EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith said that Albertans who want to see a provincial sales tax question on the upcoming provincial referendum should start a Citizen Initiative petition. "Well, I know anyone who proposes a provincial sales tax says, 'Why don't you just put it on a referendum?' And I say to them, 'Why don't you start a citizen initiative?'" said Smith in response to a Western Standard question Monday. "If you think your fellow citizens are so keen to have a vote on this issue, we have a process for that, and there's time, because what I've said is that any citizen-initiated petition that gets the requisite number of signatures will also be able to go on the October ballot.".Smith's comments follow the provincial government's announcement of a projected $9.4 billion deficit in Budget 2026 on Thursday. The Government of Alberta has largely blamed the deficit on a combination of expected low oil prices and poor federal immigration policies over the previous five years, which have overwhelmed Alberta and drained social services. Budget 2026 projects a net revenue of $74.6 billion for Alberta in 2026, including $30.5 billion from taxes, the province's highest source. Finance Minister Nate Horner has said, though, that more money is available if Alberta chooses to pursue it, estimating that it could generate an additional $6 billion in revenue by instituting a 5% provincial sales tax. .While Horner is not necessarily advocating a provincial sales tax, he believes Alberta needs to have a conversation about its current tax structure. "If you laid the next closest province to us regarding having the lowest taxes, if you laid their tax structure on top of Alberta, it would be about a 16 to $17 billion increase in revenue," said Horner on Thursday. "So you know, if Albertans want to give up some of that advantage to get off the roller coaster, you know that that's a conversation we can have."Budget 2026 does have some changes to Alberta's tax structure, though: it raised residential and commercial education property taxes, increased the tourism levy, and instituted a 6% vehicle rental tax scheduled to begin in 2027. Smith, however, is not willing to kickstart the conversation about tax reform by placing a provincial sales tax question on the referendum ballot. "So I would say that all of those voices that are asking for it, then maybe they should put their boots where their mouth is and go out and try to get some signatures if they're so intent on it," Smith said.
