Bell: Premier Smith’s Alberta blueprint means sacrifice — from you

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Premier Danielle Smith is asking you for some sacrifice.

Now Smith isn’t pushing a Ralph Klein-style approach like the former premier did in his first years in power, where the words slash and burn were the new normal.

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She is not cutting deep into the Alberta government finances.

It is nowhere near that tough. Nowhere near.

But like Klein, the former premier she greatly admires, Smith has a plan and she’s sticking to it.

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Her people are behind her. They seem determined to stay the course.

They seem so determined the smart money is betting Smith will not flinch from a showdown if and when push comes to shove.

Let’s take an example.

The unions. The nurses and health care support workers. They want big raises.

Really big raises. They point to the really big inflation of the recent past. They point to the working conditions in an overstressed health-care system.

The smart money says the Smith government WILL NOT give them what they want. Or close to what they want. The government’s wage offer this year is 2% and it’s not expected they want to go much higher.

They’re prepared for the worst. They’re prepared for a fight. They believe the majority of Albertans will stand with them.

On Friday, Smith tells us we’re all in this together.

It was unclear at the time what Smith was actually talking about.

How could we all be in this together?

There were those who wanted her to spend at least up to the rate of inflation and the growth in the population, more for health care and education.

There were those who wanted more spending on building stuff, more affordability measures, like those dollars that went out last year.

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And there were those who wanted that tax cut promised by Smith on the first day of the election campaign.

More than $1,500 for a family.

The tax cut starts in 2026 and is paid in full coming full in 2027, just before the next election.

How could we all be in this together when many of us have fallen behind, some way behind because of inflation and those who have fallen behind are looking for those in power to do something?

The Smith people know this is not going to be an especially popular budget.

It is the first budget after the election win. They have time.

But what is clear is Smith and her talk of we’re all in this together means sacrifice.

Even when times are good there will be no spending bonanzas as we saw in the past.

There will be no Dani Dollars, no more doling out of dough in the name of affordability.

We got it, we spend it all. Nope. Can’t spend every dollar on today’s needs and wants. These are the premier’s words.

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Got to build up the Heritage Fund and pay down the debt and balance the books.

Hard work needs to be done. Also the premier’s words.

Let’s remember Alberta governments in the past got elected with huge wins based on spending promises.

The smart money says the Smith government will not build everything everyone wants.

They will not be swayed by the press releases demanding more.

As mentioned in a previous column, the spending increase NEXT YEAR will be SMALLER than this year.

The focus, so say the smart money bettors, will be on small, efficient government.

On Monday, Nate Horner, Smith’s budget boss, is in Calgary to address the city’s chamber of commerce.

For Horner and the UCP this is like playing on home ice. Not a whole lot of NDP supporters in this crowd.

Horner says he was surprised some folks thought spending would be higher.

So what are people getting from the budget to make it worth their while to be all in it together?

He says the Smith government have a vision for the future.

Albertans already pay the lowest taxes in the country and there must be “prudent financial management.”

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Horner says people will have to be patient with their expectations.

If individuals wanted the tax cut this year more than a billion bucks would have to be cut out of the budget.

Suck it up. Sacrifice. That’s what it means when Smith says we’re all in this together.

MEMO TO READERS: The smart money bets Smith will ditch this pitch and come up with some other line to convince Albertans to come on board.

After all, we’re all in this together was said over and over and over again by Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

We all remember Hinshaw, Alberta’s top public health doc during COVID who was then offered a job by Alberta Health Services only to get that offer 86ed.

Quoting the doc rubs some folks the wrong way.

rbell@postmedia.com

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