In a lead up to the Alberta provincial election, Cochrane Now has asked candidates in the Airdrie-Cochrane constituency a series of five questions on topics impacting our ridings.

This is the fifth and final in the series and today's topic centres upon the economy and putting Albertans back to work.

The order in which the candidates' answer has rotated each day.

A link is provided with each response taking you back to the party’s website for more information on their platforms and policies.

Monday, Apr. 14 - Question Five

The biggest issues we've heard about during this election are jobs and the economy. What's your plan to put Albertans back to work?

Vern Raincock - Alberta Party

An Alberta Party government will enact the Jobs First plan to attract investment and create jobs for Alberta families. The plan is expected to expand the provincial economy by $16 billion and foster the creation of 65,000 jobs. We need to restore Alberta as a place of opportunity.  

We will encourage head offices to move to Alberta. We also need to identify which industries can hit the ground running in 2019 and encourage them to do so. 

The Alberta general corporate tax rate will be reduced from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. This will restore Alberta’s place as the most competitive jurisdiction in Canada on corporate tax rates. The rate will be rolled out in 0.5 per cent increments. On its own, this change is expected to expand Alberta’s economy by $7 billion. When combined with the other elements of the Jobs First plan, the impact is anticipated to be much higher.

The Alberta Small Business Deduction will be doubled from $500,000 to $1,000,000. All other aspects of the Small Business Deduction will remain the same, including the existing small business tax rate of 2 per cent.

The capital cost allowance in Alberta will be adjusted to 100 per cent for all new investment. This will supercharge private investment.

An Alberta Party government will establish the Business Certainty Guarantee on day one of taking office. Under this Guarantee, businesses and investors can have confidence that the overall costs of doing business in Alberta will either stay the same or go down during the four-year term of the government.

https://www.albertaparty.ca/position_statements

Steve Durrell - Alberta NDP

We need to get the pipeline built and we need to keep diversifying the economy. Alberta is a great place to live, work and do business, that's why even at the worst of the recession, our population grew.

Rachel has grown Alberta's tax advantage, meaning Albertans pay $11.2 Billion less in tax than the next lowest province. We have no sales tax, no payroll tax, and no health premiums and we will keep it that way. 

https://rachelnotley.ca/platform

Matthew Morrisey - Freedom Conservative Party

Getting Albertans back to work and encouraging small business startups to come to Airdrie & Cochrane to run their business is a high priority. Small business is the economic foundation of Alberta and if they're healthy our economy can weather the ebbs and flows of the markets.

https://www.freedomconservativeparty.ca/platform

Peter Guthrie - United Conservative Party

Putting Alberta back to work is the main focus of the platform which you can find at albertastrongandfree.caOur entire plan is to get our economy back on track. The platform is 118 pages of detailed policies which will turn around the province.

Our plan does not involve government intervention but begins by recognizing Albertans are the ones who will turn this around as long as the government gets out of the way. Albertans have long demonstrated their resilience in tough times providing the government is not hounding, taxing and generally making life difficult for them as the NDP has over the past four years.

Our plan is built to give each individual Albertan the tools to bring our province back from the brink. Our economic recovery plan has been built to bring life back to our province and bring jobs back to our communities.

We will do this through the Job Creation Tax Cut Act, an act to cut the corporate tax rate by eight per cent to encourage small business to grow as fast as they can to a corporate level without worrying about a massive tax jump if they do so.

We will cut regulatory red tape to ensure business can grow without the government stalling it. This will especially help our energy industry love quicker to drill and grow and bring investment back to the oil fields.

But most importantly, we will introduce Bill 1, the Carbon Tax Repeal Act, and get rid of the carbon tax, a tax which puts significant pressure on business to the point where they are closing their doors. This will put more money in the pockets of Albertans they can use to invest with.

With these changes, we will get Albertans working again. We will bring investment back to Alberta. We will take the darkness of the past four years and look to a strong light of growth and prosperity.

A UCP government can provide hope to those Albertans looking to get back on their feet. The UCP was built for this very reason. We will restore the Alberta Advantage to its rightful place.

https://www.albertastrongandfree.ca/policy/

Danielle Cameron - Alberta Independence Party

The Alberta Independence Party will make certain that Albertans work first to achieve full employment at unemployment rates of 3.75 per cent with immigration based on economic need and to achieve steady wage increases that match inflation.

The immediate decentralization of Ottawa will spur 160,000 skilled jobs in Alberta in the first four years alone with a significant non-skilled employment growth multiplier.

It is important to note that our plan will generate significant employment, economic growth and diversification, and address the financial shortfalls without a single pipeline to tidewater.

Minimum Wage will stay at $15.00 per hour.

 https://albertaindependence.ca/what-we-believe/

READ MORE:

Candidate Question of th3 Day - Day 4