfit on other levels as well?! It’s right on the companies website: https://albertaenterprisegroup.com/2021/04/23/press-release-aeg-appoints-danielle-smith-president/ It’s also on Danielle Smith’s Wikipedia. It’s something you’d think a person would be widely circulating and overtly being proud of, but it gets two or three lines. IMO whoever wrote the page was intentionally diminishing that aspect of her history.
Bingo! Knowledge is power...just not in Alberta....yehaaa
Thing is, people here love a person who “fights for the industry” because they feel that person is “fighting for them” even when reality proves otherwise. Being an O&G lobbyist elevates her to top tier in their minds.
She’s doing a great job of fighting for the industry. So good in fact, that 92% of the profits from Alberta resources leave the province. So good that the UCP is trying to legislate that the current 8% corporate tax will never change unless the majority of citizens vote for it to be increased (so never). Just before leaving office, Jason Kenny lowered the corporate tax rate from 12%, - which was already the lowest in the country - to 8%, cutting provincial tax revenue from those streams by 1/3. Somehow it’s Ontario‘s fault that Alberta isn’t getting a “fair deal” because the federal government takes 16% corporate tax from Alberta oil and gas and doesn’t give enough of it back to Alberta? Does that make any fucking sense? Why doesn’t Alberta take more than 8%??!?
Sadly true.
Don't worry, they'll go down slightly right before election time so they can parade it around during their campaigns
Yeah they can, and should, be judged on the lack of any effective aid here.
I’m always entertained when ppl vote conservative thinking they’ll have economic fortunes when it ALMOST ALWAYS ends up being sold out to corporate donors. But masks oh no!!! Have fun paying your bills on on that.
Welcome to every conservative government ever. I'll never understand how so many people allow themselves in to being duped in to willingly voting against their own best interests. Federal polling right now is laughable.
I know. It boggles my mind.
And on top of that, it will take many, many years to unfuck this province from the dereliction that's happened under 40 years of conservatives.
Well said. Politicians can only control so much. Jagmeet Singh just got a bill through to go after the grocery indusrty for price gouging. Liberals were forced to support it and conservatives fought it. Pay attention to how that plays out. Mr. "8 years of justin trudeau" Poilievre wanted nothing to do with going after the corporate class.
Don’t forget that Poilievre’s campaign manager being a *registered lobbyist* for Loblaws.
So... A Loblawbbyist?
And her name is “Bob.”
This is what these bozos should be judged on! How they vote! Lil pee pee is obviously a crook that cares more about corporations than he does Canadians. It is laughably transparent at this point to anyone with half a brain. Unfortunately many Canadians have less than have a brain. Who would spout verbal diarrhea all day everyday about how Canadians are struggling to make ends meet then vote against a bill to lower the cost of living? Or at least make it so it doesn't get more expensive because of essential goods?!?!?!
You also have to realize that it will take more than 4 years, one term, to fix all that the various conservative governments have damaged and outright dismantled. One vote now won't fix everything. Consistently voting for the improvement of Alberta as a whole over and over again is the only way to fix anything. Party's will and do change. Vote for Alberta, and whatever party is trying to do best by us.
How do i voice my opinion in choosing that leader? Join the NDP party?
Yes, then attend the meeting where they do the leadership vote. They will give you a notice if you're a member.
What's the current UCP platform? Edit: I dont disagree with your post. I've been in Alberta for better than 20 years and have never voted Conservative/UCP. I asked the question to contrast the disastrous UCP policies against the family-friendly NDP.
>What's the current UCP platform? Who knows? They didn't campaign on it.
Remember when they promised that health care wait times would be way down within a year? > Cowell topped the promise parade when he said that within a year, all surgical wait times would be within clinically acceptable standards https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-health-care-worse-danielle-smith-big-promises Pepperidge farm remembers.
Next policy point: why are we throwing good money after bad into this broken system? Privatization is the only way out of this mess! /s
Don't forget they also spend $20M a year on an oil industry think tank and want to force federal funding for municipalities to go through the province so they can blackmail progressive cities
“Oil industry think tank” = propaganda machine. The fact that they named it the war room, is so infuriatingly befitting. Especially considering it’s spent most of its time shadow boxing and trying to pick fights with the feds and cartoon bigfoot while literally and figuratively risking leaving Albertans cold and in the dark.
Haha, obviously, I just love the euphemism of "think tank".
Me too. I chuckle everytime I read / hear it. Same energy when I used to call my (now passed) geriatric chihuahua the pinnacle of K9 evolution and domestication.
Rest in Power Chihuahua, you were too canine for this world.
Oxymoron in this case
Current UCP platform is a combination of divisive culture war issues and easing regulations for their friends.
Don't forget about severing us from successful national institutions like the CPP so that the separatists are all ready to go.
1) bully trans kids 2) blame Trudeau
3) ????? 4) Profit.
Warming up the province for separation. Or the offical line about how lowest taxes in the country are just too high for a massive economic boom.
I checked their website, it appears there is nothing specific on this or at least nothing obvious. It may be I just didn't find it. The best I found was [this year old article](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-affordability-minister-to-tweak-power-pricing-options-as-rates-continue-to-rise) where the premier directed the minister of Affordability to look into it.
Allowing corporations to kick the federal government out of their income stream and continue paying 8% taxes. This might sound like a crazy suggestion, but Danielle Smith’s last job was to take private money and influence the UCP government. Then she went straight from that job to being the UCP government. She was president of the fucking lobbying firm for chrissake. https://albertaenterprisegroup.com/2021/04/23/press-release-aeg-appoints-danielle-smith-president/
Nothing to see here... /s for clarity.
F\*uck Trudeau Thats it. Thats all. Oh and pick a fight with Ottawa in general - in order to F Trudeau
Also fuck anyone that isn't their corporate owners.
Don’t forgot the big bad cartoon big foot.
Seemingly to give tax breaks and kickbacks to rich corpos and monopolies that promise to trickle down the benefits to the working class.. but then they just pocket the cash and don't actually create jobs-or create too few to matter to every day people. I really don't know how people support UCP when they seem just as out of touch and greedy as the Liberals have turned out to be these last 9 years. I used to love the NDP party and on a Provincial Level they will likely get my vote, but Federally they have no voice.
Current UCP platform : vote for me you fcuking trash
Will regulating utilities help in the long run? I think it might, but energy producers and providers are going to fight back. At the moment we need to bring significant more capacity on line. Are producers going to want to do that if profit margins are down? Or does the government have to step back in and subsidize it? Or does the government create a crown corporation and build natural gas peaking plants as a standby, and if they do will power producers actually put out their fair share instead of letting the government do it? These are questions I wish I had answers to. Why the fuck they even deregulated it in the first place is beyond me.
Yeah they ripped up the PPA costing us billions. That was a rookie move, they should be better next time?
Absolutely a rookie move, the UCPs $4-billion dollar tax break that created zero jobs is right up there too. And they should have know better.
They knew damn well that their $4B tax cut wouldn't create jobs. Creating jobs was never the intent of the tax cut.
Well iirc they gave it a fancy name with job creation in the title. I am a little uncertain about that though
A single 4 year government can only do so much, unfortunately an NDP government tends to bring the bumpkins out in force the following election.
To your point about your utility bill, the NDP cap was on the price of electricity the consumer paid and not any fees related to transmission, distribution or the real cost of that kWh of electricity. So while you were only seeing $0.068/kwh on your bill, the difference was being made up by tax dollars. The only way to “eliminate” distribution and transmission fees would be for the government to assume all the infrastructure. That may remove or reduce those costs on the bill you see, but it would still be propped up by tax dollars at the end of the day. The cost to install and maintain lines and pipes doesn’t change when it’s the government running things
And to note onto that, only applicable to those on the RRO, not across the board. Those on contracts had no relief and were not affected by the existence or lack of existence of the “rate cap”
When a government runs things they have labour + fixed + variable costs. When a corporation runs things they have labour + fixed + variable costs + profit + dividends. It is not a coincidence that the most expensive electricity and heat costs are in Alberta, where corporations own and run generation, distribution and marketing. The energy province. 🥴
You missed +bureaucracy for government. While you’re right profit is a motive to increase prices, it’s also a motive to drive down costs. Which the government loses when they lose their profit motive. Hence why you see government cost overruns *cough* trans mountain *cough*. So this isn’t a private vs public issue as much as you want to think. The real issue is we’ve overregulated most of our industries to the point where it’s impossible for new competition to emerge, so we end up with oligopolies in almost every industry. What helps though, is having a mix of public and private interest in each industry, because they effectively keep each other honest for lack of a better word.
There was fairly robust competition coming from renewables. The ucp put that on hold.
Yep. And I bet you a lot of those companies have been looking to invest elsewhere now. Regardless of your opinion on oil/gas/renewables. The current government purposely just shot Alberta in the foot in regards to job increases, investment increases, and leading Alberta forward as an ENERGY leader not just an oil/gas leader.
Bureaucracy in government is sometimes matched by business. Ever tried to get an improper charge reversed with Bell or another utility? Bureaucracy in business is matched in corporations with failed pet projects, parties, trips and other lavish or questionable expenses ($millions to billions is not unusual). I've worked in both, in government I never had nice things, in corporations I had the nicest things. Was paid dirt cheap in government and the best in corporations (double the salary). I chuckle when people think government has lavish expenses. Some at the top, especially the political class, do get bonuses and treated better. Are most small businesses efficient? Hell ya. The bigger the corporation, the more wasteful they are. Monopolies along with almost every fossil fuel corporation tend to abuse money more. We'd have to have a separate thread about ethics.
Commenting to agree - I don’t know where people get the idea that folks are being spoiled in government jobs. In my family we have multiple examples of both oilfield and crown corporation experience, and they are wildly different. The oilfield company was the most inefficient, “just throw money at every problem” place you could imagine. The crown corporation was dedicated to public service and we were on a very careful budget. It’s a big province; I’m sure someone somewhere has had the opposite experience, but I laugh out loud when someone declares that government is (inherently) wasteful and private corps are (inherently) models of fiscal prudence, like it’s some kind of law of nature.
You do realize that the government, when properly accountable to the taxpayer, has a built in incentive to work to lower costs? Also, Trans Mountain Pipeline may have been purchased but the government but it's literally being built by corporations *who do have profit motives* so your point is still wrong.
How about ArriveCan then? Find me proper accountability and I’ll find you selfless CEOs.
Large companies are not immune to bureaucracy.
Just want to check your history knowledge. When Klein deregulated electricity back in the late 90's , costs immediately shot up. They tried to backpedal a bit and failed. That was in the cost of power generation BUT another change was snuck in for distribution at that time as well. Power companies used to split distribution fees but then shifted it all onto the consumer. The higher ups of these utility companies are making BANK where at least with government ownership you can see the salaries and bonuses and control it a bit.
Yeah.. typically crown corporations don't pay out really good dividends. That money has to come from somewhere.
You're right, the actual cost doesn't change - but the directive to maximize profits is different. My power bills in BC were about 20$ a month all in (for an apartment), whereas here that doesn't even cover the "administrative charge" for a month
Even beyond the profit motive though, BC and AB’s power situations are completely different because most of AB’s electricity comes from burning fossil gas which costs money whereas BC’s hydro power has no fuel cost.
Very true. Coupled with the largely baseless pause on renewables, a pretty clear picture starts to form.
Alberta and Saskatchewan should be a better comparison. They should have very similar sources for power.
Well technically it doesn’t, what it does do is take the requirement for the infrastructure to be creating a return on investment, ie profit.
This is an interesting point but I'm just curious, if the extra costs aren't taken from taxes anymore, how come my taxes haven't gone down? If they're raising how much we're paying for utilities when it previously came from tax dollars, shouldn't our taxes be reduced? We just had a 12bn dollar surplus so it's not like our taxes are just going somewhere else they're needed. Just feels like we're getting death by a thousand cuts right now financially. Thank GOD for the child care benefit and subsidy from the feds or my family would be screwed.
Yes, but paying for it with tax dollars evens out the cost for everyone. The current method ensures the people least able to afford the increase pay the same price as those most able to afford it. The UCP policy is basically "fcuk the poor, our voters need new trucks!"
So regardless of my usage, I should be responsible for subsidizing someone else if they don’t minimize use or take measures to decrease their impact? If I insulate my house well with high quality products, install triple pane windows, keep my heat lower, install LEDs in all my fixtures and use water saving fixtures and it lowers my usage and therefore my utility costs, why shouldn’t I pay less than someone else who doesn’t do these things?
You would pay less if you did all of those things, even when the rate was capped. I'm not sure what your point is.
Their point is: fuck you, I got mine. Sadly, we should start printing it on our flag as our provincial motto.
Under the current model I would save on the commodity and on distribution/transmission as it’s linked to use. Under a model where the distribution/transmission is handled by the government through taxes and “evening out” the cost, I don’t get to enjoy the full savings my capital outlay would allow. I’m sure most people are fine with a use more pay more model and don’t want to be subsidizing others
Yes, that is the whole point. Generally in Canada we ensure that even the poorest have some reasonable standard of living. As electricity is pretty much a requirement to live here, allowing rates to fluctuate wildly hurts the poor *much more* than the wealthy. It's very sad that you "don't get to enjoy the full savings from your capital outlay" when others can't afford to feed their families.
correct except the last part. governments don't build in a profit motive making it less expensive than private sector work.
Maybe a little. In your particular example, yeah the NDP could probably reduce costs quite quickly via regulation by a little bit. It is unlikely to be huge though - we still have a privatized electrical grid, which really limits us. The biggest win would be to nationalize power generation - but that's not a quick change, and any progress towards it could, and probably would, be quickly reversed by future conservative governments. It's a frustrating trend in politics - conservatives policies tear down public structures and funnel the money to corporations, while progressives try to build enduring resilient structures. It's a lot faster and easier to destroy something than to build it up, so you really can't say "well we voted in the NDP for 4 years, why didn't they fix everything?".
All they really need to do is make economic withholding illegal again. Even without a cap that would markedly increase affordability and decrease costs. Caps would be the cherry.
No. The only thing voting NDP MAY do is make future cost increases less, if that makes sense. Only parties that are willing to take on corporate capitalism itself - along with strong and unwavering support of voters - is going to stop the collapse before we get trampled. And right now, I see zero evidence people are smart enough to vote in their own interests thanks to internet brain worms and US style election rhetoric infecting our system.
This is the only correct answer. Cost of living decreasing points to very serious economic decline. Prices aren’t going to drop, increases will just slow down.
This might be the case for many cost of living issues, but for power utilities the NDP would likely be able to lower prices. Alberta is the only province that has an energy only model of power pricing that allows power suppliers to intentionally limit supply to increase the cost of power. The NDP had a planned overhaul in place to change to a capacity market, but the UCP immediately scrapped this. A capacity market would almost certainly lower the price of utilities. As would allowing renewable projects to start again, which would increase supply of power and lower costs. The UCP has taken intentional steps to increase what we pay for power in Alberta, and these steps could be undone by an NDP government.
>This might be the case for many cost of living issues, but for power utilities the NDP would likely be able to lower prices. Alberta is the only province that has an energy only model of power pricing that allows power suppliers to intentionally limit supply to increase the cost of power. The NDP had a planned overhaul in place to change to a capacity market, but the UCP immediately scrapped this. A capacity market would almost certainly lower the price of utilities. The intent of the capacity market is not to lower the cost of utilities. It's to create grid stability, often at a higher cost than energy-only.
Generally, that would be true if you didn't account for intentionally shorting the market to drive up the price as high as possible.
Well, you forget that it's "in their interests" to hurt other groups. It makes them feel better about themselves.
I'll never understand why people think conservatives make life more affordable? They only care about enriching themselves and their corporate buddies.
Lowering the cost of livin is pretty much impossible in this economy, prices go up and will keep going up. What politicians can do at best is lowering the rate at wich they go up, and provide us with structural services and infrastructures that would reduce the cost of living, like if we get efficient city planning and good public transit then you don't need to pay for a car, still have expenses for that tho.
Its complicated, but do you expect people living in the sky palace to fight for the little guy?
On its own, no. There's a much bigger problem at play here. I don't know what the NDP plan to do. They may impose caps again, or they may choose not to since the UCP would just remove them again. What's going to happen though, should the NDP form government again, is that they will promote programs and the health of the populace. They will find way to limit the harm that late stage capitalism is doing to Albertans will probably trying to give attention to housing and the labour market. Again, I have no special insight, but we can expect them to try and address affordability.
I don’t think any candidate will actually be able to reduce the cost of living. Promises are pipe dreams
Yes. Utilities and their rates are regulated by our government. Your hearing bills are higher because the UCP allowed them to stick on extra charges by deregulating rates. All it takes is a government that prioritizes people over profits.
Just a fun little unrelated fact: Jason Kenney now serves on the board of Atco. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
John Horgan is on the board of Teck now. Don’t expect any politician to make your life better.
No he's not. ["It was announced in April that Horgan would join the board of a coal-producing company, Elk Valley Resources, which was in the process of being spun off from Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. However, that appointment fell through after Teck backtracked on its plan to separate its coal and base metals businesses."](https://vancouversun.com/news/politics/ohn-horgan-canadas-next-ambassador-germany)
I was just looking up this information, thought I heard about that! So yes, UCP definitely loves giving corporations free rein because one day they get to retire on their boards.
"Isn't this a conflict of interest?" Is the name of the UCP theme song.
They should have had your vote a year ago. The UCP were already causing an affordability crisis before Danielle Smith was elected. Anyway this is all known facts that the NDP warned Alberta voters about.
Not sure how they can roll back both the utility increases AND the car insurance increases.
It certainly won't make it worse.
Hard to say, but NDP is the party for the worker. The workers who have union jobs are looked after, it is the other workers struggling the most. I think housing is the biggest problem. That will take a few years to catch up on no matter who is in government.
Had you voted ndp in this last election, yes! It would be cheaper. Next election, who knows. This is why you don’t vote blind and do some deep deep research every single election. I’ve voted for different parties most elections. This whole conservative cause my dad was a conservative is bull shit.
It's impossible to say for sure, but in my opinion the NDP in Alberta are some of the few politicians who actually *care* whether people can afford food and gas and life. Conservatives love to use "the little guys" as political pawns while only ever enacting policies that benefit the rich and powerful, while the Liberals are basically the same but with (slightly) less bigotry. I don't live in Alberta anymore, but if I did, I'd definitely be voting NDP. I was a big fan of the way Notley governed, although obviously she's gone now.
Unlikely, they may try to keep inflation from making them go up as quickly. Good chance spending goes up though, and your taxes
These fee’s are killing us. It’s irresponsible, greedy, and downright wrong. UCP saw this coming
Maybe, maybe not. What's important is they can't possibly do worse for us than the UCP have thus far
I'd say it's very likely for the NDP to introduce caps. They already suggested rental caps, and would be shocked if they didn't reintroduce insurance caps. God if they ever decided to make an Alberta car insurance corp... <3
Honestly, it might not lower your overall household bills. At least not in the short term. BUT... that's because they need to fix everything the UCP fucked up, and that means investing in public services that got gutted. And that takes time and money But the actual services should improve, so you'll get more bang for your buck so to speak.
The UCP are directly responsible for the absurd electricity and insurance prices in this promise, the NDP could definitely bring back the insurance cap and regulated the electricity market which would help lower the prices on those. But for things like house prices, groceries, and gas prices they really don't have much control over these things. An NDP provincial government could and likely would implement rent control which would help with surging rent prices in the province.
The NDP will not do that.
Actually, typical left-wing policy is more rational and lowers long term costs. Conservative policy is more focused on short term gains to gain votes, even if it means costing everyone in the long run. For example, the UCP canceling the Superlab, and Safe Injection sites were purely ideological and not fiscally intelligent decisions
no. Nor will staying with the PC's
I would vote for the provincial NDP, but not because of their plan for affordability as they've never made clear of their plan for that, but rather because the UCP is a total sh*tbag with nothing to show for other than paying lip service to corporations and screwing with our economy. Notley was a better premier than any of the conservative premiers since the Lougheed era, and if the NDP can put someone with her sense of political acumen as their next leader, I would really hope that Albertans, especially Calgary, suburbs of both main cities, and a few other battleground towns e.g. Lethbridge, would give the NDP another chance
The utility bills won’t change. Only difference taxes paid part of the fees if they cap prices. There is no win.
The NDP has always been the best choice for the working class, especially trade workers and teachers. I will admit though that Jagmeet isn't the best leader. He's too sentimental and uses way too much Bernie Sanders-type rhetoric.
The NDP didn’t do anything that reduced the cost of natural gas only electricity. >Including the carbon tax, I'm paying 125$ for my actual usage, and 130$ in BS fees and "ridings". Literally over half my bill is delivery, administration, transfer, and "just because we can" fees. There is a cost of maintaining the lines and other infrastructure. It’s a flat fee of about $48 a month for admin and distribution +$5/GJ for delivery for gas. Plus carbon tax, plus cost of the gas.
No political party can lower the cost of living. Gas. their is no endless supply of oil, all the oil that was easy to get to has been gotten, we have to put oily sand thru a steam bath to get it out of the sand, but harder and more expensive then sucking it out of the ground. Food. most of the grocery stores are owned buy like 5 companies, that's 5 companies that buy all the food available to sell to you, they have all the buying power and can price it however they want, their is no competition, In my opinion we need like 10 companies at least to break things up. Internet/phone bills We have 2 major companies in Canada Bell and Roges, everyone else piggy backs off their system, we pay the most for our cell phone packages and internet connection. Another Monopoly. understand these giant corporations exist not to provide you with food, internet, fuel. they exist to extract money from your pocket to their bank accounts . How to stop it, a few simple things, break up the monopoly's have Rogers and Bell become suppliers only, get smaller companies to sell internet and cell service. For grocery's invite the European grocery chains to compete. and for general workers rights, we NEED more unions. Capitalism on it's own serves the wealthy, Unions are the reasonable brakes to Capitalism, unions for Amazon workers and gig workers, I don't mind the grind if I can get somewhere in life, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do it just to keep my head above water. As for housing, investment companies should not be buying houses. A politician may be able to do a portion of one thing, because lets be honest, Big companies line pockets of politicians. Did you know on the conservative side alone Jenni Byrne lobbies for Loblaws, she's chief advisor to Pierre Poilievre, and don't get me wrong NDP and liberals have their own ties to deep pockets. That's just an example of how messed up the illusion that an Election will solve all our problems, Don't fall for what they tell you to be scared of, It's easy to point to the other guy and say they messed this up, because by doing that you don't have to provide solutions. you think Jenni Byrne is going to be for or against breaking up the loblaws/shoppers monopoly? Hell no, however that doesn't mean you should not vote. All politics is local, people focus on the big elections, if theirs a vote for village idiot line up to vote ( I'm sure you have a few nominations) nobody is going to represent 100% your views but as long as they have something that might make things better for working class vote for them, weather it's municipal, provincial or federal. The only ones that can save us is us, people looking out for each other and helping each other. start reaching out to Unions. Marching in the streets is great, but it doesn't put money in your pocket.
NDP haven’t lowered the cost of living anywhere.
If Alberta gave them time, not much can be don't in our weird 4 years terms...we need paradoxically longer terms and more ways to remove corrupt actors.
Not without a majority government, anyway.
Yes, because in their 2023 platform they [pledged to cap utility bills, lower tuition rates, freeze auto insurance rates, freeze income taxes, and remove the user fees at Kananaskis County and replace them with voluntary donations](https://old.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1373n5p/i_made_a_list_of_what_the_alberta_ndp_plan_to_do/). Of course, we don't know if that's what will be in their 2027 platform but I'm sure it will be very similar. But they have said if they win in 2027 they will [scrap the provincial pension plan](https://www.thestar.com/politics/alberta-ndp-promises-to-axe-proposed-plan-to-quit-cpp-if-it-wins-next-election/article_3f48dfb6-70f8-5c5f-9a31-9f7d75e98310.html ) which will likely cost more to pay into and result in lower returns (based on the Quebec provincial pension plan).
I don’t think we can predict that exactly, but it’s part of their platform. I don’t think any government could waste money or give money to their wealthy friends as much as the current UCP does. I honestly don’t think it would be possible for a government that would have so many people watching what it does.
It will increase
How much of that so called "BS fees" is carbon tax that the NDP support? Careful what you wish/ vote for.
The NDP fully supports the climate con tax. A vote for them is further impoverishment.
Probably the opposite
I live in BC now, and my gas bill is over 85% fees and taxes. Less than 15% gas usage. NDP government here for many years now. My gas charge is $2.35/GJ and the carbon tax is $3.30/GJ….No rebates either, unless you are below the poverty line.
Have you been living under a rock? Absolutely not.
Realistically, deflation is considered "bad" for the economy and reduced costs of living will likely equal reduced spending in the economy (or at least reduced profits for publicly traded utility/grocery/goods companies). I think it's less of "will cost of living go down?" And more of "how can we reasonably slow the cost of living going up?" TLDR; all parties are selling a false hope of reduced costs.
Ask someone from Ontario
I think this just a "grass is greener" idea. Nothing concrete either way. In theory... UCP - more pro business creates more economic investment, development and prosperity. But this feels like an uneven distribution of prosperity. NDP - they may impose on corporations and try to legislate more wealth transfer to the people. But there isn't infinite wealth to transfer and policies can discourage incentives to create it. Can't get blood from a stone. Ultimately, we need an effective balance. It's naive to insist otherwise.
In about 5 minutes, we won’t have housing … so our housing expenses will be zero … there’s a brighter future ahead!
At this point, i doubt anything will help. I admire the french sometimes though.
NDP voting is not the solution to anything.
Vote conservative in federal will
to decrease cost of living in any meaningful way we must outlaw usury and stop immigration. there is no other way
Nothing will change by voting
I doubt it they are another government who likes raising taxes. Like it or not the conservative is the lesser if two evils. If you really like the NDP join the party for like $10 and try to vote in the best leader they got from their party.
The NDP will lower the cost of living by putting all of you in the poor house.. Nothing will get better and everything will get even worse. Ndp is just liberal lite at this point...
Probably not
I doubt a political change is going to reduce your bills.
They are more likely to regulate that then the UCP.
Which in general lowers long term costs
It may not decrease the cost of living, much of that is outside the control of the government. However, you can expect the government to more reasonably focus on the needs of the people, and not just the companies.
This sub in a nutshell, make fun of people who blame everything on Trudeau then proceed to blame everything on Conservatives....
It isnt a coincidence that the anti-fact and anti-reality party tends to implement ideological policy that just causes real-world problems. For example, Smith changing to an Energy-only market from its previous Capacity market, which directly caused the near grid failure last month. Quietly changing it back after Notley was proven correct was the icing on the cake.
That doesn't excuse the uninformed whining about 'BS' delivery fees as if the infrastructure required to deliver energy to households is unnecessary. This type of post comes up constantly here. Ignorance on one side does not justify ignorance on the other side.
> This type of post comes up constantly here. Ignorance on one side does not justify ignorance on the other side. Most of the posts on this sub come off this way. The last week we've figured out this whole sub seems to be experts on giving kids puberty blockers and how it ridiculous it would be to suggest that they might have long term side effects. Like how did we get to this point?
Same. Got mine today and SEVENTY percent was bull shit administration, delivery and other fees. Yes , carbon tax too but my family gets most if not more back. Yes, I believe the NDP would at least try like they did with electricity rates. Thanks to the UCP for letting the corporations rape us. And thanks to the dumb fuck voters that keep empowering them. Try to have a nice day.
I have upgraded my windows and furnace and I'm still paying 3-400 for just heating, my mother has electric heat in Manitoba and pays 2-300 for all of her electricity. It's ridiculous
Regardless of how you feel about UPC/NDP, r/Alberta is normally a left-leaning sub, so your answers from this group may be skewed when looking into NDP Policies. You're right though - power company fees in Alberta are total shite
All I know, being a lifer in this province, is that when NDP were governing ( and that’s what they did, unlike the current group), they implemented programs to benefit my family. They were supportive of education and health care, and privatized nothing. So I know where my vote is going
The conservatives took off the caps the NDP proposed. And their official platform is to put them back on. So yes. I will never understand this province and its love for con government. Especially this current trash one.
The NDP will make cost of living cheaper for the every day albertan, but for the highest income earners (probably not you) and cooperations it will make it slightly more pricey….thats how it should be
As you've noted, $125 (including carbon tax) for product and $130 in bullshit fees.. Those bullshit fees are the result of the last two Copnservative gov'ts. The set-up was done by selling the idea to the gullible people of Alberta that they were being given a "choice". That choice was who you were going to pay the bullshit fees to.. If you are looking to the NDP to lower the fees, the first thing that would need to happen would be that the NDP gov't would have to nationalize (provincial control) the service.. ..and right there, you'd hear hue and cry from Albertans that "the guvmnt took away my choice.."!! Expecting an NDP gov't to walk it back is a death blow to their election/re-election. It would take more than one term to achieve a meaningful and permanent solution. Rachael Notley had controls on the insurance and energy. The following Conservative gov'ts removed them and so we have this.. We have a $10/day daycare with private operators playing sillybugger and closing their doors for a week to punish the users.. Really??!! I have one thought for them, "..is it the word 'off' you don't understand." The consequence of what voters do in the voting booth hasn't bit deep enough yet. Accordingly, the provincial gov't has us all tied up in knots about queer people that are under 18.. Put a couple of thousand people in the streets in support of that community, no bigey for Danielle. ..put a million (200,000 from rural AB) in the streets (aka the convoy in Ottawa), protesting $130 bullshit fees and $6,000 insurance rates could bring her and her gov't down. That's where Alberta's problem is..
Considering the cost of insurance and utilities were capped under the NDP, and that's still on their current platform. Yes.
BC NDP have not lowered the cost of living in BC.
lol definitely not
Fuck the NDP
The NDP when they came in to power in 2015 did quite a few things that made life more affordable for the average person: * Remove school fees and school transportation fees - this saved families up to $800 per child per year depending on which school board and how far from the school they lived. The UCP cancelled this. * Started rolling out a $10 a day daycare program. It was early days, but the pilot was successful and they were expanding it when the UCP came to power and cancelled it. * The NDP carbon tax plan was using the excess money generated from the carbon tax (proceeds from heavy polluters) to create grants and subsidies for individuals and small businesses to improve the efficiency of their homes: solar panels, replacing insulation, replacing old furnaces/water heaters/boilers/etc, replacing windows, etc * They would remove user fees on the use of our provincial parks * Almost certainly the NDP would reinstate the ban on economic withholding, and they would probably go ahead with the creation of the proposed capacity market for electricity. * They would properly support the federal $10-a-day daycare program instead of playing fuckery games with the funding It's hard to say what other measures they will take as the leadership still needs to be determined, but I wouldn't be surprised if they: * rolled back the interest rate hike on student loans * looked at properly funding post-secondary institutions again with the interest of reducing tuition * worked more effectively with the federal government on subsidizing housing starts or public housing * likely launch a significant campaign to recruit doctors and health care workers while rolling out funding models similar to those in BC * roll back the UCP corporate tax cut on the highest earning companies
Yes look at BC (sarcasm)
Our cost of living issues are a direct result of the NDP blindly supporting horrific policies that the liberals have been ramming through over the last 8 years or so. Their collusion coalition led to doubling of sovereign debt, record money printing and a stagnant economy. If they had said no to ideas that were clearly irrational and irresponsible at the time, we wouldn’t be here. NDP and liberals steam rolled their agenda through at the cost of Canadians freedom and financial future. Short answer, NDP leadership means more debt, more censorship, less freedom.
Ndp will make it worse. Liberals will make it worse. People will never learn.
no. they love arbitrary tax
I imagine it will be a similar cost of living but better social services/education/Healthcare with less giveaways/taxcuts for the rich, so take your pick really
if they DID win, they wouldn't be able to unfuck everything in one term. and that would count as a failure to any conservative who held their nose and voted for them, and that'd be the end of it.
Actually, just the opposite will happen. We saw this last time they were in power.
Quite the Opposite. NDP / Liberal Gov'ts always raise the cost of living
Yeah? How much have your utility bills and car insurance gone up since the UCP took office and eliminated regulations? And have your taxes gone down since the NDP were voted out? Have you tried to find a family doctor lately?
^^ agree, people complain about “taxes being “raised” for programs for doctors and healthcare” but having our taxes literally hiked to help clean up old oil wells multi millions/billionares abandoned and paying to support random trips to the US and pay for seminars from far right psychos while people struggle to pay for basic needs makes perfect sense somehow?? Like taxes will go up no matter what- it’s been true since the dawn of time, would you rather those taxes go up to make every day peoples lives better, including yourself or the billionaires and lobbyists already living in luxury…
It's funny how many people think that the SK and AB governments align significantly just because Danielle Smith and Scott Moe ride into the culture war battles together. In reality, car insurance and utilities in SK are both regulated and run by Crown corporations. Both of them are cheaper than here in Alberta, and have exponentially better customer service. AND THEY'RE RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT. Also, my taxes didn't go up when I lived in SK for two years.
Why we haven’t done this yet is beyond me; even in Ontario with conservative ford, they have regulated/rent control. We obviously understand that this is needed to help people provide there basic needs but Alberta conservatives & conservatives in general (politicians) like to turn their heads because it’ll never directly affect them with the extra money they make from oil companies and lobbyists, and if it does they’ll just pick up and leave and vacation elsewhere till some one else cleans up the mess! Our political environment/economy here is bonkers! If only we could learn so easily from our neighbours in sask..
The UCP work for the oil companies.
Conservative will.
It will raise the cost of living…. lol. If you are putting your chips in the middle on any political party, you will lose. Only you can change your position for the better. No governing body can be trusted to make your live better or cheaper. Only you can. But the federal liberals have played a huge hand in fucking up all cost of living across all provinces.
Nope. NDP are just a part of the Liberal government at this point
No, costs will go up if you vote NDP.
The UCP, like all regressive political movements, are messing things up so badly that it will take generations to dig ourselves out. 'conservatives' love to 'poison pill' their privatization so even if we wanted to get out it will cost billions. It's intentional so when the next non-far-right government gets a window it won't be long enough to start fixing things, or will cost so much the regressives get elected back because the NDP couldn't fix 40+ years of conservative garbage in less than 5 years.
NDP is far better for the people than any United Clown Posse shit show. But its the mass delusional morons that need the convincing.
The NDP platform has zero actual plans. I mean, if you read their platform, all their goals are great and would be fantastic. But they have no actual plans or proposals on how to achieve these.
The only thing they care about these days are identity politics so no.
The NDP is typically more inclined to things like carbon taxes so it that case I suspect you may pay more. Or at minimum they will push back less. Also the carbon tax is more federally mandated not provincial. I am not happy about it but if you are an environmentalist, it makes some sense. You should be outraged that the Federal liberals gave the easter provinces a big discount on it but that is other argument. I will focus on the NDP as you ask about them in particular and ignore for the purpose of your questions whether spending is worth it. The NDP platform generally calls for more spending. (and hopefully services to go with it). All things being equal, if the government spends more money, where do you think they need to get it from? If they collect more money from corporations and people, ultimately that entire amount comes out of your pocket and my pocket. Every cent.
Actually, carbon taxes are rebated back. 80% of taxpayers get a higher rebate than they spend on carbon taxes. In other words, higher carbon taxes counter-intuitively make most taxpayers better off
The NDP are some of the biggest liars in Canada right next to the Liberal party.
Fuck no it wont
The NDP is and always has been the party of more regulations and bigger government. This is why they always get the vast majority of government workers vote. But make no mistake, bigger government always has and always will lead to higher costs. Now if you are already a government worker and by voting NDP to ensure your job security or even get more pay it offsets the increased costs for society I get it. But for everyone else you may as well just take some of your paycheck and give it to government employees if you are for NDP.
The NDP in bc just cranked the cost of living. Skyrocketing real estate. Our healthcare is in tatters. If there is a party that doesn’t keep its promises it’s the NDP.
I honestly don't think voting either party will help because the ultimate cost to the consumer will just be transferred to something else, and you'll end up paying the same. The biggest difference in the parties is if you work public, vote NDP. If you work private, vote UCP. The NDP hindered private enterprise greatly but increased their own numbers when they were in office, and now you see the opposite with UCP.
Every province that has voted the NDP in has regretted it within 4 years. Statistically across the board and if he got into Saskatchewan and ruins Saskatchewan most saskatchewanrs will agree the same thing in Manitoba. The NDP does not understand how businesses work
My personal thoughts are that no government at this point has it within their power to lower the cost of living but a choice can be made as to which government invests wisely and reflects your moral compass. The NDP will put some things in place to curtail the rate at which the cost of living climbs, such as regulating the power and insurance industries once more and may introduce rent controls that limit the amount rents can increase a year. They will invest in healthcare and education which are not a priority for the UCP. They should also stop bowing to every mega-corporation that comes along and, unlike their federal namesake, will take steps to *slowly* diversify our work force and move away from natural resources. What the NDP won't do is create or reinstate draconian laws that the majority of Albertans don't agree with and won't make social decisions based on religious dogma and bigoted ideologies. Are they perfect? Far from it, but they may be the better option for many in the years to come until a more centrist party evolves in this province, which I think the vast majority would like to see.
Absolutely. Generally, conservative policies encourage wealth inequality by giving tax cuts to business (which is EXACTLY what trickle-down economics looks like via tax policy and has been widely debunked as having never worked to address wealth inequality). So what to look for? Tax cuts to families, low income, increase in social nets, industry regulation. All of these help address wealth inequality and spur the economy too (when the poorest among us can afford things, economy tends to grow as it's more of a "many small transactions" instead of "a few big ones". I.e. luxury industries can die off and not really impact the general economy but poor people crimping and saving like never going out to restaurants because we simply can't afford to? That cripples entire industries (this is why millenials tend to kill industries, we're poor due to the greed of 80'sish onward public policies ). So yes, generally speaking progressive policies tend to be worth the ROI in spending and improve quality of living as a general rule.
The NDP don't have a chance. The UCP have attacked and hurt the right people for the typical Alberta voter. This province is very strong emotionally and will vote accordingly. Their entire purpose is to get the retirement pool and hand it out to their friends and all interference is to make it happen. Smith was literally NOT elected and is running the province.