ALBERTA – Through the Business Council of Alberta, the chief executives of Alberta’s largest businesses sent a letter to Premier Jason Kenney outlining a three-point plan for economic recovery and a stronger Alberta. The three points:
- Develop a thoughtful, safe and ethical approach to a gradual and phased-in re-opening of the Alberta economy that safeguards health, but also begins to recover lost jobs and closed businesses.
- Re-examine Alberta’s short- and long-term fiscal model in light of reduced revenues and increased need for government support.
- Re-imagine Alberta’s long-term economic opportunities and competitiveness by creating a bold and inspiring economic and industrial strategy for the province for the next 20 years.
“Our foundational principle is putting people first, with decisions lead by science and evidence,” says Adam Legge, President of the Business Council of Alberta. “In the next period, the jurisdictions that win will be those who best coordinate re-opening and re-launching initiatives through the collaboration of government, public health and industry. This letter represents the business community standing ready and willing to work together with government to make a recovery in Alberta a model of success. Business has great ability to enable an accelerated recovery in a proactive, safe and coordinated way.”
The letter goes beyond the immediate re-opening of our economy to also recommend that Alberta’s fiscal model should be reinvented in the post-COVID period and suggest the creation of a 20-year economic and industrial strategy.
“These are tough days. We have learned much about our resilience, our strengths and our vulnerabilities. There is every opportunity for Alberta to come out of this period stronger than we went into it,” says Legge. “We have the innovation, talent, resources, and food the world needs. But we’ll only reach our potential if we plan our future on purpose,” says Legge.
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About the Business Council of Alberta. The Business Council of Alberta is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to building a better Alberta within a more dynamic Canada. Composed of the chief executives and leading entrepreneurs of the province’s largest enterprises, Council members are proud to represent the majority of Alberta’s private sector investment, job creation, exports and research and development.