Alberta Health Minister Gary Mar continues to employ his former assistant and Tory insider Kelley Charlebois, at a cost of $100,000 per year, or probably more, to provide oral "advice." There don't appear to be any benefits to taxpayers for the money they are still paying to Mr. Charlebois for his "consulting" work. Nobody knows what "advice" Mr. Charlebois gave, or is now giving, for the hundreds of thousands of dollars he is receiving from taxpayers.

Since Ralph Klein's government is so interested in advice, and prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on it, let me remind you of some of the advice which the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has given you in the past:

Protect taxpayers with legislation. Right now, Alberta's politicians can raise any tax at any time for any reason, without having to get permission from those who pay the bills. Politicians can even break an unequivocal election promise, like "the only way taxes are going in this province is down," which you promised us before the 2001 election. A JMCK poll revealed that 83% of Albertans want legislation requiring that proposed new taxes and proposed tax increases be put to voters in a referendum for their approval before going into effect.

Repeal the tax increases you imposed on Albertans in 2002. They are still on the books, and the small tax cuts in the 2003 and 2004 budgets have not made up for the increase.

Give Albertans the right to initiate and vote in referendums on issues of our choice. Citizens in Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, 23 U.S. states, and British Columbia have the right to put a proposal on the ballot for consideration by their fellow citizens. A 2001 Environics poll revealed that 79% of Albertans want citizens' initiative legislation, with only 15% opposed and 6% undecided. Without this legislation, politicians have an absolute monopoly on power for up to five years at a time, without any accountability between elections.

Control spending with legislation. Alberta's spending on government programs has gone up 86% in just eight years, while our population grew only 17%. Double-digit salary increases awarded to public sector workers - including MLAs - have outpaced the salary increases received by workers in the private sector. Taxpayers in the state of Washington and other jurisdictions have laws which limit growth in government spending to growth in population and inflation. But in Alberta, nothing stands in the way of yet another huge spending increase next year.

Abolish the health care premium tax. It's deceptive, because it doesn't pay for health care. It's regressive, because a family with kids earning $35,000 per year must pay $1,056 in health care premium taxes in addition to income tax, fuel tax, property tax, etc. And you don't need the extra revenues from this tax, as you are swimming in billions and billions of dollars from oil-and-gas. Why not give Albertans a break?

Abolish the 3% tax on car insurance, and on other kinds of insurance. This would reduce Albertans' car insurance premiums immediately, without spending millions of tax dollars to set up and run a new bureaucracy to impose more regulations on private sector companies. It would leave an extra $191 million per year in the hands of Albertans - about $230 per year for a family of four.

Penalize ministers who fail to meet their budgets. British Columbia's Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act docks pay from ministers when their ministries exceed the spending limit set out in the budget. In contrast, in Alberta it has become sadly normal for the health, education and other ministers to blow their budgets, year after year after year, without any consequences.

Reduce the size of cabinet back to 17 members, as it was when you launched your "conservative revolution" in 1993. This small cabinet succeeded in reducing the size of government by 30% in real terms, adjusting for inflation and population growth. A bigger cabinet leads to bigger government. It's no coincidence that your big, fat cabinet of 24 has hiked up spending by 86% in eight years, and raised our taxes in 2002.

Stop spending 100% of our oil and gas revenues. Part of this money should be put into the Heritage Fund for the benefit of future generations, and to protect the Heritage Fund from inflation. Another portion should go directly back to taxpayers in the form of income tax refunds.

Unlike Mr. Charlebois and his big invoices, taxpayers won't charge Klein for this advice. In fact, if he implements it, Albertans will get "paid" by being allowed to keep more of their own money to support themselves and their families.