Alberta's economy and Wheatland County has seen plenty of big investments and economic growth recently. These investments are no doubt a great thing, but Albertans currently aren't seeing the benefits reflected in their paycheques, as the province has the slowest wage growth in Canada.

According to NDP reports, Albertans' average weekly earnings only grew by 1.1% in July, compared to 2.9% in the rest of Canada. NDP Finance Critic Shannon Phillips explained that combined with inflation, this means Albertans are losing more money than the rest of the country.

"Our inflation has been really quite severe here in Alberta. Our inflation was at 7.4% in July, so on a straight calculation basis, Albertans are losing 6% of their wages every month now. And that's put really big pressures on ordinary people, on ordinary families to be able to pay the bills."

Premier Jason Kenney has made many speeches over the last several months talking about how great the economy is doing and all the investments coming into Alberta. Phillips agrees these investments are great to see, but that still doesn't actually help people pay their bills if wage growth remains low while inflation and cost of living go up.

"Jason Kenney spends his time making speeches from behind podiums rather than going out and talking to ordinary Albertans.  When I knock on doors every day, what I hear is people are really confused by that message, because what they see in their daily lives is things getting much more difficult. So when a politician like Jason Kenney, who is utterly disconnected from their lives, stands there and says 'everything is great,' all they see are their electricity bills mounting, their wages aren't keeping pace, grocery stores are more expensive, their car insurance is more expensive," said Phillips.

Simply being aware of the issue isn't enough to help people, so what can be done? Phillips says some things, like inflation itself or the costs of groceries, can't directly be combatted by the Alberta Government, but there are plenty of other things the government could've done to make life easier on Albertans.

"The UCP can do things to lower costs for ordinary people on things like their car insurance, their house insurance, certainly their electricity bills. And instead of piling these costs on, which they've done through a few of their decisions, they could be really helping to take the pressure off."

"The UCP has done nothing for people's electricity bills and their car insurance and house insurance, which the Alberta government has direct control over. Instead of taking these really specific steps to cap those, like we did when we were in government, these guys made a backroom deal with the companies and took the rate caps off and people's bills went nuts." 

As for raising wages, Phillips says that comes from investments focused on diversifying the economy and investing in schools and training for workers, so that companies outside of Alberta may think there's so many talented workers in Alberta so let's go there.' Phillips said the investments brought in by the government so far have been great, but worries about the missed opportunities due to in-fighting.

On top of that, she said the UCP slashing funding to colleges and technical institutes made things harder for Albertans to get into the workforce, which could drive away investment.

"Whenever those investments are made, they're good for people and for the economy. The question is whether we are making sure that we are supporting more value added in agriculture investments, and whether we've missed out on any. It would seem to me that with this constantly declining wage growth that these investments are basically just the job description for government and there's much, much more that we can and should be doing." 

Finally, Phillips said income tax is not keeping up with inflation, so on top of the slow wage growth, we're also paying more in taxes. She explained the previous NDP government had income tax go down proportionally with inflation so you would be paying the same, but former Finance Minister Travis Toews removed this as one of his first decisions in office.

"It's cost you hundreds of dollars more per year. Now after three years of this, it was going to be about a billion dollars more in personal income tax that Albertans were paying as a direct result of UCP policies and in particular Travis Toews. There are a number of other benefits, like the seniors benefit, that Travis Toews said 'this isn't going to keep pace with inflation anymore'. Seniors have lost hundreds of dollars, and that's just simply ridiculous."

Financial experts across Canada say inflation is heavily impacted by gas prices, so it's possible we may see some relief if prices go down after surging up again recently.

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