Thread by @ABFedLabour

ICYMI

Alberta Federation of Labour got a government briefing note on the UCP’s corporate tax cut. It shows the UCP lied in the 2019 election.

The @albertaNDP released the document last week.

Let's take a closer look.

[thread]
#ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli
edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/…

This is an important document. It shows the @jkenney government made a multi-billion decision on bad data.

The UCP campaigned on the idea corporate tax cut would be “SELF-FINANCING” (our emphasis) because economic spin offs would lead to more government revenue elsewhere to offset the loss of corporate tax funds.

Classic 'trickle-down economics' here, folks

The UCP campaigned on the promise that their corporate tax cut would lead to an additional $1.2 billion (over pre-cut levels) and 55,000 more jobs by 2022-23.

Where did the UCP get the fantastic assertion that a huge tax cut to profitable corporations would actually increase revenue to the tune of $1.2 billion and increase jobs by 55,000?

Was this even real?

Government officials had a look and put it in the document we obtained…

Here’s the entire document.
It’s unusual to get such a thing unredacted.
It was written during the 2019 election, a few days after the UCP’s corp tax announcement.

Treasury Board and Finance Officials looked at the @Alberta_UCP election promises and found the studies they relied on “may be unreliable in the Alberta context”.

Alberta is different than the rest of Canada because oil and gas has a larger share of our economy.

Studies cited by @jkenney for his corporate tax break are “likely to be less representative of the experience Alberta will have in response to tax changes.”

In other words, Jason Kenney used bad information to justify his multi-billion decision to reduce corporate taxes.

The internal government document also states that “Oil and gas taxation relative to key competing jurisdictions does not appear to be a major barrier to investment in Alberta.”

Cutting corporate taxes won’t help the oil patch as much as Jason Kenney and the UCP say it will.

In fact, oil patch workers continue to lose their jobs as the corporate taxes drop.
The biggest, most public job losses were at Husky Energy where 370 workers lost their jobs in 2019 and spending will drop in 2020 by half a billion dollars.
ctvnews.ca/business/husky…

Here’s something ***NEVER BEFORE RELEASED*** from our FOIP

A draft Cabinet Report shows why corporate tax breaks are not going to help the oil patch as much as the Kenney gov’t says they will: royalties come before corp taxes.

Jason Kenney and the UCP relied heavily on a 2012 study by Drs. Dahbly and Ferede. Their work centred on effects of BC’s corporate tax cut in the mid-2000s, then modelled a theoretical impact across Canada as a whole.

The AFL does not dispute the integrity of the work of Drs. Feredy and Dahlby.

Our issue is how Jason Kenney and the UCP used their work to justify the multi-billion decision to reduce corporate tax rates. This loss of revenue means service cuts, privatization, and job losses.

As the internal government briefing note shows, there are problems when applying a Canadian data set to Alberta because our economy is weighted more heavily towards oil and gas.

The bottom line:

The decision to cut taxes for profitable corporations will rob the treasury of billions of dollars.

It was based on ideology and justified with deliberately bad information.

It won't help Alberta's oil and gas industry as much as Jason Kenney says it will.

The UCP lied in the election.

Corporate tax cuts will not increase tax revenue by $1.2 billion by 2022 & the Kenney gov’t will fire 1,000s of teachers and nurses make up the loss of revenue from this colossal lie.

You can help us stand up to the Kenney government as it dismantles public services by joining our Resist Kenney’s Cuts campaign

kenneyscuts.ca

Join the Resistance
Join us
Fight for a better Alberta
#AbLeg #abpoli #cdnpoli
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