The gap between the rich and the poor in Alberta is the widest in the country, and the disparity between those Albertans at the top of the income ladder and those at the bottom has been growing faster than in any other province, according to the findings of a new fact sheet released today by the Parkland Institute.

With Albertans in the early days of another provincial election cycle, a new report released today by the Parkland Institute says that the values of Albertans are much more diverse than over 43 years of unbroken Progressive Conservative rule would suggest, and don’t fall neatly into left-versus-right polarization.

The report, A Monochrome Political Culture? Examining the Range of Albertans’ Values and Beliefs, is based on public opinion surveys conducted by the University of Alberta’s Population Research Laboratory in 2014. 

Edmonton - The 2015/16 provincial budget tabled this afternoon by Finance Minister Robin Campbell is a missed opportunity to make the structural changes necessary to stabilize provincial revenues and equitably wean the province off its overdependence on resource revenue, according to the Parkland Institute.

In late February, Premier Jim Prentice betrayed his lack of vision for post-secondary education in the province, saying: “There are always carrots and sticks.” But what’s the objective?

A week before the Prentice government introduces its 2015/16 provincial budget, a new fact sheet released today by the Parkland Institute challenges the often-repeated claim that Alberta’s current fiscal woes are due to overspending by the provincial government.

Alberta is the richest jurisdiction in North America. But women living in the province are among the most disadvantaged in Canada, facing higher income gaps, unpaid work gaps, and after-tax income gaps than women living anywhere else in the country.

And despite the renewed and expanded commitments made in Canada to women’s equality in 1995, Alberta women’s equality has markedly deteriorated since then.

One day after International Women’s Day is the perfect time to ask why.

Women in Alberta have been disproportionately impacted by the 2001 shift to a single rate tax regime in the province, and now face higher income gaps, unpaid work gaps, and after-tax income gaps than women in the rest of Canada, according to the findings of a comprehensive new report released today by the Parkland Institute.

The Alberta government boasts in every budget that with its “Tax Advantage” program, Albertans pay the lowest taxes in Canada, and maybe even in North America. All personal and corporate incomes are taxed at a single 10-per-cent rate – except for small businesses, which pay a low 3-per-cent rate.

It’s curious how the proponents of the “cut first and ask questions later” approach to provincial budgeting continue trying to spread the myth Ralph Klein’s cuts in the 1990s were necessary, and that somehow Alberta and Albertans are better off because of them. It’s as if they believe that singing the same refrains over and over will make them true. But the reality is that these claims are as false today as they were back in 1993.

As Alberta’s economic engine falters, now is a good time to rethink the province putting all its eggs in bitumen’s basket.

When their crops failed, Alberta’s farmers had the pluck to persevere. There’s always next year. That resilience in the face of adversity served them well. But a next-year-country optimism is misplaced when applied to Alberta’s unconventional oil.