Each party's spending promises will be updated regularly throughout the election and can be found online here:
PC Party Spending Promises (February 24)
Liberal Party Spending Promises (February 29)
NDP Spending Promises (February 24)
Wildrose Alliance Party Spending Promises (February 24)
EDMONTON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today released a list of each party's election spending promises to date, along with open letters to the leaders of each party requesting cost breakdowns for each promise before the March 3rd vote.
The Alberta Liberals are leading the pack of big-spenders with 40 different spending promises to date, followed by the Progressive Conservatives with 15, the NDP with 13, and the Wildrose Alliance with 5.
Of the 40 spending announcements by the Liberals, 39 have not been costed-out by the party. This pales in comparison to the NDP, who have costed-out all but two of their promises.
"We've seen this show before, and it usually ends in disappointment," stated CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig. "Either they aren't being straight with voters about the taxes need to pay for their lofty promises or they run the province into debt trying to fulfil them."
"This apparent competition to see who can make the most spending promises is only going to push the government closer to a deficit position," continued Hennig.
The CTF had hoped to cost-out the promises made, but due to the vagueness of many of the commitments, the respective parties will need to provide more detail. As such, letters have been sent to each party listing each promise and their lack of detailed financial information.
"The vast majority of these spending announcements, particularly the Liberal ones, are so vague and open-ended they are impossible to independently cost-out," stated Hennig.
"How is anyone but the party supposed to know how much they intend to spend when they're making promises to do things like 'build roads in Calgary','" questioned Hennig.
Each party's spending promises will be updated regularly throughout the election and can be found online here:
PC Party Spending Promises (February 13)
Liberal Party Spending Promises (February 13)
Alberta NDP Spending Promises (February 13)
Wildrose Alliance Party Spending Promises (February 13)
Copies of the letters to the party leaders can be found here:
CTF Letter to Ed Stelmach (PC Party)
CTF Letter to Kevin Taft (Alberta Liberal Party)
CTF Letter to Brian Mason (NDP)
CTF Letter to Paul Hinman (Wildrose Alliance Party)
Alberta Election 2008
Throughout the 2008 Alberta Provincial election, the CTF provided regular updates which are listed below. This included our "Spend-o-meter" which provided an update of the spending promises:
Is Canada Off Track?
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