UCP back off campaign promise to balance budget by 2022

EDMONTON – Jason Kenney’s campaign promise to balance the provincial budget by 2022 appears to be in shambles.

During Question Period Monday, Minister of Finance Travis Toews would only say that his goal was to “get this province to balance in our first term.” That term would end in 2023, the same year as the NDP pledged to see through its own Path to Balance.

“This is just further proof that the United Conservative Party platform isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,” said Shannon Phillips, Official NDP Opposition Finance Critic. “The Premier and his new Finance Minister have been on the job less than a month and they have already backed off a major campaign promise.”

Premier Kenney has been promising to balance the budget a year earlier in 2022 as far back as September 2017. That was, however, before he made a promise to introduce a tax cut for wealthy corporations that will blow a $4.5-billion hole in the provincial budget and not generate a dollar of economic return for at least two years.