Finance minister to press Ottawa for more cash
Last Updated: Monday, May 25, 2009 | 9:05 AM MT
CBC News
Alberta's finance minister will push for more money from Ottawa as she meets Monday with her federal and provincial counterparts in Chelsea, Que.
In addition for asking for $700 million in health transfers, Iris Evans also plans to ask Ottawa for stabilization money designed to help the province weather a sharp financial downturn.
"Perhaps $200 million for the kind of impact that we have endured and also based on the precedent of previous stabilization payments to Ontario," Evans said.
In the past, Evans said, stabilization payments were provided to jurisdictions when they had sudden and unprecedented drops in revenue.
She said that certainly applies to Alberta with a forecasted $4.7-billion deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the first deficit in the province since 1993-94.
Alberta Liberal finance critic Dave Taylor said there's no harm in asking for money, but said he's not sure how much support Evans will get.
"Hey, more power to her [Evans] if she can get $200 million out of Ottawa," he said.
But he accused the government of talking out of both sides of its mouth because it's publicly promoting the province as stable and well-positioned to come out of the recession.
"And then on the other hand running off cap in hand to Ottawa and saying 'Please, Big Brother, help us out because we've fallen on hard times and it's you or the food bank,'" Taylor said.
It's a tough argument to make that Alberta needs help from Ottawa just after the province recorded multibillion-dollar surpluses for many years, he added.
