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Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins pleased with latest provincial budget

The government of Alberta released the details of the 2008 budget last week – the 15th consecutive balanced budget in a row, and one that promises $1 billion in savings to residents and businesses in the province with the elimination of most health-care premiums by January 1, 2009.
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Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins

Review staff

The government of Alberta released the details of the 2008 budget last week – the 15th consecutive balanced budget in a row, and one that promises $1 billion in savings to residents and businesses in the province with the elimination of most health-care premiums by January 1, 2009.

“I was very pleased with the increases in the budget as related to health, education and particularly the transportation and infrastructure,” said Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins. “I think we need to spend a little more money on roads and highways in this area and I think that’ll be the strongest local component that you’ll see is the improving and rehabilitating pavement and building some roads.

According to the government’s web site, the budget is aimed at managing Alberta’s growth and priorities for the future and all Albertans will benefit from the increased funds to improve municipal infrastructure, highways, hospitals and schools.

“The other thing that I think is really important – and the people will welcome this very much, is the limit of the health-care insurance premiums,” Prins said. “This effects more than half of all Albertans and will put immediately a lot of extra change in their pockets and some people need this to pay their bills, others will be able to spend it on other consumer goods depending where they’re at, so this is great news for Albertans.”

Locally, Prins said residents can expect to see the completion of Rimbey’s new hospital this year although it was budgeted in a previous year, and possibly even a bit of a staffing increase.

“You’re going to see the Rimbey hospital being completed this year – that’s not part of this budget of course, but it’s a great addition to Rimbey and the increased spending in health will help as well,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll get some more staff locally as well.”

As for the announced increase in spending of nearly 10 per cent over last year, Prins said it only makes sense as the population of Alberta continues to grow.

“I think the increase of 9.7 per cent in spending is, I believe, appropriate in a time when we have increased our population by 68,000 in Alberta and we have a small amount of inflation so the increase is almost reflective of the increase in the size of the economy,” Prins said. “It should be sustainable for this year and if we have additional surpluses, we’ll be spending them partially on savings in the Heritage Fund and two-thirds on capital and maintenance on infrastructure.”

In the area of agriculture and rural development, the government has pledged just over $1 billion to be provided annually over the next three years and directed mainly towards joint federal/provincial agriculture programs.

The Competitiveness Initiative, announced in 2007, will make recommendations to improve local, national and international agriculture industry competitiveness. On that initiative, the province has committed $61 million in 2008-09 — increasing to $67 million by 2010-11, and will go to support industry development and competitiveness initiatives.

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation loan limits will increase from $2 million to $5 million, and the overall borrowing limit for the Corporation has increased from $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion. The increase in the overall borrowing limit means up to $200 million in additional capital will be available for lending to clients over the next three years.

For complete details on the 2008 budget, check the government of Alberta web site.