Promises, promises: Track what Alberta's political parties are vowing to deliver

CBC News | Posted: March 21, 2019 6:00 PM | Last Updated: April 9, 2019

The campaign trail is marked with plenty of promises

• Vote Compass: Compare your views to party platforms for the 2019 Alberta election
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• 'Them's fighting words': The Alberta election campaign begins

Alberta Party promises

• Establish new $100 million Alberta Agriculture Innovation Fund to provide research and seed funding
• Fund agri-tourism development and enhance the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation

• Establish Indigenous-led, Alberta Government supported consortium to build Alaska rail corridor to transport oil resources
• Change province's current cannabis revenue sharing model
• Create an Alberta Pension Plan and bring Alberta's portion of CPP under provincial control
• Stop sending personal taxes to Ottawa by terminating current agreement with federal government
• Continue building the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir Project
• Review oil curtailment plan
• Advocate moratorium on federal tanker ban in B.C.
• Exempt homes, businesses, farms and non-profits from the carbon tax
• Double allowable tax deduction for small- and medium-sized businesses from $500,000 to $1 million
• Expediate approval for bitumen pucks (CanaPux) facility; provide $16.7 million for the pilot project
• Increase Alberta Innovates budget by 30 per cent to $375 million by 2021
• Expand refining capacity
• Establish a Gas Royalty in Kind program that takes a similar approach to the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program
• Establish a technology development fund focused on forestry resources
• Cancel the NDP carbon tax for families, small business, farms, non-profit organizations and municipal governments

• Reconstitute the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
• Build more non-acute care beds and non-acute care clinics
• Create a new Alberta Caregiver Tax Credit to support caregivers
• Create 3,500 long term care beds similar to the Alberta Supportive Living Initiative
• Mandatory vaccinations for children in public school
• Wellness strategy focused on mental health, long-term care and chronic conditions
• Allow health-care professionals, such as EMS or nurse practitioners, more discretion in directing medical care
• Reform EMS dispatch and practices so paramedics are able to spend more time in communities, less time in the hospital
• Conduct a review to eliminate duplication and redundancies between AHS and Alberta Health
• Identify under-utilized real estate owned by AHS and divest properties with no planned use
• Create more long-term care beds, more options for rehabilitation
• Expand health-care coverage to include annual dental check-ups for children under 12
• Push for water fluoridation

• Build new lanes on QE2 highway, upgrade existing highway network, and create Canada's first corridor for self-driving vehicles
• Increase the provincial highway rehabilitation budget by 40% from $360 million per year to $504 million per year
• Secure the right-of-way and approvals for an Alberta-to-Alaska railway and pipeline corridor

• End Alberta's status as the only province in Canada to not have an Extended Producer Responsibility program
• Replace health care, drivers' licence and other ID cards with a single Alberta card

• Expand the STEP program
• Retain the current cap on tuition at Alberta post-secondary institutions
• Create 45,000 new spaces in post-secondary institutions by 2024 including universities, colleges and technical institutes
• Double the number of education assistants in K-12 classrooms
• Introduce 'ambitious' $1B child-care program

• Require proponents of major projects to prioritize social and financial sustainability of Alberta's FNMI communities
• Critically examine justice system to eliminate embedded racism
• Work with First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities to develop a culturally appropriate strategy for health care
• Develop a plan to recognize the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry
• Improve First Nations, Métis and Inuit education and create a plan to address the on-reserve and on-settlement gap in education funding
• Update the Animal Protection Act

Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta promises

• Balance budget and post $1.9 billion surplus by 2022-23
• Eliminate small business tax
• Reduce income tax and corporate tax to a flat rate of 10 per cent
• Eliminate beer tax
• Demand an end to equalization and wealth transfers out of Alberta
• Withdraw from Canada Revenue Agency to collect Alberta's own tax

• Abolish party whips
• Allow citizens to initiate referendums and vetoes over legislation
• Demand more autonomy over immigration, tax collection, employment insurance, Canada pension plan and justice
• Hold referendum on independence if demands are not met

• Cancel NDP's plan to allow municipalities to run budget deficits
• Replace federal infrastructure transfers with a tax-point transfer
• Restore the right to appeal in the Municipal Government Act

• Equal funding for public, private and independent schools; guaranteed funding for home-schooling
• Cancel Alberta's new school curriculum
• Revoke funding for post-secondary institutions that do not protect free speech or freedom of assembly
• Allow post-secondary institutions to partner with K-12 schools to specialize in vocational training

Liberal Party promises

• Launch $80 million Back to Work Grant Fund
• Support the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion
• Advocate for Energy East Pipeline
• Demand amendments to Bill C69
• Cancel oil-by-rail plan
• Make carbon tax revenue-neutral
• Eliminate income tax, replace revenue with more corporate tax and 8 per cent HST
• Alberta Liberal plan towards a Basic Income
• Exempt new small businesses from paying small business corporate income tax for the first three taxation years after incorporation

• Grant new revenue-generating powers to Edmonton and Calgary
• Create equitable cannabis revenue-sharing model
• Give urban municipalities the power to veto oil and gas drilling within their boundaries

• Create more wildlife crossings, enhance protections for at-risk species and ban clear cutting
• Eliminate the use of single-use plastics in Alberta by 2030

• Introduce class size caps to deal with large classrooms
• Support education by advocating for reduced class sizes, inclusive education and an immediate end to seclusion rooms
• Increase special needs education funding and support by 50 per cent

• Create regional Indigenous child protection offices, language immersion programs and curriculum
• Mandate provincial courts to apply Indigenous-based sentencing principles
• Improve access to foreign credential upgrades and invest in adult ESL education
• Ban conversion therapy
• Introduce gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) budgeting
• Institute mandatory sexual assault, harassment and consent training for police and judges

• Opioid crisis would be declared a public health emergency
• Increase funding for mental health and addictions treatment by 50 per cent
• Make dental care more affordable and accessible for all Albertans
• Build 2,200 new long-term beds over the next four years
• Improve public health care, including a commitment to reduce wait times and improve mental health resources
• Sustainable Healthcare Strategy

• Replace first-past-the-post voting system with mixed member proportional representation
• Add six new legislature seats for Indigenous MLAs
• Replace 'first-past-the-post' electoral system with mixed-member proportional representation
• Cap PAC donations to $4,000 a year per person; ban union, corporate and foreign donations to PACs

NDP promises:

• Balance the budget by 2023 while rolling out new funding initiatives
• Resolve regulatory challenges, construct the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion
• Help Alberta producers ship oil by rail by leasing up to 4,400 rail cars, moving an additional 120,000 barrels a day, starting in July 2019
• Invest $3.5 billion to aid private-sector refining and upgrading projects, including royalty incentives and loan guarantees to encourage private-sector investment
• Build a $2-billion partial upgrading facility in the Edmonton area
• Increase incentives to $7 billion in new private-sector investment to boost oil and gas sector
• Fund 16 clean energy projects in the province, worth $600 million, through Emissions Reduction Alberta
• Balance the budget by 2023

• No new toll roads
• Create more consistency around highway construction zones, eliminate traffic fines
• Invest $6 million for an affordable housing project in Stony Plain
• Accelerate and increase building of water infrastructure on Alberta First Nations to ensure access to clean, safe, reliable drinking water with a $100 million investment over six years
• Replace the Highway 3 bridge, eastbound, in Lethbridge
• Build a 120-bed homeless shelter in Red Deer, with funding of $7 million
• Replace the province's oldest senior's lodge in Red Deer, with $28 million
• Give $13.5 million over the next three years to help bring the X Games to Calgary
• Invest $478 million to ease congestion on Calgary's Deerfoot Trail
• Repair and build nearly 4,700 affordable homes for seniors and people in need
• Evaluate the proposed East Clearwater Highway near Fort McMurray
• Upgrade roads, bridges and utilities across the province

• Ban conversion therapy
• Pledge to launch a lawsuit against manufacturers of opioid medication
• Edmonton and Calgary to get storefront medical health clinics to provide immediate care for people in crisis
• Introduce Bill 1, An Act to Protect Public Health Care, to prevent privatization in Alberta health care
• Expand the Red Deer Hospital, with an expanded emergency room, a new cardiac catheterization lab and expansion to other services
• Renovate the emergency room at Peter Lougheed Centre, including renovations to ease congestion
• Build a new children's mental health hospital in Edmonton to serve all northern populations
• Add 2,000 more long-term care beds
• Invest $90 million per year over three years to boost emergency care

• Create a K-12 Filipino language and culture program
• Create new provincial Filipino, Punjabi, Somali and Cantonese courses
• Increase funding for Classroom Improvement Fund from $77 million to $100 million per year, and make it permanent
• Continue with Alberta education curriculum redesign to update education for the internet age
• Expand $25-per-day child care across Alberta
• All new school projects will get new playgrounds. Another $5 million each year will help replace 100 aging and outdated playgrounds in mature neighbourhoods

• Spend $100 million over five years to grow the artificial intelligence sector in Alberta
• Invest $100 million in a technology diversification plan and continue with a five-year plan to create 3,000 new high-tech training seats in Alberta universities and colleges
• Expand the Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator
• Build, expand and modernize more schools, including a major new high school in north Calgary

• Establish a provincial unit to fight hate crimes and extremism in Alberta

• Follow through with commitment to build Springbank Dam
• Create the Kitaskino Nuwenene Wildland, a preserve of 160,000 hectares south of Wood Buffalo National Park

United Conservative Party promises:

• Introduce Bill 12, or the Turn off the Taps law, on the first day in office
• Reform the Alberta Energy Regulator
• Intervene at all National Energy Board hearings that affect Alberta oil and gas interests
• Create crown corporation to facilitate First Nations financial participation in major resource projects
• Produce a small surplus after four years
• Force large emitters to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 per cent each year
• Fight to kill Bill C-69
• Establish a war room to combat misinformation about the oilsands
• Fund lawsuits by pro-development Indigenous groups
• Explore new methods of moving oil to ocean ports
• Abolish the carbon tax and join other provinces suing federal government
• Amend the Taxpayer Protection Act to require a referendum before a carbon tax can be introduced in the future
• End wind and solar power subsidies
• Cancel Notley government's railcar lease with CN and CP
• Have a "practical plan" to control greenhouse gas emissions
• Fight for international market access by pressuring federal government and eliminating inter-provincial trade barriers
• Cut corporate tax rate from 12 to eight per cent over four years
• Use the prospect of a referendum on equalization as leverage for federal action on pipelines
• Ask Ottawa to increase the limit of the Fiscal Stabilization Fund, cut income tax rates and stop payroll increases for CPP
• Push for Albertans to be exempt from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation stress test
• Create pre-approved land corridors moving east-west and north in the Arctic to expedite resource project approvals

• Roll back many provisions in NDP labour bills on WCB
• $13-minimum-wage for youth, a panel to study the effects of minimum-wage increases
• Repeal Bill 6, the Farm Safety Act
• Reform immigration program to attract entrepreneurs
• Streamline recognition of foreign credentials and push for harmonized regulatory procedures across Canada

• Replace Alberta's School Act with the former Education Act
• End discovery math
• End 'ideological' NDP rewrite of school curriculum and start own process
• Expand school choice
• Bring back standardized tests
• Review current funding formula to ensure that rural schools have adequate resources
• Maintain or increase education funding while seeking greater efficiency by reducing administrative overhead
• Expand apprenticeship programs and create new scholarship to promote skilled trades
• Reform education certification process to allow more tradespeople to teach
• Expand the Women Building Futures program

• New $4-million support fund for veterans, first responders
• Disclose domestic violence records to intimate partners
• Launch the Alberta Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
• End Alberta's agreement with the Parole Board of Canada and pass legislation to create an Alberta Parole Board
• Call on federal government to restore mandatory sentencing for drug traffickers

• Begin search for consultant to do performance review of AHS within 30 days of taking office
• Maintain or increase health-care spending, while looking for efficiencies
• Spend $2 million to expand the use of specialized electronic monitoring technology
• Privatize Alberta Health Services laundry service
• Review medical and forensic gathering standards in rural areas
• Cancel plans for a $590-million Alberta "superlab," which was planned to consolidate hospital lab services in Edmonton and northern Alberta
• Invite specialized private day surgical clinics to bid on providing government-insured day surgeries
• Allow nurse practitioners to bill directly to Alberta Health; expand the scope of practice of other health professionals, such as opticians and paramedics
• Appoint an Associate Minister for Mental Health and Addictions
• Expand support for opioid treatment centres, including more detox beds and mobile detox programs
• Expand Drug Treatment Courts, including new ones outside of Calgary and Edmonton
• More extensive consultations approving any new supervised consumption sites
• Shift from hospital to community-based home and hospice care
• Expand the medical home model of primary care

• Create Big Island Provincial Park, a 770-hectare park in Edmonton's southwest river valley
• Launch a new conservation plan to protect trails, create a back-country land-use plan
• Set up a Caribou Range Task Force to review the NDP's Alberta Caribou Draft Plan
• Increase annual funding on efforts to fight mountain pine beetle from $25 to $30 million

• Establish a $30,000 limit on donor contributions to PACs
• Establish a fixed election date
• Introduce a law that would allow for recall of a sitting MLA if petitioned by voters
• Allow free votes for MLAs on everything not deemed a confidence vote
• Renew the Senatorial Selection Act and holding elections for senatorial nominees in 2021
• Ban floor crossing
• Cut MLA pay by five per cent and premier pay by 10 per cent
• Introduce the End Partisan Government Advertising Act, making it illegal for governments to advertise in the run-up to an election, or to ever use tax dollars for partisan ads
• Improve decorum at legislature
• Review elections rules and sanctions, after Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel was penalized for late filing
• End MLA expense claims for fuel and vehicle maintenance, but keep allowances for mileage
• Restore the mandatory secret ballot for union certification votes
• Appoint a minister in charge of eliminating 'red tape'