EDMONTON – Alberta is cutting business taxes and pumping $10 billion into infrastructure projects to springboard its economy out of the financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Jason Kenney says the investments will be for roads, health care, schools and in other areas, with expected spinoff benefits to other businesses and the service sector.
Kenney says there will also be incentives for high-tech companies and other sector-specific initiatives.
Kenney cut the corporate income tax rate to 10 per cent from 12 per cent after taking office last year, and that figure was to go down to eight per cent in the coming years but it will now be done immediately.
He says extraordinary measures are needed to ensure Alberta rebounds from the double whammy of the pandemic and a global oil price war that has sent unemployment soaring.
Finance Minister Travis Toews will deliver a detailed economic update in August, but Kenney has already said emergency spending to date on COVID-19 has sent this year’s budget deficit from about $7 billion to $20 billion.