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Naheed Nenshi, leader of the Opposition of Alberta, is asking the premier to come clean about the total cost of holding the referendum will be.
Though Access to Information requests by Alberta NDP found an additional $2 million in costs towards the referendum to the already staggering $132-180 million.
Some of these costs include a referendum website that cost $300,000; $160,000 towards television advertising; $205,000 has gone towards promotional videos and an economic analysist costing at least $1.5 million.
Nenshi says this information only became available after journalists and the NDP forced them to disclose it through Access of Information requests.
“The government didn’t want you to know these numbers, they certainly didn’t share these numbers with you and Altera shouldn’t have to rely on Access to Information requests to find out how their tax dollars are being spent.”
While many researchers agree that Alberta separation would significantly shrink the economy, putting thousands of jobs at risk, but even having a referendum is already harming investor confidence in economic growth.
Nenshi says there are better places these dollars could have been spent, including reversing the cuts to Assured Income of the Severely Handicapped (AISH), or cuts to women’s shelters, or cuts to supports for seniors.
“Every single dollar spent on this referendum is a dollar that isn’t being spent addressing the issues Albertans care about every single day.”
He adds there is no benefit of having a referendum to everyday Albertans and the least Premier Danielle Smith can do is be transparent about how much taxpayer dollars she is using to fund the referendum.
“Today we’re calling Danielle Smith, number one come clean; release the full accounting of all referendum related spending including all your advertising, communication and consultant costs…and while you’re at it, tell us how many your UCP MLA’s are separatists we need to deserve to know that.”
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