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1. 1990s put Alberta’s fiscal problems into alarming perspective

   As a share of the provincial economy, Alberta's recent deficits are larger than those incurred in the early ’90s. ...

2. Lessons for Fiscal Reform from the Klein Era

   Alberta is facing serious fiscal challenges, including a historic deficit and rapid debt accumulation that extend beyond the COVID shock. This is not the first time Alberta’s finances have been in trouble. Today’s situation has parallels to the ...

3. Kenney government must control spending to stop Alberta’s fiscal fall

   Appeared in the Edmonton Sun, December 16, 2020 We recently released a study showing that the “fiscal capacity” gap between richer and poorer provinces has shrunk dramatically in recent years. In a nutshell, fiscal capacity refers to each province’s ...

4. Alberta ‘fiscal capacity’ plummeting, Kenney government must react

   Appeared in the Edmonton Journal, December 3, 2020 Many Canadians have long thought of their country as divided between affluent “have” provinces and poorer “have-nots.” The traditional dividing line has been whether a province receives equalization ...

5. High spending and persistent deficits have driven Alberta’s government debt problem

   The Kenney government is asking Albertans for input on how to tackle the province’s growing debt and begin a path towards a more prosperous future. But before determining a path forward, it’s necessary to understand the province’s fiscal ...

6. Alberta’s debt-to-GDP ratio set to climb—quickly

   Alberta’s economy now faces its third recession in a little more than a decade. Steep economic contractions in 2009 and 2015/16 have caused tremendous economic pain in the province. Now, with cratered oil prices and COVID-19, Alberta is ...

7. Kenney government squanders opportunity to strengthen path to balanced budget

   In its recent budget, the Alberta government projected it will collect more revenue over the next few years than originally forecasted in its first budget last year. That’s good news for a province trying to balance its budget. But this ...

8. Alberta’s reform budget in perspective

   Much has been made about the recent Alberta Budget, which proposes to reduce provincial government program spending (all spending excluding interest costs) from $54.4 billion in 2018-19 to $53.5 billion by 2022-23, a 1.6 per cent nominal ...

9. What’s Changed, By How Much, and What Remains to be Done: An Analysis of Alberta’s Budget

   Since 2008/09, Alberta has run a nearly uninterrupted string of budget deficits. This bulletin analyzes the recently tabled 2019 Alberta budget to assess the extent to which it represents a change of course from the policy approach that has ...

10. Lessons from the Lone Star State: Comparing the Economic Performance of Alberta and Texas

    This bulletin compares the economic and fiscal performance of the Canadian province of Alberta and the American state of Texas in recent years and provides a brief discussion of how different policy choices may be contributing to the divergent ...