EDMONTON – The Alberta NDP is launching an online petition to urge Premier Jim Prentice to reverse his decision to not hike corporate taxes.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley says it’s unfair for Prentice to freeze corporate taxes and oil royalties while signalling there will be hikes in personal income taxes and user fees.
Prentice has said hiking Alberta’s 10 per cent corporate tax would harm the economy at a time it is already reeling from billions of dollars in lost revenue due to low oil.
Notley says hiking the tax by even one percentage point would deliver $500 million in revenue.
She says given that Alberta doesn’t have a sales tax, there is wiggle room available to hike corporate taxes without hurting Alberta’s competitiveness.
Notley says Prentice is driven by conservative ideology that will see the rich benefit while the poor and the middle class carry the load.