If Alberta taxed like other provinces, it would have a huge budget surplus

[6V53]

If the Canadian dollar turns into the Canadian pesos land prices will go up.

[jazz]

I can support this idea as well. A well designed sales tax would eliminate the deficit in Alberta, with only a small hit to Alberta's GDP and average incomes. It would also have the benefit of reducing revenue going to other provinces. No use AB kids inheriting debt while Quebec balances its budget with equalization payments. The other thing that would happen is that producer prices in AB would decline slightly while they would have to raise the prices for the goods they sell in other provinces to compensate. No sales tax in AB while the other territories have them also transfers some wealth from AB to other regions in canuckistan while we rack up debt.

My concern is that eventually Ab would have a sales tax and personal taxes creep back up to where they are now. Any govt has trouble holding the line. Would the sales tax be just like the carbon tax, agree to some grand bargain and get slammed by both. Especially if the NDP were able to sneak back in again.

Its time to do this. A recession is here, oil in the gutter. That 13B needs to stay in the province, period.

[Austrian Economics]

Contrary to what the G&M article proclaims, Alberta is actually a highly taxed province. The difference between it and other jurisdictions is what it chooses to levy taxes on. Oil and gas royalties paid to the province are not "found money". These are taxes levied specifically on extractors of these products. Your average Alberta taxpayer pretends not to notice because they don't pay the actual invoice.

Now that this source of revenue is dwindling, the Alberta government should inform taxpayers that the gravy train is irrevocably broken and that they need to make do without what they thought was an unlimited supply of free stuff.