the world's only boreal forest songbird observatories; the largest collection of aboriginal rock art on the North American Plains; a glacier; majestic mountains and so much more.

Tax Advantage

  • Alberta has by far the lowest combined provincial and municipal tax burden among the provinces, at 53% of the national average.
  • The lowest top marginal personal income tax rate among the provinces at 39%-29% federal and 10% provincial.
  • No provincial sales tax.
  • At 9.0 cents per litre, Alberta has the lowest gasoline tax rate among the provinces, 2.5 cents per litre below Manitoba, the second lowest province the second lowest general corporate income tax rate in Canada at 11.5%.
  • Businesses also benefit because Alberta has no general sales tax, capital tax or payroll tax.
  • Alberta's small business corporate income tax rate of 3% is the second lowest in Canada.

 

Alberta: the first debt-free province in Canada

Debt elimination in Alberta

  • At its peak in 1994, Alberta's debt was $22.7 billion, working out to about $8,400 for every man, woman and child in Alberta.
  • The government began paying down the debt in 1995.
  • The net debt (the difference between the government's liabilities and its financial assets) was eliminated in 1999.
  • In the spring of 1999, the Fiscal Responsibility Act legislated a plan to pay off the remaining accumulated debt.
  • On July 12, 2004, the government announced the final installment on the debt. Funds in the Debt Retirement Account are to be locked in.
  • Alberta has reduced the annual debt servicing costs by about $1.5 billion from 1994 by aggressively paying down the debt. These savings have been re-invested in priority areas important to Albertans, such as health, education, infrastructure and tax cuts.