Alberta Election Writ Days Away, NDP and UCP Pledge No Personal Tax Increases If Elected

UCP also promises not to raise business income taxes

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley (L) and UCP Leader Danielle Smith. (Jason Franson; Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

EDMONTON—Days away from an expected election writ being dropped in Alberta, both the NDP and UCP have announced they will not increase provincial personal income taxes if elected, in what is shaping up to be a hotly contested leadership race.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) and Premier Danielle Smith took that promise one step further at an April 26 news conference at a Calgary bakery shop. She vowed to freeze business taxes and hold a referendum on any future tax hikes if returned to power.

The May 29 election is expected to be called on May 1. Both parties are already on the campaign trail with both Smith and NDP leader Rachel Notley offering daily promises at news conferences.

UCP

According to the UCP, Smith signed the party’s No Tax Hike Guarantee, described as “a pledge that a UCP government will not increase personal or business taxes if re-elected in the upcoming provincial election.”

Smith reportedly asked all candidates running for the UCP to sign the pledge.

The party has committed to expanding the Taxpayer Protection Act to include personal and business income taxes and said it would “ensure no future government could increase income taxes without approval from Albertans in a referendum.”

The Act already prevents a sales tax from being imposed on Albertans without a referendum majority vote.

The UCP is claiming that under the party’s management of the province, business taxes were decreased by 33 percent. “Businesses flourished and corporate income revenues reached record levels,” said a UCP statement on April 26. On social media, the party stated business tax revenue reached $6.4 billion.

The party also claims that in 2015, “in one of her first acts as premier, Notley hiked business taxes by 20 percent.”

The UCP blamed high taxes under the NDP’s four-year government term—May 2015 to April 2019—for “a record 13 consecutive quarters of people leaving Alberta for other provinces,” citing Statistics Canada data. The UCP takes credit for reducing the corporate tax rate under the NDP from 12 percent to 8 percent, the lowest in Canada.

Smith said during the four-year period Notley was in power, she raised taxes and fees 97 times.

NDP

At a Calgary press conference on April 26, according to the Edmonton Journal, Notley also committed to not raising taxes if elected.

“When it comes to personal taxes, people can absolutely count on Alberta’s NDP to not raise those taxes at all in the next four years,” she said. Notley indicated she did not trust Smith’s pledge to lower taxes.

“Danielle Smith can sign as many poster boards as she wants, but Albertans know that she wears flip flops, not flats.”

In December 2022, Notley unveiled the party’s economic blueprint for the province. According to the Calgary Herald, during a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 15, 2022, Notley said a hike to the corporate tax rate was not out of the question.

“Make no mistake, my views on the current corporate tax rate and the overall impact it has had on economic growth haven’t changed. However, you can count on us to maintain the most competitive tax regime in the country,” she said. “I believe we need to embrace additional tax benefits that are more targeted to ensuring those strategic areas of growth that we all care about.”

“Any changes that we might make would come after consultation with representatives from the business community,” Notley said.