Dear Ralph Klein
Dear Mr. Klein,
In your recently announced budget plans, you speak in glowing terms about your ``increases'' to health and education funding. In fact, these supposed ``increases'' only take the funding of these important areas to 90% of 1993levels, which obviously doesn't account for inflation or the increasing use of health services as the Albertan population ages or the increases in Alberta's population since then.
Further, your move to an eleven percent flat tax (as opposed to the current system which is a percentage of Federal rates) is touted as a great way to save all Albertans money. It really means that the wealthiest residents of Alberta -- who can most afford a few extra dollars of tax -- save far, far more money than middle and lower class Albertans.
This tax cut comes after your recent insistence that the ``status quo [of health care] is not an option'', implying that your proposal to contract out to private surgical facilities is the answer. No, the status quo is not an option, but neither is funneling public money to a private surgical institution in the form of profits. Perhaps the ``innovative idea'' for health care funding you are searching for is as simple as an increase in public money. Despite its problems, our health system is still farcheaper and provides much more coverage than the mostly-private system of the United States.