UCP Finance Critic Drew Barnes has waded in on the NDP's "State of the Province Address" from Wednesday, February 28.

Barnes says there was one piece of good news.

"The revenue is up, and it's up $780 million is taxation on our natural resources. So, thank goodness that Albertans are so good at adding value to getting oil and gas out of the ground. Particularly at a time when we're totally restrained by the rest of Canada for pipeline access."

Barnes says a good chunk of it was a bit of "jiggery-pokery" with the numbers.

"The NDP claims they found a billion dollars in reallocation. Part of that was just smoke and mirrors. They had planned in putting $500 million into our budget from savings if oil prices fell too low. Luckily they didn't."

Barnes also says the NDP snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by seeing tax revenue fall by over $300 million for personal income tax and $66 million in corporate tax.

 

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