Alberta NDP Promises to Eliminate Small Business Tax, Cap Electricity Prices for 3 Months

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley makes a campaign announcement in Calgary, on May 4, 2023. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Now at the halfway point to the Alberta election on May 29, New Democratic Party Leader Rachel Notley has made some key campaign promises related to health care, power bills, and children’s activities.

The most recent pledge from the NDP on May 14 vows to eliminate the small business tax, which Notley said would “save local Alberta small business owners up to $10,000 per year.”

According to Notley, power prices are up 140 percent and the NDP will cap electricity prices for three months at 12 cents, and “launch an investigation into power price spikes on your household bill so we can put an end to them.” It pledged to pay off $180 million in debt.

The party is campaigning on a promise to train more doctors and nurses, cover the cost of contraceptives and birth control for women, and create “family health teams.”

In a series of campaign messages on May 13 and 14, Notley said the party will address a shortage of doctors in the province by increasing spaces for medical residents and “streamline credentialling for internationally trained doctors.”

The party said it would invest $1.5 million into Calgary’s Chinatown and “important antiracism funding/commitment to affordable housing in Calgary,” plus introduce health teams with “language specific resources.”

As part of its campaign, the Alberta NDP pledged in April that “within ten years, up to one million more Albertans will have access to a doctor within a day or two as part of family health clinics.”

“We won’t sell off hospitals, we'll staff them,” said Notley on May 14.

The NDP has also said it will stay in the Canada Pension Plan and pass legislation to prevent any Alberta government from leaving the plan for a provincial option. Other campaign promises include no new personal income taxes, and a $500 tax credit for parents per child for sports and activities.

If elected, the party said it would increase payments to seniors, income supports, and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), which would raise payments by $135 a month to qualified disabled Albertans.

Affordability has been a theme for both the NDP and the United Conservative Party this election, with the NDP promising it will “be releasing a clear plan” to house 40,000 Albertans within the next five years.

“We will also expand mental health support and provide stable, predictable funding to shelters and agencies. We will collaborate with Indigenous peoples and invest in more housing under a new Indigenous Housing Strategy,” the platform states.

The NDP said it would “begin the hard work of reforming income support and rental supplement programs.”

The party said it has plans to attract $20 billion in private-sector capital investment, which would “create 47,000 good-paying jobs,” in addition to hiring 4,000 more public school teachers and 3,000 support staff over four years.

“We will end the crisis in our classrooms,” said Notley on May 14.

Notley also said it would start constructing a new, north leg of the Green Line Light Rail Transit system in Calgary, build 40 schools in Calgary, and “begin work” on the North Calgary/Airdrie Regional Health Centre.

“Calgarians are experiencing the second-highest unemployment rate and the second-highest downtown office vacancy in the country,” the party states on its platform.

The NDP is campaigning on a program it called “Hometown Alberta,” and pledged to “improve local community facilities, like hockey rinks, in every corner of the province.” The party states it would “build, repair, renovate, upgrade or expand” sports, recreational, museum, art centre, and other public-use spaces.