Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says she wouldn’t bring in a provincial sales tax without seeking a mandate from voters.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said this week his government is considering an increase to consumption taxes as it wrestles with a budget deficit brought on by low resource prices.
Alberta has some of the same budgetary problems, but Notley says a sales tax is not something that can be pulled out of a back pocket without first campaigning on it.
She says her party campaigned on raising corporate taxes and income taxes on the wealthy and that’s what it did.
She says bringing in a PST in Alberta might be talked about in the next election, but she won’t move on it before that.
Alberta is the only province without a sales tax despite repeated suggestions from economists that having one would be the best way to deal with unstable government revenues.
