Alberta's United Conservatives have come out swinging against last week's Provincial budget.

Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson says borrowing money to build schools, roads and hospitals is one thing, but hiking the debt through servicing costs because you're borrowing money for the operating budget is just bad business.

"It's like borrowing money to pay the interest on your credit card. That's how these people are operating right now. They have no business sense, no business savvy. They've got no business background and it's pretty obvious now with the way that this government's operating it, they're taking us into a position to put us into such a heavy debt load that I don't think Albertan's will see the light of day for a long time."

The Provincial debt is expected to climb to $54 billion this year, and $96 billion by 2023.

Anderson says one quote from Finance Minister Joe Ceci regarding a hike in the carbon tax really stuck with him.

He quoted Ceci "As our economy relies less on government stimulus, additional carbon revenue will help to contribute to improving the bottom line." Anderson says, "Now, there you go. What does that say? They're going to increase the carbon tax by over 67 per cent. But the real sticker is, and most Albertan's don't know this, but they're going to find out. They're going to throw that back into general revenue."

Anderson says the original purpose of the carbon tax was to fight climate change through reducing green house gasses.

But with the money going into general revenue, it's simply a glorified sales tax, buying no "social license" for pipelines or anything else.

 

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