The Government of Alberta launched a new “brand” for the province this month: Alberta – Freedom To Create.  Spirit To Achieve.  This replaces the 15-year-old “Alberta Advantage”, and is inteded to: “…reinforce a positive, accurate picture of Alberta, and to increase awareness of our province as a great place to live, work, invest and visit.”  Edmonton MLA Dave Hancock was quoted in the Edmonton Journal about the purpose of the brand: 

“(Our) economy has been attacked as of late by people who talk about dirty oil and … who try and paint the economic backbone of our economy in a bad light,” Education Minister Dave Hancock said Wednesday.

“We have to have the world believing that this is a good place to invest, it’s a place where we care about the environment, we’re stewards of our place, we like the clean air and the clean water and the big skies,” Hancock said. […] “We’re not a place to be painted as a black hole of civilization. That’s what the branding strategy is about.”

Memorable branding is an important part of a marketing plan, but for many Albertans the real proof of their government’s “accurate picture of Alberta” is in it’s actions.  And few actions speak as loudly as the budget; the guiding document for all government priorities in the near future.  Some key highlights of the 2009 Alberta Budget are:

• $4.7-billion deficit, the largest in Alberta history
• $215-million in spending cuts to be identified this year
• If revenues don’t rebound, government must find $2.2-billion more by cutting spending, increasing taxes or both
• Immediate tax increases for alcohol ($1.30 on a dozen beers, 75 cents for wine, $2.89 for most spirits) and tobacco ($3 a carton)
• Higher education property taxes (varies by community)
• Municipal project funding falls by 25 per cent, or $100-million
• $200 per year for chiropractic services to be eliminated
• $7.2-billion in capital spending (double the national average)
• 3.7 per cent, or $1.1-billion, increase in program spending
• Resource revenue down by half, or $6.4-billion

The Canadian Press
April 7, 2009 at 5:30 PM EDT

From the BDO 2009 Alberta Budget Report:

How Alberta Compares

The following chart compares top personal and corporate tax rates and sales taxes for all provinces and territories, as announced to April 7, 2009.

	Top 2009 Personal Rates %	2009 Corporate Rates
		General %	M&P %	Small Business %	Retail Sales Tax %
BC	43.70	30.0	30.0	13.5	7.0
Alta.	39.00	29.0	29.0	14.0	–
Sask.	44.00	31.0	29.0	15.5	5.0
Man.	46.40	32.0 (1)	32.0 (1)	12.0	7.0
Ont.	46.41	33.0	31.0	16.5	8.0
Qué.	48.22	30.9	30.9	19.0	7.5 (4)
NB	46.00	32.0 (1)	32.0 (1)	16.0	8.0 (5)
NS	48.25	35.0	35.0	16.0	8.0 (5)
PEI	47.37	35.0	35.0	13.1 (2)	10.0 (4)
Nfld.	44.50	33.0	24.0	16.0	8.0 (5)
Yukon	42.40	34.0	21.5	15.0 (3)	–
NWT	43.05	30.5	30.5	15.0	–
Nunavut	40.50	31.0	31.0	15.0	–

   

• ⁽¹⁾ The general business and M&P rates will be reduced to 31.0% on July 1, 2009.
• ⁽²⁾ The small business rate was reduced from 14.2% on April 1, 2009.
• ⁽³⁾ The tax rate for M&P profits eligible for the small business deduction is 13.5%.
• ⁽⁴⁾ Provincial sales tax applies on GST. Effective combined rate is 12.875% in Québec and 15.5% in PEI.
• ⁽⁵⁾ As part of the HST (combined rate is 13% with GST).

 

And finally, courtesy of Dave Cournoyer (“…Edmonton-based blogger, political aficionado, and writer.”), a “word cloud” of Finance Minister Iris Evans’ budget speech (pdf):