FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 27th, 2026

EDMONTON - This year’s budget is built on fantasy: with Canada’s lowest taxes for highly-profitable corporations, an over-reliance on a sector that is hemorrhaging jobs while extracting non-renewable resources, the dream of energy and water guzzling AI data centres, and increased costs for everyday Albertans. 

"Albertans wanted a budget that focused on affordability, stability and strong public services. Instead, we got one with record spending, increased costs for families, and a continued over-reliance on volatile resource revenue” says Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta, Bradley Lafortune. 

The budget also downloads costs to Albertans: a new 6% tax on vehicle rentals, a 50% hike to the tourism tax for hotels and motels, and an increase to residential and non-residential property taxes. Why are these taxes being downloaded on to Albertans when big corporations are making record profits?

When it comes to the proposed data centres? The situation is even worse: the province will introduce tax details for the infrastructure but also include a substantial tax credit, resulting in no net benefit to our revenue, despite the sweetheart deal for access to depleting water resources and free natural gas, provided it’s generated off-grid.

"The truth is our province could become a world leader in energy and innovation, bringing thousands of sustainable jobs to the province while contributing to much-needed diversification in our economy. But, after reviewing this year’s budget, we are extremely concerned about the province's doubling down on the resource roller coaster and a lack of investments in hospitals, schools, services, and a workforce plan that addresses the crises in healthcare and education, despite record spending and a $9.4 Billion dollar deficit.” says Lafortune. 

Meanwhile, the government is closing rural schools, shutting down colleges, but funding $90 million for elite private school construction, and downloading increased costs to everyday Albertans. In our own budget survey, the vast majority of Albertans told us that profitable corporations don’t pay their fair share. Alberta has an irresponsibly low corporate tax rate (at 8%) and we have not seen adequate investment to suggest this lowest-in-Canada rate is paying off for Albertans. Instead, what Albertans are getting is a $9.4 Billion dollar hole in our budget, while costs for utilities, groceries and housing continue to creep up and up and up, and new taxes on vacations, car rentals, and their properties.

That’s why we are proposing an alternative budget that includes a responsible approach to sustainability in the province’s revenue, beginning with an increase to the corporate tax rate to 12%, which would contribute between 3 and 4 Billion dollars annually.

"The vast majority of Albertans are worried about access to high quality healthcare and education, and they aren’t asking for more experiments in privatization and reorganization” says Lafortune. “They don’t want the government to scapegoat newcomers. They want to build a province where everyone can thrive.”

Public Interest Alberta will release its alternative budget on March 4th and provide more analysis in the days leading up to its release.

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Executive Director, Bradley Lafortune is available for interviews.
Public Interest Alberta is a non-profit, non-partisan, province-wide organization focused on education and advocacy on public interest issues.

Media Contact:

Shiza Wasi
Communications & Membership Engagement Officer
Public Interest Alberta 
[email protected]

At Public Interest Alberta we are a non-profit, non-partisan, province-wide organization focused on education and advocacy on public interest issues. Become a member today and let’s work on bringing the change we want to see in Alberta!

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