_QR77 Newsroom
2/10/2010
Out of control, train wreck, complete disaster.
Those are just a few of the phrases being tossed around by critics of the latest Alberta budget, which projects a record $4.7 billion deficit but increases spending on things like health care, roads and schools.
Finance Minister Ted Morton says in order to keep Alberta on the move the time has come to start dipping into savings built up during the boom.
"It's been raining pretty hard," he said. "Prices and markets are down, we've been hit hard."
The so-called rainy day fund will be drained from about $17 billion to roughly $3 billion, while some government departments will also see spending slashed to allow for the roughly six per cent increase in overall spending.
NDP leader Brian Mason says the poor and homeless will suffer as a result.
"This government has a severe spending problem and they don't know how to deal with it," said University of Calgary economist Frank Atkins. "Complete disaster."
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