The provincial government has proposed a change to the Financial Statutes Act, which will change financial support for families.
Under the proposed Financial Statutes Amendment Act, there will be amendments made to provide more supports for parents who have lost a child, as well as changes will be made to standardize indexing across government to help make sure Albertans are receiving an annual cost-of-living increase in personal income taxes and other support programs.
On top of that, this new legislation will also expand mortgage financing options for Albertans, in addition to a new annual adjustment system that would allow for more consistent and flexible approach to figuring out how much benefits and taxes will be impacted.
This legislation will also introduce a new tax on electric vehicles, which was brought forth in Budget 2024.
If this new piece of legislation is passed, there will be opportunities for alternative financing mortgages.
"If passed, we'd be the first jurisdiction in Canada to make legislative changes so financial institutions that wish to offer halal financing in Alberta to do so," stated the President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Finance, Nate Horner in a media conference.
Halal mortgages work in a way to allow Muslims the ability to finance a home while still following the guidelines of their faith, which prohibits the payment of interest.
"Alternative finance mortgages would be open to all eligible customers, regardless of faith, and are bound by all the same legal requirements as traditional mortgages," Horner said.
While they aren't requiring financial institutions to offer alternative financing, they are opening the door to those who do.
As a part of this amendment, there will be a change to the Alberta Child and Family Benefit payments.
The change will make it so families will continue receiving payments for six months after the child has passed away, instead of the following month after the child has passed.
"This aligns with similar federal changes to the Canada Child Benefit. There's no greater tragedy than the death of a child and our hearts go out to all the families and loved ones grieving these losses."
The provincial government is hoping this will help to ease the burden when people need it the most.
If the legislation passes, amendments will be made to the Fuel Tax Act, which will implement a $200 annual tax to electric vehicle owners.
"Which is in line with what drivers of the typical internal combustion engine vehicle pay in fuel tax," Horner explains. "A growing number of jurisdictions across North America are introducing electric vehicle taxes and this is a fair way to ensure these taxes are applied to all drivers."
The final piece they discussed as part of these changes was technical changes that would align Alberta's taxation of multi-jurisdictional tax filers who have a split income with other provinces, to make sure it meets the requirement of the federal-provincial Tax Collection Agreement.
To watch the full media conference, and to learn more, click here.